Moldavite Update for 2022

Updated 11/2/2022

Hello to Everyone around the world!

What we expected to happen - the end of major production arrived a little sooner than expected over the last couple of years. There is still small scale & private digging but this does not feed the global market like it once did. After Zatacka ended production in 2018, things began to change quickly. In 2019 we started to tap reserves & collections as Chlum was very limited, etc. COVID, TikTok, Inflation and more have contributed to things getting even weirder from 2020 on.

Its been a very confusing couple years in the Moldavite world. Adapt. Change. Change again. I have been deeply frustrated by things - especially since Tucson & that is the reason for this email.

Moldavite pricing changed significantly from 2020 - February 2022.

• Early this year, Jan / Feb 2022 - in Tucson Czech Dealers were charging $20 - $25+ per gram Wholesale for kilos of chips, regular & top was upwards of $35 per gram in Tucson. Much more for the best, big, etc. This was a huge increase in wholesale pricing from 2020-2021 prices & up 300% from 2020. Small miners & private diggers who always brought their stones to our long time sources, stopped and started charging higher prices.
• For larger stones & special collection pieces the price does go up and this is understandable, as with very minimum production we wont see nearly the supply we once did. The rare top pieces will command top dollar.
• We have since February continued to work with our long time sources to negotiate lower prices & stopped paying higher from others because it stalled the entire market -  we feel this higher pricing happened way to fast, is unsustainable. I feel this way Even with current market conditions & supply shortages.
  
• We attempted to buy at the high prices but retail pricing based off the new wholesale prices, priced a good portion of the market out.
• In order to remain as competitive as possible we are holding our prices in the $18 - $25 per gram range for most stones with discounts, B Grade & 1 - 19 g Top Quality collections.
• We will adjust up only if we must & when we do it will be less so we can remain competitive as competitive as we always have.
• We do not know exactly what to expect going forward, the days of mass mining are over , but we feel that price should be slightly lower than they are currently so we have turned on our discounts to the prices we would like to see reflected in the market- something affordable where half the market is not priced out of buying a stone. We are willing to take lower margins to do this in order to be competitive as we always have been and try to get the prices down across the board to a more competitive & reasonable place. This stone is very special to us and it's not always about the money in business.

Production is extremely limited now & new fields in the future, if that happens, will not change many things with worldwide supply. We all knew this was coming for a few years, but I can say, I am surprised how fast it happened & will only buy from here on out if the price is within reason.

Thank you & Blessings. Mike & The IVC Family