That soulds good to me to... fixed income at my place,, not much for fund... so gems that we can turn into money or ingots would help.

I also like this idea.

Alternately, or perhaps in addition to this, gems/minerals could be equipped to tack as a way of adding small stat bonuses, rather than just good looks and a bit of bling.  That would help make the 2-ingot price to add gems to tack a bit fairer - otherwise, I have no incentive to actually do anything with the gems I get.

I believe gems attached to tack give a show bonus?

Gems do give a show bonus when put on tack, I'm not sure of the amount.

I'd love to see more uses for gems as well. Maybe a border/frame around the horse's image, if you have a bunch of a certain amount of gems you can craft them into a background, being able to "equip" the raw stone to the horse's image so the stone sits by the horse like a companion would.

I wouldn't mind making them have more ways to use. I get pretty good money from them in the marketplace. It really helps me get a little profit here and there. 

I haven't seen this anywhere else - so I hope it's ok to add it here since it's related 

I would like suggest adding Amythest as a gem/mineral. I d love to be able to have an all purple tack set 🥰 other possible suggestions -

obsidian- could look cool on the lighter colored tack sets

opal- for some rainbow-ish encrustings 

rose quartz- PINK 🌸

The problem I see with gems "overflow" in the marketplace is that they are pretty much only "make an offer" kind of trades that receive offers and are never ever accepted because the player is either no longer active or completely forgot they put a trade in the first place. Pretty sure the trades with a buy-outs are gone fast. Hard disagree with having them less common.

I don't know what else could be done with gems but that's definitely something I would be interested to hear more about!

SweetChin is right. I always put my gems up for buyout prices and they are gone so fast. I just sit on them and collect for a while before selling stacks of them and they are usually gone before I log off for the day

Yes, I like the idea of gems being turned into a kind of currency, or being able to cash them in for ingots or money. I have a few gems myself, and don't see the use for them.

Yes I think that is a great idea!.