Diamond Prices
Diamond prices are set by Antwerp every week. There is a sheet that gets given to us called "The Rapaport". They set a diamond price in Dollars per Carat for all the different sizes, shapes, colors and clarities. The higher the colour and clarity, the more expensive the diamond and vice versa.
Being a dealer in the industry, we can get diamonds from India, South Africa and other big diamond countries for sometimes up to -50% of that price. Mainly dealer prices and your jeweller will be able to source these diamonds between -20% to -40% off of Rapaport.
Any small jeweller will ask you a "Straight Rapaport" price.
Any big jeweller (mainly the ones with most advertising and overheads) will sometimes charge you up to 200% extra than the Rapaport price.
EG. A Brilliant cut 0.52ct G si1 has a Rapaport price of $3200 per carat. This means that according to Antwerp the industry price for this stone is $3200 x 0.5 = $1664.
Prices for Round Brilliant cut diamonds are higher than the prices for Fancy Shaped diamonds. All Fancy Shaped Diamonds have the same $ per carat rate.
Note that some diamonds attract premium prices. Either because their cut is extremely good, there's a shortage or demand. Other diamonds have lower prices, as their cut is poor, or simply because they have a high fluorescence.
Diamond Quality
Everywhere on the internet you'll be able to find the 4C's of Diamonds. Cut, Color, Clarity and Carat.
Brief synopsis;
Cut: Normally, the surface of a gem is cut into flat faces, known as facets. The cut gives to the diamond it’s brightness. Only expert hands can modify the beauty of a stone. Cut includes the shape of a diamond.
Color: Diamonds are submitted to an analysis of color, this analysis is done by the comparison of them with stones called Master Color. Master Color stones are accepted and recognized all over the world.Most Diamonds on sale seem colorless, others can have tones of yellow or brown, these gems are called Champagne Diamonds. Only rare gems can have different colors: green, blue and pink, in this case they are not estimate by the scale of colors, but they are called “Fancies”.
Clarity: Most diamonds contains very small traces of material that has not crystallized, or they have material which is not carbon, like the rest of the diamond. That renders them virtually unique. Generally, it is impossible to see these impurities with the naked eye, only the loupe used by the the jeweler can find these impurities. The more a stone is without impurities, the more valuable it is.
If= Internally flawless, that is nothing visible at the diamond scopeVvs 1\2= Very, very small inclusions, very often they are invisible even with the jeweler’s loupe.Vs 1\2= Very small inclusions, the stone has inclusions visible with a loupe, only an expert eye can see them.Si 1\2\3 = Small inclusions visible with the loupe, but not with the naked eye.P 1\2\3= Pique the stone has inclusions visible with the naked eye (in category 1 only an expert eye can see them)
Carat: The weight establishes the price of a diamond and it is measured in “carat”. The word carat derives from the ancient system of weighing that used the seed of carob bean as a unit of measurement. Later, the carat was fixed to 0,2 grams. A carat is divided by 100 Points, so 25 points (0,25 Kt.) are equal to 1\4 of carat.
Diamond Laboratory Certification
Diamond Laboratory Certification is the most important thing about your diamond. Make sure that when you purchase a diamond above 0.20ct, to ALWAYS have a reputable Laboratory Certificate given to you. This certificate is the finger print of a diamond. Any expert in the field will be able to verify that your diamond is indeed the diamond specified on the certificate. It also makes sure that you aren't being conned. The two most reputable Laboratories in the world (according to my personal opinion) are EGL (European Gemological Laboratory) and GIA (Gemological Institute of America).
Diamond certification will tell you the 4C's in detail, proportions, fluorescence and much much more.
If a jeweller tells you that a diamond must have a certain laboratory certification (eg. The jeweller tells you that your diamond must have a GIA certificate, because having the EGL certificate is bad) is utter nonsense. Each laboratory has their own grading experts and must all keep to the same grading standards. It's just that the one certificate looks maybe blue and the other white. Just note that there are some national laboratories around the world that do not keep 100% to the standards. Which is why it's best to stick with the most reputable international ones.
If a jeweller sells you a diamond ring/pendant/earrings or anything in the trend with a diamond bigger than 0.20ct ask them for the laboratory certificate. If they're not willing to provide it to you, something fishy is going on.
Note that a diamond laboratory certificate does not certify that your diamond is not an unethical diamond.
Blood Diamonds
I'm not saying blood diamonds are a myth, they are real. But you must also realize that once a diamond is polished, it's impossible to tell it's origin. They are being pushed into the industry by unknown sources and you will never be able to tell the difference.
Note that the movie Blood Diamond has largely been sponsored by De Beers to push through their agenda of promoting diamonds delivered with a little certificate that says "Ethical Diamond" AKA best advertisement.
Fluorescence
A new trend going around is people checking for fluorescence on a diamond. Basically it is what is says. When you hold a diamond under UV-light, you're able to see if the diamond has a fluorescence. The trend these days is that a diamond with a high fluorescence is less valuable and therefore sometimes cheaper than one without. The choice is up to you whether it bothers you yes or no.
Note I had a customer from overseas looking for all my highly fluorescent diamonds at one stage. The smart man created belly button rings, earrings, nose rings and more with them to sell them to the rich kids around the world, so they can wear them in discotheques under the UV-light and look "cool".
Proportions
On laboratory Certificates you are able to see proportions of the diamond. Mostly between percentages and numbers that might not mean much to you. Diamond proportions range from Excellent, Very Good, Good, Fair to Poor. With obviously the Fair - Poor cut diamonds for a less price than the Excellent and Very Good cut stones. These proportions determine mainly the sparkle of a diamond. For if a diamond is not cut in proper proportions, it might not have the same bright sparkle (or flame as we call it in the industry) as it's supposed to have. The best example for that are Fish-Eye diamonds and the Bow-tie effect (you can find both on a simple Google search).
Laboratory Grown Diamonds
Diamonds grown artificially in Laboratories AKA not real diamonds for us in the industry. These didn't undergo the millions of years of processing that a natural mined diamond has. They are simply created in a several week time-span in a laboratory. With technology rapidly advancing, this is the easiest and cheapest way these days to get a diamond. If you are on a budget and want to surprise your significant other with a nice big stone, this is a great solution. From experience I can tell you that you are visibly not able to tell the difference between a man-made diamond and a natural one. And in my personal opinion, it's just another marketing strategy to push Natural Diamond prices in about 20 years from now up again (once the market is satisfied with the Laboratory Grown).
Enhanced Diamonds
Some diamonds are enhanced diamonds, meaning their color or clarity is enhanced. This is all done in a laboratory. They're able to better the clarity of a diamond by lazer drilling or filling, or with HPHT treatment (High Pressure High Temperature) able to change the color of a diamond. These diamonds normally are cheaper than a full on natural diamond as they have been treated in a laboratory. Some laboratories do not certify these diamonds as they have been "tampered with". Always make sure that when purchasing a cheaper diamond, especially when purchasing diamonds online, it specifies whether the diamond has been enhanced and certified.
Second-hand Market
If you ever decide to sell or pawn your diamond jewellery, keep in mind that you will get almost next to nothing back for it. There's two ways of selling it. Trying to sell it privately to someone, in which case you can ask any price you want. Or to sell/pawn it at a shop. As some of you might have noticed, the original jewellery store will not purchase your bought jewellery back, because they know that what they offer you and what you purchased it for doesn't come close to each other. You'll find in general that if you receive a valuation certificate for insurance value, you'll receive between 1/10th to 1/5th of the price on that certificate. Mainly cause when you purchase there are charges included like VAT, Profit of the Shop, Manufacturing costs etc. When selling the item, you will mainly get paid about -50% to -80% off the Rapaport price on the stone and obviously the metal price.
I spent a lot of time researching diamonds. Here are a couple of good places to start:
http://www.gia.edu/lab-reports-services/about-the-4cs/index.html (learn about the 4 Cs)
http://www.pricescope.com/ (US diamond search engine, I spent lots of time here searching for the right diamond)
http://www.jogiadiamonds.com.au/diamonds/diamond_search.php (Aussie online retailer, reasonable prices but still more expensive than US)
https://goo.gl/DzrK7M (The Rapaport diamond report is the bible for diamond price wholesale, please note that everyone discounts from 20-40% from this)
According to this a excellent cut 1.00 carat round diamond with H/SI1 should be US$6500 (but remember that all wholesaler discount 20-40%)
Australian stores are simply not competitive, they will charge more than double for the diamond and triple/quadruple for ring. 80%+ of cost is in the diamond, ring is cheap (consider platinum). I would recommend buying diamond from US.
Make sure you only:
- Buy diamonds with GIA or AGS certificate
- Cut is the most import part of diamond, ideally with good HCA rating see here for details: http://www.diamond-cut.com.au/holloway_cut_adviser.htm
- Colour: you do not need F, H (or above) is fine
- Somebody would need to be stupid to get VS1, a good SI1 is fine (this is strong recommendation)
- No Fluoresence
- Remember again get Ideal cut. that give you the sparkle...check HCA (you get dimensions/angles from certificate)!!!!
Go to Tiffanies and check out their diamonds and ask what diamonds they use, spend an hour or so in the store and compare carat, colour, clarity, cut and price. You will find:
- Tiffany diamonds are usually lower quality clarity, such as as VS2, SI1
- If you have money to burn check out G colour, but no higher - H is fine
- Tiffanies have great settings, the best - jogia does a great version:
http://www.jogiadiamonds.com.au/engagement_rings/classic-knife-edge-diamond-engagement-ring-ER29/
I bought my diamond in US from http://www.jamesallen.com then had my cousin bring it in (as he was coming back from US, no GST), bought the ring from http://www.jogiadiamonds.com.au and had the diamond set set into ring in Sydney (jogia organised this for me).
The largest retailer of of diamonds is http://www.bluenile.com/ they sell more diamonds online than all Australian retailers combined, so don't let anyone tell you that online diamonds are shonky. You can buy online for less than half the price. If not sure start here:
http://au.bluenile.com/engagement-rings/top-engagement-rings
http://www.jamesallen.com/iphone-ipad-app.html
Alternative to spending a fortune:
https://www.italojewelry.com
https://www.swarovski.com
https://www.secrets-shhh.com
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