Archive for Price Help
Friends helping Friends in Difficult Economic Times
Posted by: | CommentsThis was an interesting one for many reasons. The stone is discussion is quite large. It’s an unusually low color. It turns out not to be certified. It’s two friends, one with money, one without. Lots of intrigue!
Q: Hi Ira. I found that your website is very helpful. Thank you.
My friend ask me to buy her loose diamond but doesn’t know the fair price for it. It is a round, 8.29 ct, O color, diamond VS1 clarity. Polish and Symetry very good, dimensions 13.10 x 13.20 x 7.9. Table 62%, flourescence [sic] Weak Yellow. We are having trouble to find an agreed price since rapaport does not prove the spec of this diamond.
Please help. Thank
A: Hi Natalie. Tread carefully. Tread VERY carefully. I just spoke with a close friend of mine who is active in trading these sorts of diamonds and he said that a solid wholesale price for such a diamond would be about $6000 per carat. So that would be around $50,000 total for the diamond. I’m going to assume she wants significantly more because she probably didn’t buy it at a low wholesale price.
This, of course, assumes the grades you gave me are legitimate. Is the diamond certified? Is so, from what lab?
Real faint yellow fluorescence (and not medium or strong that some 3rd rate lab calls faint) shouldn’t affect the price.
If this person really is your good friend, I would suggest buying elsewhere. It’s a zero-sum game — for every dollar one of you gains, the other one loses a dollar. That can’t be good for a friendship.
Can I ask what your friend is asking for the diamond? Is she basing it off of what she paid for it once upon a time? If you would rather not answer publicly in the comments, feel free to email me. If you’d be interested in buying something else, not from your friend, also contact me privately.
Q: Thank you for your respond. My friend asked me to buy her diamond because she is currently in financial trouble. I’m willing to help her but I’m not going to get my self ripped-off. The price she offer me is around 57,000. She got this price by looking at rapaport report on 5 ct M color VS1 and 10 ct M color VS1. So it is 17,100 (M color vs1 10ct) + 11,300 (M color vs1 5ct) / 2 = 14,200. From that price she give me twice 30 back (14,200 – 30%) – 30% = 6958 per carat.
Is this a good deal?
A: The $6000 per carat price I told you was, first and foremost, an estimate. So it’s most definitely not set in stone (no pun intended). Furthermore, that’s a low wholesale price that a traders might sell between themselves in the diamond bourse. So for you to pay 16% more is certainly reasonable. It’s like what you would pay on Blue Nile, or any other online vendor.
If a wholesaler had the stone in inventory and didn’t want to just move it for a small profit, but decided to hold onto it and wait for a buyer who needs that kind of stone, he could ask well above 6000 per carat. I saw some listed on industry wholesale sites for a lot more than 6000.
Is the diamond certified GIA? If so, I’d say go for it (if you like the diamond, of course)
Q: The certificate is not a GIA certificate. But it is made by a shop where they also has their lab. The owner is a GIA certified. Should it be trusted?
A: GIA graduate gemologists don’t necessarily know what they’re doing. The problem is that to have that stone certified by GIA it would cost you several hundred dollars. (Probably round 800). But it might be worth it on such a large purchase. I would recommend against buying it until it’s certified by GIA. After all, how objective could the store that sold the ring be? If it just turns out to be a diamond VS2 and not VS1, that’s already a significant difference in price.
Q: Yes your points are right. I will go with ur advise.
Thank you very much.
Price Help with a 2 carat Radiant F Color VS2 Clarity
Posted by: | CommentsQ: What price range would you expect for: radiant cut 2.06cts, color F clarity vs2, polish and symmetry vg, table 68%, depth 70%, dimensions 8.63 x6.42 x 4.5
fluorescence: nil (or faint depending on which certificate you follow(!)
thanks for your help
A: I have checked for similar stones on an online industry wholesale trading site. I found two that match nicely to yours. One is priced at 7,310 per carat and the other at 8,100 per carat (their respective total prices are 14,693 and 16,281). These prices are on the very high end of the wholesale spectrum. Companies like the ones who listed these two stones generally list them at a higher price waiting for somebody to have a specific call for a matching stone (in the industry, they are called “call stones.”). So, in theory, you could find your stone for a similar price to the more expensive one. I would say your price should be in the range of 16,000 to 19,000.
Emerald Cut 1 ct D VS2 Medium Yellow Price Help
Posted by: | CommentsQ: What price range could you give me for the following specs: emerald cut, Carat weight:1.03, Color grade: D, Clarity Grade: VS2, Polish: Very good, Symmetry: Good, Fluorescence: Medium yellow, no additional clouds. Measurements: 6.83 x 5.06 x 3.49, Depth: 69.0%, Table: 71%, Girdle: Medium to Very Thick.
A: I did a quick check on a diamond listing site for the diamond trade (not open to private customers) for the closest thing I could find to your stone. Unfortunately, Medium Yellow is quite rare, so I could not find an exact match. It seems that with no fluorescence, your diamond would cost around -40% rap (4140 per carat) at the wholesale level since it is such a nice make. I would guess that the Medium Yellow would knock off around 5-7% rap points leaving the wholesale price of your stone around 3700 per carat. Yellow is generally considered worse than the more common blue fluorescence. Also, fluorescence always reduces the price the most when coupled with a “D” color. So to figure a proper online retail price, add about 15-20% markup.
