There are several instances when you may want to determine the value of a diamond. It may be a diamond that you already own or it may be one that you are looking to purchase. You may want to know the value of a diamond for insurance purposes or to make sure that you are getting a good deal. Regardless of your reasons, your best bet is to get a basic understanding of how to determine the value of a diamond, so that you not only understand what the person is saying, but also so that you can figure out whether or not what the person is saying is true.Almost everyone knows that the 4 C’s (cut, clarity, color, and carat) play a factor in determining the value of a diamond. What many people do not know for sure is what factor each of those “C’s” plays when assessing the worth of each diamond. While color and clarity are natural factors, the carat weight and cut are determined by a diamond cutter.
Therefore, the color and clarity provide the first glimpse at the value of diamond. The color grade and type, which are designated by a letter (grade) and a number (type), will often affect the clarity grade. Diamonds are considered to either be flawless, internally flawless, very, very slightly included, very slightly included, slightly included, and included.
Once those values have been determined, the next factors are the carat weight and the cut. Each diamond has an initial carat weight. However, once a cut is chosen, it will determine the final carat weight of the diamond. Any cut will cause the diamond to go down in weight because of the adjustments that must be made to create each cut. Still, diamond cutters work hard to preserve as much of the carat weight as possible for the purpose of keeping the value of the diamond and therefore will pick a cut that is best suited to the original diamond’s shape.
Therefore, the measurements of the diamond, in millimeters, will help give a value to a diamond after the diamond has been cut and crafted. Measurements often include the minimum diameter, the maximum diameter, and the depth of the diamond when measuring round diamonds. For all other diamonds, the measurements include the length, width, and depth of the diamond.
After all of those factors have been considered, any additional steps in the finishing process will affect the value of the diamond. This means the polish of the diamond, as well as any treatments that it may have gotten. Treatments include fracture filled, bleached, coated, heated, or doublet. A diamond can also be purchased untreated.
With that in mind, you can guess that in the beginning, the value of a diamond is an honest one. Diamonds are all given a value, but that value is a range at best. More importantly, that range will be different for retailers than for insurance purposes. Many people will tend to inflate the value of their jewelry for insurance, but that may just cause you to pay more on your premium. If the item is not extremely rare, go by the sales price, which is not an appraisal.
The tricky part of understanding the value of a diamond is realizing that it works on a sliding scale and that the range for any given diamond may be larger than you think. As such, the person or company that is selling a piece of jewelry will largely influence the price at which it sells.
Generally, an online retailer’s pricing will be consistently more accurate for a diamond than that of a brick and mortar retailer unless they are aggressively priced. If so, then it may be comparable to the respected online dealer, but it will still be slightly higher. The difference in price is not determined by the quality of the diamond because the two diamonds are considered to be as identical as possible.
The difference, then, is actually in the value that a business must add to keep their company up and running. A brick and mortar jewelry store will likely pay more for advertising, rent on the store, employee salaries, and various other expenses. Generally, an online store does not incur all the same costs and therefore they can pass some of those savings onto their clients, which in turn will often produce repeat customers and referrals via word-of-mouth advertising.
Now that you know the basics of how appraisers, diamond dealers, and jewelers determine the value of a diamond, you can search for an appraisal for diamond jewelry or loose stones that you own. You can also continue your search for a piece of diamond jewelry or take the final step in purchasing the prefect piece and know that what you are paying is exactly what it is worth.
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October 3rd, 2011 at 5:56 pm
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