
Diamonds As An Investment
Saturday, September 8th, 2007TheStreet.com is reporting on how diamonds aren’t exactly the best investment you can make. That might be true, but if you buy carefully, then at least the diamond will hold its value.

TheStreet.com is reporting on how diamonds aren’t exactly the best investment you can make. That might be true, but if you buy carefully, then at least the diamond will hold its value.

With an increasing number of online diamond websites popping up everyday, and diamonds being viewed more and more of a commodity, most people overlook the importance of the actual dealer and what to look out for. As the old saying goes “Choose your jeweller or diamond merchant before you choose your diamond!”

It’s common practice for a jewellery retailer to give a “free valuation”. Whilst this is, in a lot of cases beneficial to the customer, what meaning does it has, and what is that piece of paper useful for?

1. Looking for the cheapest price. The cheapest price will almost always result in the “cheapest” diamond. In addition to that, almost anyone can be undersold. When buying a diamond, it is best to look beyond the price and look at the overall value offered by the vendor.

In the past two months there have been a couple of reports on Today Tonight - one about buying diamonds online and one about buying meat.

Re-certification or verification refers to taking a certified diamond to an independent appraiser or laboratory to double check the gradings on the laboratory certificate.

It’s true, all these tools such as the Ideal-Scope, BrillianceScope and proportion analysers are completely over-rated.

This report from NBC’s Dateline tells the story of how lab grading reports, from major labs such as IGI have blatantly soft gradings that essentially rip-off consumers.


A common question we get is why are our 1 carat diamonds more expensive than other 1 carat diamonds from another jeweller. (more…)