- Joined
- Sep 3, 2000
- Messages
- 6,696
GIA grading is not totally reliable or consistent. It is excellent for human grading work, but it is far from a perfect system or science. No lab forced to compete using the in-house system of GIA can do "better" than the GIA does. There is no indendent board of skilled arbiters who could possibly make such a pronouncement. So it stands to reason that a one grade tolerance is as good as any other lab can do when being measured up to a standard maker such as the GIA lab using their own GIA system. Another lab owner can''t ever hope to do "better" and you know you can''t ever totally match and agree in every instance.
The real question posed by consumers should not be so much about the letter of the alphabet for GIA color or clarity, but should best be "What is the dollar value of the diamond I have selected?" Often the dollar value on reports from labs other than GIA or AGS is exactly as it should be for what the consumer has chosen. Occasionally, the value is even better than expected because of dealer discounting practices.
The situation with consumers buying diamonds with documents from the notoriously "bad" labs is often still okay financially, but so many of these people are dissappointed with the grades to the extent they are unhappy with the diamond, too.
The real question posed by consumers should not be so much about the letter of the alphabet for GIA color or clarity, but should best be "What is the dollar value of the diamond I have selected?" Often the dollar value on reports from labs other than GIA or AGS is exactly as it should be for what the consumer has chosen. Occasionally, the value is even better than expected because of dealer discounting practices.
The situation with consumers buying diamonds with documents from the notoriously "bad" labs is often still okay financially, but so many of these people are dissappointed with the grades to the extent they are unhappy with the diamond, too.