1 carat premium...

[Kissmark]

so there is such a thing as 1 carat premium? i just learned about this and want to confirm w/ you guys

 

[jaz464]

Definitely, there is. If you can find a diamond in the .90-.99 ct range it will be significantly cheaper without looking significantly smaller (or at all). Because of this, they are much sought after and therefore hard to find.

 

[chrono]

Yes, there is a good sized price jump when the stone hits the 1 carat mark. To make the most of your money, look for stones around 0.9ct where it''s quite a bit cheaper but still looks like a 1 carat diamond.

 

[neatfreak]

I won't repeat what others have said, but remember there is something else to having a "looks like 1 carat" stone.

MOST of the 1 carat rings out there in the world are really poorly cut diamonds. Often, this means the diamonds are very deep, and they "face up" (read: look) much smaller than a 1 carat diamond should.

SO if you get an amazingly cut .9 diamond, you will save a boatload of cash, and it will APPEAR much bigger than almost every 1 carat stone you'll see on the street. It's a nice tip to know, so keep your eyes on the measurements of any stone you are considering, because the first two measurements are it's "face up" size and that's how big the diamond will look when mounted.

 

[kcoursolle]

Yes, the 1 carat mark is often a target weight that customers want and thus they are more expensive. There are similar premiums for 1.5, 2.0, etc.

Thus, a diamond that is .96 or just under a target weight is a great value because it visually looks like 1 carat, but costs considerably less.

 

[Ty Cobb]

I have recently noticed a similar, but not on the same scale price jump into the .9-.99 range. A 3-600 dollar increase to go from .89 to .9 depending on where you look, whereas a .84 to .89 is ussually around 150-200 or less.