A reflective article on diamond grading reports

[mkb]

I grew up learning that the diamond business was based on trust.
I wonder at what stage in the process from rough to a set jewel, that part stops.

luc

 

[oldminer]

TRUST is in every link in the chain of delivery from the source of the rough to the consumer. However, many people are not trustworthy and have made doing business on a handshake increasingly difficult. Trust is still the main working method in the diamond business, but everyone is more suspicious than ever about how they will be treated. It is a problem that needs to be constantly worked on.

My parent firm, D. Atlas & Co bought and sold estate jewelry and diamonds to the trade only for close to 100 years before I ended that part of the business a couple years ago. Declining trust was one of the main reasons. I found fewer new people who paid on time, more people who told tales instead of the truth, and a declining profit as collections became harder to come by. The entire jewelry business suffers from this sort of problem although it is still quite a large and reasonably robust business. I didn''t want to change with the times, so I ended our buy/sell interests. Those that keep on doing it well have my respect and support.

 

[mkb]

Thanks for your candour david,
I''m a fourth generation diamond cutter, and carry trust high in my banner.
It is sad to see things developing this way.
It''s our duty to do the best for every stone we get.
Everyone has to make a living though.

bf
luc

 

[valeria101]

Date: 12/3/2005 6:29:29 PM
Author: Garry H (Cut Nut)

Date: 12/3/2005 2:33:21 PM
Author: valeria101

Insofar, I don''t like the conclusion of this (which would be - make the end user pay for the lab report) because it does not sound feasible.

Actually it is not that silly because then the end user can say - this is important to me - and you get customized service

Is it bad to ask how much customized service ?

To make it clear, the Q went into a little story. HERE after passing by one of your stories at Preciousmetals. Hope you don''t mind...

 

[WinkHPD]

Date: 12/4/2005 8:44:16 AM
Author: strmrdr

The thing is there are a whole lot of scam artists in the business add in clueless box stores buying in bulk and drop shippers and most people are not going to buy from that level of vendor nor use a top appraiser.

Funny comment about the box stores, or maybe ironic is a better word. Many assume (as did I once) that the box stores automatically buy better than the small independants because of their huge buying power.

What I found to be the case on my trips to Antwerp was that the small independants were actually getting better values than the majors. How is this possible you ask?

When an independant shows up with anywhere from $10,000 to $100,000 he searches each parcel and will either buy the parcel or buy one or more stones from the parcel that make the best value for what he is looking for. Say he "steals an F-VS2 stone from a parcel of G-SI1''s. He can do this because he is looking specifically for such deals whereas the buyer for Zales or Hellsberg or (insert name of favorite big box store) must find millions of dollars worth of stones and will take the drek and the deals with the parcels. Which stone the ultimate buyer receives is merely the luck of the draw.

So buy being an educated and extremely picky buyer, the small independant actually buys better than the large boxes, right up until the time that they come back with LOTS of money in their pockets and start having to buy the whole parcels to spend all of their money.

Wink

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

Wink and Ana, I suspect if you looked in those parcels bound for the big box retail chains you would find the cut on about 1/4 of those stones would be ok - not H&A''s, but not lousy extremely thick girdles and 70% table sizes.
That is quite something.
Because it is likely that 5-10 years ago only 1 in 20 would have been "passable".

Wink when you pick that single stone out, you pay a premium.
I do a lot of my buying with the comany my wife works for who have 25 stores. They typically reject about 1/3rd of a parcel by pulling out a few marker stones for color or say - no table piques, and the vendors staff then resort the parcel. Then they haggle down the price after the vendor has done the work.
You pick and they haggle up the price. And you do the work.

But we digress slightly from the topic at hand.

How can we improve the cost and efficiency of quality assurance / grades / trust etc?
Paul are you going to post what you emailed me?

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

Imagine a consumer grading lab.
One that graded a diamond for Storm to his requirements, and another for Belle, to her requirements?
What would you want Storm?
What do you think an average first time buyer would want?
How much should your service cost Storm? And would you pay for it?
How much might it cost to say to Joe Average that this is an eye clean, sparkly white diamond?

 

[WinkHPD]

Date: 12/5/2005 2:33:38 PM
Author: Garry H (Cut Nut)
Wink when you pick that single stone out, you pay a premium.

Yes, I do, and when compared to the "expletive deleted" cuts that most of the stones were in those parcels, I was still getting a bargain compared to what the box stores were getting on average. Of course if that has changed as much as you say then what I said may no longer be true, but I would still rather try to find ten to twenty needles in the haystack than 6,000 of them.

Wink

 

[valeria101]

Date: 12/5/2005 3:46:17 PM
Author: Garry H (Cut Nut)

Imagine a consumer grading lab.

Good idea

My wildest fantasy is very humbled...

Now... where did I hear this before?

 

[strmrdr]

Here is what I want:
spot on accurate and repeatable color and clarity grading.
full helium report showing everything.
importable into DC version of the helium report.
heart image
standardized environment IS image.
darkfield inclusion photos
standard diamond photo under a standard lighting condition. <--- more than one for asschers and emerald cuts.

......................
Newbies:
spot on accurate and repeatable color and clarity grading.
Simplified helium report/ something like the srn viewer would be kewl <--- would work for both me and newbies just have 2 areas one simple one complex.
heart image
Gem file from helium data
standardized environment IS image
darkfield inclusion photos
standard diamond photo under a standard lighting condition <-- more than one for asschers and emerald cuts.
......................

cost? $200-$300 well spent?
Would i pay for it ,, yep ,, would I recomend others do so yep.

 

[danielh]

When I attended the GIA extension classes for my GG a while back, there were a couple employees of insurance companies in some of the courses. State Farm and I Allstate head of jewelry claims were both working on their GGs. They both stated that the insurance industry was pushing towards having a GIA , EGL or a similar respected grading report.
Reasoning for this was that as it stands, almost anyone can write an appraisal, so when Mr. Smith says his wife lost her wedding ring, and it was a D, VS1 6 carat Marquise , then they will be pretty sure that is what it is. They also said to often they find that the independent, non GIA, EGL type grader, will grade to the amount the customer wishes the stone to be covered for, and it is very hard to prove otherwise as the stone is usually missing when the claim is made.

 

[valeria101]

Date: 12/5/2005 7:54:08 PM
Author: strmrdr

cost? $200-$300 well spent?

Would i pay for it ,, yep ,, would I recomend others do so yep.

Strm, when you find Shangri-La, gimme a call...

these days, public opinion goes 1c per call, if persistent

 

[strmrdr]

Date: 12/5/2005 8:28:58 PM
Author: valeria101

Date: 12/5/2005 7:54:08 PM

Author: strmrdr


cost? $200-$300 well spent?


Would i pay for it ,, yep ,, would I recomend others do so yep.

Strm, when you find Shangri-La, gimme a call...


these days, public opinion goes 1c per call, if persistent

they pay that everyday here, it just isnt broken out as a seperate cost.
With some vendors you pay the same price for a lot less.

 

[valeria101]

Date: 12/5/2005 8:33:11 PM
Author: strmrdr


they pay that everyday here, it just isnt broken out as a seperate cost.

Not to you...

 

[belle]

Date: 12/5/2005 7:54:08 PM
Author: strmrdr
Here is what I want:
spot on accurate and repeatable color and clarity grading.
full helium report showing everything.
importable into DC version of the helium report.
heart image
standardized environment IS image.
darkfield inclusion photos
standard diamond photo under a standard lighting condition. <--- more than one for asschers and emerald cuts.

......................
Newbies:
spot on accurate and repeatable color and clarity grading.
Simplified helium report/ something like the srn viewer would be kewl <--- would work for both me and newbies just have 2 areas one simple one complex.
heart image
Gem file from helium data
standardized environment IS image
darkfield inclusion photos
standard diamond photo under a standard lighting condition <-- more than one for asschers and emerald cuts.
......................

cost? $200-$300 well spent?
Would i pay for it ,, yep ,, would I recomend others do so yep.

LOL

glad there''s something for everyone.