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anyone seen this -> Rapaport Certified Diamond Auctions

gingle

Rough_Rock
Joined
Jul 22, 2009
Messages
9
dear all, i am about to embark on purchasing a diamond. i have come across this site - http://www.rapaportauctions.com/,, and wonder if anyone has any experience, good or bad about it. or even any other auction. i am truly sceptical about these things.
are they anything to do with Mr Rapaport ?
so i look forward to hearing from you.
 
Yes Rap is running it.
I loged in as trade and found examples of diamonds that were listed quite a bit higher on reserves than the Rap and IDEX trade listings.
I am sure in some cases Pricescope vendors would have sold the stones cheaper than the reserve price.
In the first round very few stones sold.
 
I have had clients who've sold through that channel and they came away happy. If you've got the right kind of goods to fit their profile it's a fairly inexpensive consignment sales arrangement, it's secure, and it goes reasonably quickly. As a buyer I'm less convinced that it's a good deal. You are buying blind, you've got no recourse. and the payment terms are effectively cash up front. I know lots of dealers who beat that all day long and. because of the auction format, the pricing for a particular item can be good, bad or completely off the map and it can badly sting a single item type of buyer. It's sort of like buying a car at auction. For the dealers who know what they're doing and who can afford to take a hit occasionally it works out pretty well but for an uninformed buyer who wants a single car, the risk of ending up with a dog is far higher than most people are willing to put up with.
 
thats interested about prices being higher, than the rap. because if you see their "recent lots", you can see diamonds have "sold" for a percentage less that rap price. that's what seems good, as it tells you. but i guess it is all too good to be true, once again ...
 
hmm, diamond auctions? Sounds like a fun way to blow money- like the other posters have said- if you educated and how what you are getting and what it is worth...then you can probably find a deal, if not you may end up spending the same or more than you would have with an online vendor.
 
gingle|1292134639|2794689 said:
thats interested about prices being higher, than the rap. because if you see their "recent lots", you can see diamonds have "sold" for a percentage less that rap price. that's what seems good, as it tells you. but i guess it is all too good to be true, once again ...
'Rap' is a funny figure. The nice folks at Rapaport publish a magazine with a page in it listing some diamond prices. Info is at www.diamonds.net... These are reported to be 'High New York cash asking' prices, whatever that means. In practice, stones at every level in the market, including retail, are routinely discounted from this while other stones actually sell at a premium to it. The difference has to do with the things that aren't included in the chart like cutting and in things that apply to the deal but not really the stone, like warranties, paperwork, displays and 'free' coffee. In addition to this, Rapaport operates a database called Rapnet where diamond dealers offer and buy stones to one another. Rapnet is really pretty similar to the PS database in that a seller will list a stone for sale, they can charge whatver they want, and the competitive marketplace will dictate who gets the sale and who doesn't. The same issue applies with Rapnet pricing as with the Rap sheet but you'll notice that even the most expensive of stones on Rapnet are rarely more than the Rap sheet lists and the cheapest are steeply discounted. Now Rapaport also has this auction service where certain types of stones are sold blind based on GIA credentials and are sold through the auction format that's more-or-less open to the public. This seems to generally produce slightly lower prices than Rapnet for sellers and it contains a commission to the auction people. The big reason to do it for the sellers is if they don't have access to Rapnet or a similar competitor (there are several) or they like the fact that there is a completion date associated with the deal or the fact that it's a cash type transaction with no financing or 'memo' terms involved. That is to say, however it works out, it'll be done on a particular date that's not terribly far in the future. This is popular for folks who are non-professionals and who are, for example, liquidating an estate and for dealers who have something that's hard to move through their more usual channels for whatever reason. The commissions are fairly reasonable compared to other auction venues and they are really quite picky about what they'll take but it's fast, it's easy, and the payout is almost always decent when compared to the alternatives. For the right seller with the right merchandise, it can be a good fit. Again, I would not recommend non-experts get into it as a buyer.
 
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