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Brown diamond good investment?

Sam25806

Sam25806

Rough_Rock
Joined
Aug 23, 2019
Messages
7
Hi so I recently purchased some brown diamond earrings or "chocolate diamond " earrings from levian at a trunk show they had. The weight of the earrings are 2 1/2, it's a brown diamond on each stud with other white diamonds surrounding it, about 30pcs total. I should have a picture up they're beautiful earrings. Anyways so my question is I bought these for about 16,000 and I was told by a friend they would most likely double maybe even triple in price Later due to the Argyle mine closing soon. Do you think this would be a good investment in your opinion? Please be honest. I also have a certificate of authenticity and quality assurance.
 
Sounds lovely :) I am not sure if the value of brown diamonds will go up that significantly compared to Argyle pinks which I think are in higher demand. It also comes down to where else in the world brown diamonds can be mined, and again, I feel pink diamonds are harder to come across elsewhere so the Argyle pinks are already getting priced higher. That isn't to say there's a huge rush in buying them either.
Please post photos! I do like the Le Vian range :)
 
Can you post the GIA reports for them? And YES, we definitely need some pictures!
 
Isn’t Le Vian mall quality jewelry, or do they have an High and low quality line?
 
monipod said:
Sounds lovely :) I am not sure if the value of brown diamonds will go up that significantly compared to Argyle pinks which I think are in higher demand. It also comes down to where else in the world brown diamonds can be mined, and again, I feel pink diamonds are harder to come across elsewhere so the Argyle pinks are already getting priced higher. That isn't to say there's a huge rush in buying them either.
Please post photos! I do like the Le Vian range :)
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20190823_135020.jpg 20190823_134849_008.jpg 20190823_134849_038.jpg
monipod said:
Sounds lovely :) I am not sure if the value of brown diamonds will go up that significantly compared to Argyle pinks which I think are in higher demand. It also comes down to where else in the world brown diamonds can be mined, and again, I feel pink diamonds are harder to come across elsewhere so the Argyle pinks are already getting priced higher. That isn't to say there's a huge rush in buying them either.
Please post photos! I do like the Le Vian range :)
Click to expand...
 
Unless a diamond is extremely rare (ie the Hope Diamond), it should not be looked at as an investment. Unfortunately these are earrings and diamonds that are readily available for anyone to buy. All that matters is that you love them.
 
I by far am NOT an expert, but have been collecting Fancy colored diamonds for about 15 years. While some are incredibly beautiful, brown tends to be the least valuable due to the abundance. When buying other colors such as yellow, orange, pink, if they also have a brown modifier that typically makes them more affordable than without. Meaning a Fancy Pink or Orange is often exponentially more expensive than a Fancy Brown-Pink/ Brownish Orange.

That said, I have a gorgeous "dark chocolate" diamond that I plan to set someday, and many "champagne" of varying shades, some I wear everyday in a necklace and chain bracelet. So I don't want you to think I have anything against them.

Edited to add that brown diamonds are found everywhere diamonds are mined, way more often than any on the alphabet scale. And unless your diamonds have the Argyle inscription and paperwork, then forget about Argyle closing affecting the value.
 
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Mrs_Strizzle said:
I by far am NOT an expert, but have been collecting Fancy colored diamonds for about 15 years. While some are incredibly beautiful, brown tends to be the least valuable due to the abundance. When buying other colors such as yellow, orange, pink, if they also have a brown modifier that typically makes them more affordable than without. Meaning a Fancy Pink or Orange is often exponentially more expensive than a Fancy Brown-Pink/ Brownish Orange.

That said, I have a gorgeous "dark chocolate" diamond that I plan to set someday, and many "champagne" of varying shades, some I wear everyday in a necklace and chain bracelet. So I don't want you to think I have anything against them.

Edited to add that brown diamonds are found everywhere diamonds are mined, way more often than any on the alphabet scale. And unless your diamonds have the Argyle inscription and paperwork, then forget about Argyle closing affecting the value.
Click to expand...

Apparently LeVian chocolate diamonds are branded argyle diamonds. Idk, maybe OP is on to something :confused::think:
 
excuse my very uneducated comment and if im wrong someone can gently say so
where is this mine that's closing?

and for the record i really want a chocolate diamond
but i thought brown diamonds were mainly used in industry but after they found so many of them in Western Australia some marketing dept had to go into overdrive to create a market for them because they were so plentiful
hence the fancy name- chocolate diamond
 
@whitewave - yes, Levian are branded Argyle diamonds. @Daisys and Diamonds - the Argyle mine is in Australia and produces approximately 90% of the world's colored diamonds - specifically yellow-brown spectrum and pinks. It's a VERY famous mine, and is slated for closure by Rio Tinto (the owning company) next year, as it's reaching burn-out. You can only imagine how that will affect colored diamond sales.

Whether it affects the browns like that will have to be seen. I think there are so many of them that the price is most likely to go up somewhat, but not hugely. I think a lot more are likely to be released onto the market at that point and going forward, but supply of anything inevitably runs out, so perhaps at that point the price will bump.

Personally, I like a good brown diamond, but I always feel they need an orange undertone to be truly beautiful. Levians tend, to my eye, to have more of a grey modifier, so come across as a little more drab/muddy.

OP, I think you overpaid significantly, altho you don't mention clarity grading, and that plays a large role in pricing. Diamonds by Lauren, for example, has a lovely colored brown 1.24ct stone for sale for $2195, but it's an SI2 and pretty included. Were is a VS2, tho, I'm not sure how much more expensive this stone would be - 3k, perhaps? Assuming you paid 2k for the setting, you've paid about 7k per stone, and I find it very hard to imagine a brown diamond being worth that much, regardless of its provenance. We all know Kay's standard-practice markups are extraordinary, and this seems to be no different.
 
whitewave said:
Apparently LeVian chocolate diamonds are branded argyle diamonds. Idk, maybe OP is on to something :confused::think:
Click to expand...

I stand corrected about them being from the Argyle... I guess it makes sense because I just read that 21 million carats a year are mined in the world, and 14 million come from Argyle. Time will tell if they increase in value once the last diamond is removed from the mine in 2020.
 
mrs-b said:
@whitewave - yes, Levian are branded Argyle diamonds. @Daisys and Diamonds - the Argyle mine is in Australia and produces approximately 90% of the world's colored diamonds - specifically yellow-brown spectrum and pinks. It's a VERY famous mine, and is slated for closure by Rio Tinto (the owning company) next year, as it's reaching burn-out. You can only imagine how that will affect colored diamond sales.

Whether it affects the browns like that will have to be seen. I think there are so many of them that the price is most likely to go up somewhat, but not hugely. I think a lot more are likely to be released onto the market at that point and going forward, but supply of anything inevitably runs out, so perhaps at that point the price will bump.

Personally, I like a good brown diamond, but I always feel they need an orange undertone to be truly beautiful. Levians tend, to my eye, to have more of a grey modifier, so come across as a little more drab/muddy.

OP, I think you overpaid significantly, altho you don't mention clarity grading, and that plays a large role in pricing. Diamonds by Lauren, for example, has a lovely colored brown 1.24ct stone for sale for $2195, but it's an SI2 and pretty included. Were is a VS2, tho, I'm not sure how much more expensive this stone would be - 3k, perhaps? Assuming you paid 2k for the setting, you've paid about 7k per stone, and I find it very hard to imagine a brown diamond being worth that much, regardless of its provenance. We all know Kay's standard-practice markups are extraordinary, and this seems to be no different.
Click to expand...

whitewave said:
Apparently LeVian chocolate diamonds are branded argyle diamonds. Idk, maybe OP is on to these ea
Click to expand...
mrs-b said:
@whitewave - yes, Levian are branded Argyle diamonds. @Daisys and Diamonds - the Argyle mine is in Australia and produces approximately 90% of the world's colored diamonds - specifically yellow-brown spectrum and pinks. It's a VERY famous mine, and is slated for closure by Rio Tinto (the owning company) next year, as it's reaching burn-out. You can only imagine how that will affect colored diamond sales.

Whether it affects the browns like that will have to be seen. I think there are so many of them that the price is most likely to go up somewhat, but not hugely. I think a lot more are likely to be released onto the market at that point and going forward, but supply of anything inevitably runs out, so perhaps at that point the price will bump.

Personally, I like a good brown diamond, but I always feel they need an orange undertone to be truly beautiful. Levians tend, to my eye, to have more of a grey modifier, so come across as a little more drab/muddy.

OP, I think you overpaid significantly, altho you don't mention clarity grading, and that plays a large role in pricing. Diamonds by Lauren, for example, has a lovely colored brown 1.24ct stone for sale for $2195, but it's an SI2 and pretty included. Were is a VS2, tho, I'm not sure how much more expensive this stone would be - 3k, perhaps? Assuming you paid 2k for the setting, you've paid about 7k per stone, and I find it very hard to imagine a brown diamond being worth that much, regardless of its provenance. We all know Kay's standard-practice markups are extraordinary, and this seems to be no different.
Click to expand...
I do apologize, the certificate says it's a VS2-SI1 thanks for looking at the post.
 
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Sam25806 said:
Anyways so my question is I bought these for about 16,000 and I was told by a friend they would most likely double maybe even triple in price Later due to the Argyle mine closing soon. Do you think this would be a good investment in your opinion? Please be honest. I also have a certificate of authenticity and quality assurance.
Click to expand...
:eek-2:16K???...Get a refund if you can!
 
The price does not make any sense to me either.

Pinkish- or Pink Brown, Orange Brown might justify, if the colour is compelling enough & GIA calls it too.

1.5 FpB

1.6 FlpB

& one priced much like yours WWW (digressing, there are just two browns out of hundreds there less than 1.3 cts and over EUR 6K )

Without distinctive overtones visible & noted on GIA reports, prices are as others mention.

Argyle origin is a big deal for pinks, but I am not hearing of it for browns.

Then, I have no idea how these things hold for a private sale.

Too complicated
 
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You significantly overpaid. I'm shocked that anything from levian would be argyle. They are typically low quality brown diamonds with significant inclusions and poor cut.
 
whitewave said:
I never see diamonds as investments.

Do you have paperwork saying they are from the argyle mine?
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That's my concern. I've seen levian pieces before, but haven't ever heard of them having any paperwork proving they are from argyle specifically. So I highly doubt they'd go up in value from the mine closing
 
I don’t expect them to go up in price because of Argyle mines closing, I do expect them to become more popular due to Scarlett Johansson’s ring. (I often wonder if yellow diamonds were considered “meh” before our idols started wearing them? Don’t know...)

Every year I expect diamonds’ price to plummet, and they are up and up.

BD look great with rose gold, btw, it pulls out red in them.

Argyle adds value, but it is all about color...
 
Arkteia said:
I don’t expect them to go up in price because of Argyle mines closing, I do expect them to become more popular due to Scarlett Johansson’s ring. (I often wonder if yellow diamonds were considered “meh” before our idols started wearing them? Don’t know...)

Every year I expect diamonds’ price to plummet, and they are up and up.

BD look great with rose gold, btw, it pulls out red in them.

Argyle adds value, but it is all about color...
Click to expand...
Appreciate the information I should have cleaned them before showing the pic I dont think these do justice for the ring lol .
Arkteia said:
I don’t expect them to go up in price because of Argyle mines closing, I do expect them to become more popular due to Scarlett Johansson’s ring. (I often wonder if yellow diamonds were considered “meh” before our idols started wearing them? Don’t know...)

Every year I expect diamonds’ price to plummet, and they are up and up.

BD look great with rose gold, btw, it pulls out red in them.

Argyle adds value, but it is all about color...
Click to expand...
Thanks for the information and looking at them. Lol I should have cleaned them the pic doesn't do them justice lol
 
Sam25806 said:
Appreciate the information I should have cleaned them before showing the pic I dont think these do justice for the ring lol . Earrings not ring lol sorry about that.

Thanks for the information and looking at them. Lol I should have cleaned them the pic doesn't do them justice lol
Click to expand...
 
Sam25806 said:
Appreciate the information I should have cleaned them before showing the pic I dont think these do justice for the ring lol .

Thanks for the information and looking at them. Lol I should have cleaned them the pic doesn't do them justice lol
Click to expand...

I did not mean your stones, I saw a lot of photos of brown diamonds on RG, and I adore them. Sorry for the miscommunication!

Your stones are absolutely lovely.
 
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