Diamond Market/ manipulation?

[ProspectorGeo]

I am wondering how the diamond market works...

I recently placed an order with B2C and I am waiting on a confirmation email. I searched for my stone on B2Cs site and see that it is listed as no longer available. However, the same stone is now coming up on ebay for more almost 1000 dollars more...I'm confused!

 

[Acinom]

When did you place the order. Did you try to call them?

 

[denverappraiser]

Here’s what happens:

Most of the stones you see in the big virtual databases, like the one attached to this site, B2C, Blue Nile or wherever, are ‘virtual’ inventory. SOMEONE owns that stone, but it’s usually not the people you see selling it. They partner with anywhere from a few to thousands of dealers to market the thing and the dealers promote it. They can charge whatever they want. That’s why you’ll see the same stone available from multiple sources, websites, ebay, even B&M stores.

All of that is fine but it gets a little tricky when someone buys it. All of those ads don’t necessarily come down in a timely way. Obviously only one person actually has the stone, and only one is actually going to get it, but until you start getting into shipping details you’re only looking at ads. Thousands can have THAT.

Call up B2C and ask them about your concerns. As soon as you bought it, they no doubt sent a message off to their supplier and took it off of the site. The supplier is the loose link. Maybe that ebay guy bought it first, maybe the ebay guy isn’t paying attention, maybe the supplier isn’t paying attention. It’s part of the frustration of Internet shopping. There’s no guarantee but, FWIW, it usually works out remarkably well. Your jeweler should be able to get to the bottom of it.

 

[WinkHPD]

Here’s what happens:

Most of the stones you see in the big virtual databases, like the one attached to this site, B2C, Blue Nile or wherever, are ‘virtual’ inventory. SOMEONE owns that stone, but it’s usually not the people you see selling it. They partner with anywhere from a few to thousands of dealers to market the thing and the dealers promote it. They can charge whatever they want. That’s why you’ll see the same stone available from multiple sources, websites, ebay, even B&M stores.

All of that is fine but it gets a little tricky when someone buys it. All of those ads don’t necessarily come down in a timely way. Obviously only one person actually has the stone, and only one is actually going to get it, but until you start getting into shipping details you’re only looking at ads. Thousands can have THAT.

Call up B2C and ask them about your concerns. As soon as you bought it, they no doubt sent a message off to their supplier and took it off of the site. The supplier is the loose link. Maybe that ebay guy bought it first, maybe the ebay guy isn’t paying attention, maybe the supplier isn’t paying attention. It’s part of the frustration of Internet shopping. There’s no guarantee but, FWIW, it usually works out remarkably well. Your jeweler should be able to get to the bottom of it.

Denver Appraiser is totally correct.

I once sold a diamond to a gentleman that was a perfectly square princess cut on Friday. On Monday the client called and wanted me to match the price of a vendor on the Internet who was offering it on his site for $200 less than he had paid me on Friday. I suggested that when he called the site he was gong to find that it was not available since I already owned the diamond. I also told him I would be interested to know what was actually said to him when he called. He said he would call them and get back to me.

I called the owner of the diamond who was very upset by this as the vendor quoting the $200 less was on his "Do Not Sell" list as an overly slow payer. Not only did I already own the diamond, but even if I did not that particular vender could not have delivered the diamond.

When my client called me back he said he was told that they had sent that particular diamond out on memo and would have to check to see if it was purchased or not but hey, here are several similar diamonds to look at. They had actually lied to my client by pretending to be the owners of the diamond.

When I told my client that he was lying and that the real owner of the diamond would not even sell to him my client was rather shocked. I asked him if he even liked any of the other stones presented and were any of them perfectly square, which had been important to him. He replied that none of them were even close to being what he wanted, but he still wanted the $200 discount.

I replied that when I did not have a stone is was $400 cheaper than the real owner's price and reminded him that I was already the real owner of this diamond. He got the irony of my comment and kept the diamond.

There are a lot of games played on the net. There are good honest vendors and there are crooks. That is why a site like Pricescope is so valuable. Here you can talk with people who have had experience buying on the net. The crooks are soon outed and the honest vendors that remain are the ones who have more and more happy clients.

Lacking a confirmation email, it may well be that the diamond was already sold, or it may be that it was pulled for you and the email did not get sent before things got closed on Friday. We will hope for you that it got pulled and that you will be notified on Monday. Let us know how it goes.

Wink

 

[GeorgeStevens]

Wink describes the old bait & switch. That or basic laziness are the most likely cause of the confusion. Supposedly the cutters and polishers who sell on to the retailers via virtual inventory update their feeds every 30 minutes, so as long as the retailer properly updates his website, the diamond would be double-sold only if two people pressed buy within 30 minutes. Here's an example of a common software that accomplishes this. Note the ability to segment customers and set different prices for different customers.

Why is the bait & switch used, particularly in the diamond business? Because diamonds are a natural product and nearly all have flaws. The good stones sell fairly easily to educated consumers, and the lousy one need to be sold - how do you get rid of the J-color flawless stone that was polished by inexperienced hands to be exactly 1.00 ct? Miners sell cutters parcels of both highly desirable and less desirable stones on a take-it-or-leave-it basis for the whole parcel, so everyone has the same problem of getting rid of lousy stones. One way is to lower the price of the lower-quality stones, and the other way is to advertise a great stone at a great price and switch the customer to a not-so-great stone.

As a side note, the issue with speed of payment is critical, because the cutters and polishers run on very thin margins and have to keep turning through their inventory. Their formula for profit is low margin times fast inventory turns less financing cost.

One way protect yourself from being overcharged is to identify the diamond you want, then run its exact specs on every website you can find. You can easily tell if the same diamond is on multiple sites by checking the GIA number. Also google the GIA number, as sometimes this will turn up a hit, sometimes to an inventory sheet of the cutter/polisher.

 

[Diamond_Hawk]

Hello ProspectorGeo,

When you place an order with B2C you should receive a confirmation email immediately. I have alerted the sales team at B2C to your concern, and sent them a link to this thread.

If you will call the customer service line I am certain they can follow-up for you.

 

[Diamond_Hawk]

Hello again ProspectorGeo,

I’m told the sales admin have searched and aren’t finding this order.

Can you provide the stock-number, either here or privately (call their number and ask for Chris) so we can trace this for you?

We would like to investigate what has happened here.

Many thanks,