Do different vendors share the same inventory?

[diamanda]

Diamond on Web and Mondera both had a diamond that had the exact same GIA report. DOW had a lower price. This is common, yes?

 

[stone-cold11]

yap, they are drop-shippers. Basically, the stone is own by someone else and is just advertised by these online vendor.

 

[diamanda]

Whoa, I just realized that the James Allen diamond you linked to me in my other thread is also the same diamond! The one with the strong blue fluorescence!

 

[jet2ks]

Many internet vendors use "virtual listings" where many sites can list stones available from the same wholesaler. It is an acceptable and common practice, as it allows the vendor access to many more stones than they could possibly afford to keep in-house. Some are drop-shippers that will never view the stone (they just have the wholesaler ship direct to the consumer) and other vendors, such as James Allen, will bring the diamond in to their office and look it over before sending it on to the buyer. It is much better to work with one of the latter types of vendors.

 

[Lorelei]

Date: 6/12/2009 9:09:26 PM
Author:diamanda
Diamond on Web and Mondera both had a diamond that had the exact same GIA report. DOW had a lower price. This is common, yes?

Read this article, it will explain everything you want to know.

http://journal.pricescope.com/Articles/12/1/Why-are-there-several-dealers-offering-the-exact-same-stone.aspx

 

[bright&shiny]

Great article.

In our search we''ve found the same diamond listed on as many as 5 sites at the same time, with a delta in price of more than 1K between the most and least expensive listing for the same stone with the same GIA certificate number.

I understand the value of the virtual inventory, but this makes it difficult for consumer to track the ''best price'' for a stone.

BTW, many of these stones have been ''unavailable'' or plain-old missing and the jewelers have been unable to show them to us. Interesting....

Good luck on your search! We found ours at Good Old Gold