Does this sound right?

[walter123]

I have been looking online for a few months browsing thru diamonds that I might be interested in. I live in Chicago and there is a part of town called jewelers row....basically like a small 47th street....anyhoo, I am looking for a 3 ct. "j" "SI-2". I went to one particular store and was shown a 3.12 "SI-1" "J"....the cut was nice and I liked the diamond but he wanted 15,300 for it and thats quite a bit over my budget of 14,000.....I asked him if he a stone around 2.8-2.9 with SI-2 and J color so I could save a little dough and this is the part I dont understand....he said that although I am going down a grade in clarity and size the diamond would cost the same as the 3.12 ct. diamond because it is so close to a 3.0 that jewelers will usually price it as a 3.0 carat diamond???????? I found this statement very confusing and was wondering if any of you experts could comment....Was I just getting lied to or is it a common practice to price stones that way? Seemed kind of fishy to me....

-Walter

 

[diamondsman]

You just have to go on line to different websites and check out the range of sizes you are looking for. that will give you an idea of what the stones should cost .

 

[valeria101]

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On 4/6/2004 6:57:50 PM walter123 wrote:



I am going down a grade in clarity and size the diamond would cost the same as the 3.12 ct. diamond because it is so close to a 3.0 that jewelers will usually price it as a 3.0 carat diamond????????

Seemed kind of fishy to me....
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It is right for the price per carat. Traditionally, the price per carat 'jumps' in the neighbourhood of certain 'rounded' weights (in this case 3 carats) that people are more likely to request... or something.

As you have rightly noticed, a couple tenths of a carat do not make a huge difference in the size of the stone (at elast for this weight they don't) but bring prices all over the place.

Also, it is more likely to find dimaonds just above one of these thresholds (say 3.01 to 3.05 cts) tahn below (2.9-3 cts).


Some examples follow....

The 2.87 and 3.05 are nearly the same size. The depth of the cut accounts for this, and the difference in weight for the price gap.

The cut quality for these diamonds is not fully known. They are just examples for the question in case.

 

[valeria101]

 

[valeria101]