found yellow diamond at antique mall

[rparker1998]

We were walkikng around an antique mall this week that has a family who sells loose stones. they had this amazing 1carat yellow round brillant diamond. It wasn''t completely saturated in the yellow range, but definately had the yellow tint to it - it was obviously yellow. It appeared to be eye clean and seemed to have very good cut/symetry from what i could tell with the naked eye. they were asking 3k for the stone. I have no idea if it was real or not nor anything else about the stone.

Thoughts? I probably won''t purchase it due to not having the funds available but i''m wondeirng if there is anyway to tell if it was worth the 3K?

 

[diamondseeker2006]

The only way to know is to have the stone sent to GIA or an independent appraiser. And you''d have to either convince the seller to do it for you, or they''d have to allow you a return period if you wanted to do it yourself. There is no other way to confidently buy an uncertified stone.

 

[kcoursolle]

Definitely not enough information to tell whether it''s a reasonable value or not. Fancy colored diamonds can vary drastically in price depending on whether they aren''t fancy at all, i.e. in the T-Z range for example, or if they are "light fancy yellow", "intense fancy yellow" or "vivid fancy yellow". From your description of the stone having "yellow tint" this makes me think it''s not a fancy stone and shouldn''t command a high ticket price. The vivid an intense hues command a very high price whereas the yellowish hues that aren''t technically "fancy" are usually less expensive than white stones. There also isn''t enough information about the exact carat weight or the clarity. If the clarity is SI the price should be much lower than if it is in the VS range or higher. Although cut is less important for fancies since they are often cut for saturation rather than optimal performance, it is still something to consider.

 

[Lorelei]

Date: 12/14/2008 3:17:51 PM
Author:rparker1998
We were walkikng around an antique mall this week that has a family who sells loose stones. they had this amazing 1carat yellow round brillant diamond. It wasn''t completely saturated in the yellow range, but definately had the yellow tint to it - it was obviously yellow. It appeared to be eye clean and seemed to have very good cut/symetry from what i could tell with the naked eye. they were asking 3k for the stone. I have no idea if it was real or not nor anything else about the stone.

Thoughts? I probably won''t purchase it due to not having the funds available but i''m wondeirng if there is anyway to tell if it was worth the 3K?

Really an independant appraiser is the way to go here, the diamond could be treated or enhanced so if you wanted to buy it you would be taking a risk without an unbiased expert opinion,

 

[rparker1998]

thanks guys - that''s what i thought. Just wanted to know if there was a way to know for sure if a stone is real vs cz.