HCA and the Rap Sheet

[nelliemade]

I thought I had a good idea on what made a good diamond, and how to choose one, and then I heard about the HCA. That was another stage of education. I picked out a few stones on James Allen and Brilliant Earth using this tool.

Last week, we met with a diamond broker, and he talked to us even more in-depth on what to look for in a stone. He allowed us to snap a pic of a month old rap sheet for round stones, and am now trying to compare the stones I found online with the prices. He mentioned that the rap sheet was going to be the higher price on the stones and that you would then have to adjust the price according to the girdle, and a few other factors.

Can you all help me in figuring out how the rap sheet relates to these diamonds in terms of cost, the 4c factor, the HCA factor, etc? I only chose stones that came with a GIA report.

When I put this stone into the (old) Rap sheet comes out to $2,730 https://www.jamesallen.com/loose-diamonds/round-cut/0.65-carat-g-color-vvs2-clarity-excellent-cut-sku-2322228

$2,470 https://www.jamesallen.com/loose-diamonds/round-cut/0.65-carat-h-color-vvs2-clarity-excellent-cut-sku-2265119

$2,560 https://www.jamesallen.com/loose-diamonds/round-cut/0.64-carat-h-color-vvs1-clarity-excellent-cut-sku-2265086

$2,432 https://www.jamesallen.com/loose-diamonds/round-cut/0.64-carat-h-color-vvs2-clarity-excellent-cut-sku-2169161

Is James Allen really that reasonably priced on their stones, is my rap sheet too old, is their super zoom for real? What am I missing?

Brilliant earth seems to come in a little more on what I think it would be?

$2,310 http://www.brilliantearth.com/loose-diamonds/view_detail/3160632/

$2,280 http://www.brilliantearth.com/loose-diamonds/view_detail/3399687/

 

[denverappraiser]

‘A few other factors’ is the key.

It’s quite a few. Cutting. Market selection. Grading source. Added value things like trade-ins and warranties. Payment terms. Fluorescence. Convenience. Trust. FWIW, girdle has rather little to do with it unless it’s on the extremes.

As a rule, Rap isn’t very helpful for consumers and it's routinely used in a deceptive way. Specifically, it is NOT a list of ‘wholesale’ prices. A far better way to calibrate prices is to look for actual offers of real stones from real dealers. There are tens of thousands of them in the database above and elsewhere on the web as you've obviously discovered. Figure out what your specs are, look up stones for sale, show the results to your preferred jeweler, and listen to what they have to say. If it doesn’t make sense, come back and ask about it in the forum. If it’s overtly wrong or deceptive, find a different jeweler. If they convince you that you should modify your specs, repeat the process with the new specs.