How rare is my diamond?

[Lugus]

I was just kind of curious if there were any websites that listed statistics such as how many D colored diamonds are cut every year or how many 1.5+ ct diamonds are cut. You get the idea.

Was just wondering, how rare the stones I''m considering are.

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

de Beers might have a guess, but they would have to kill you if they told you

 

[DiamondExpert]

Just how rare it is also depends on the clarity...so if you've got an IF stone it will be more rare than an I3.

Garry is not altogether kidding...DeBeers keep a lot of info held very close to the chest.

Regards,

 

[DiamondShopr]

I'm not sure how rare it is but I was looking for a D VS2 just over 1.5 carat and I only came across a few that were also cut well.....I just ordered one from Mondera.com so I will see in a few days.....

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

it is the well cut that is rare

 

[ccuheartnurse]

Gary,
I had read on someones site (I think Martin's) that ideal H&A (either AGS/GIA) makes up something around the 5% range of cut stones. I'm not saying Martin is inaccurate, but is this % pretty close?

Judy

 

[Tarams]

There was an ideal cut IF D (1.20ct?) on eBay recently for less than $16,000. The pictures were GORGEOUS!! I'm sorry I couldn't buy it myself right now, but thought I'd pass it on incase the auction hasn't ended yet.

 

[Tarams]

Ok,just checked. It's still there! Auction # 2610630654
It's GIA appraised & has a "buy it now" of $15,800.
(

)

 

[pinkdiamondgirl]

blockquote> hey there you wonder how rare your diamond is if you want to know a rare diamond it would be a pink,black,blue one of those diamonds there are a few more rare ones i dont know them off hand. the pink diamond is my fav. they are about 125,935 dollars for a 2.01ct around there or more i figured to let you know a really rare diamond and its also hard to find them cut the way you want them..

 

[oldminer]

In the diamond trade we don't know for certain that IF is truly more rare than VVS2. We assume it is becuase we agree to pay more for Flawless than VVS2. This is a "convention", our acceptance of the rules of the market maker, but not based so much on supply or demand as based on convention. The middle clarity diamonds, VS-SI are far more popular and seemingly more available. Maybe this is DeBeers giving us what we want out of a huge stockpile of virtually every clarity imagineable. Maybe VS and SI are more abundant in nature.... Truthfully, very few people know what the relative supplies of various clarities are as they come out of the mines. All we know is what is distributed. Prices are made logical by this convention of what is most rare to least rare, but we sure don't know it is accurate.

Diamonds are a wonderful game. The rules are complex...

 

[valeria101]

After a month (not this one_ of trying to figure such numbers out I gave up. Obviously there has never been much urge to publish such data...

I tries to guess this rarity factor in two ways:



Once, taking the value of mining output into account and then looking at demand.

The first approach seems the most reasonable. Some closely related stats would be the evaluation of mining output, since that number has to take into account the relative volume and value of cuttable and industrial rough. My assumption was that extraction does not depend on distribution decisions (meaning, no one stops the mines if there is a slight dip in demand). Since further estimation (taking into account distribution decisions, as David explains) seemed to be very involved, this hobbyist gave up. If you really are very curious, you could try to trace this further.



But the second is more relevant, it seems.

Here's why I think so:
Anyone can track sales for a sample of diamonds using these online databases. meaning, you can make up a reasonable sample of, say D/IF and H/SI stones of a small range of weights (say, about 0.5, 1 and 1.5 cts) and see what sells first. Been there done that... and, it seems that 50 pointer D/IFs sell as fast as 1.5cts H/SIs.

Since I would not dare show the stats to my professor, I would not say where the experiment was conducted either. A more precise one could be easily mounted up to check this.

So... demand is crucial in making up this "rarity convention" (words taken form David’s post, again). Simply not too many would prefer these high grades at this price level. This is not surprising at all given pricing (as combinations of high color and clarity are more expensive than either high color or high clarity alone).

Meaning, it makes little difference what comes out of the ground. As long as the diamond market and pricing looks like today, my best guess is that allot of flawless rough will not make high grade diamonds less rare in jewelry.



Hope this makes some sense, despite the not so organized exposition.

This is about all I know about the matter.

 

[valeria101]

Such research (on how to define a convention of rarity and value) was done more transparently for the pearl industry. The problem was: how to keep high grade (as commonly defined by size, lustre, color, nacre... what not) pearls rare on the market and thus control prices?

This was not an easy Q, since, unlike the diamond miners, the pearl farms can multiply freely (at least on longer term they can). As if diamond mines would be found every year! And no authority could keep farming at bay internationally (say, keep production down in BOTH Haway and China, for example).

Solution? Outlaw low quality pearls at the farm's door. So the controlled supply that sets the standard for gem grade pearls keeps getting higher as output threatens to go up. This type of rule was definitely been instated for Tahitian black pearls.

At least to me these littels stories sound very interesting, as you can see.

 

[strmrdr]

I dunno how long did you cook it for??

 

[bigbadbuff]

I am assuming this is accurate: according to GOG's site, less than 1% of the diamonds brought out of the mines are D-E color. That's all I know on this...