WEBINAR In The Loupe with John Pollard - Lab Diamonds: Past, Present, & Future

[psadmin]

Lab-grown diamonds, once widely shunned, are steadily gaining industry acceptance. Join us as we cover recent statistics, discuss exciting developments in progress, and share our forecast of future challenges and opportunities for sellers and buyers of both lab-grown and natural diamonds and jewelry.

Click Here To Register!​

 

[DejaWiz]

Looking forward to another awesome Webinar!

 

[Karl_K]

kewl!

 

[AprilBaby]

Great!

 

[Hounddog]

Looking forward to this, saw my first Lab Grown Diamonds recently and very interested to hear what the knowledgable thinking is. Is 12pm CT the equivalent of 17.00hrs GMT? Thank you

 

[oldminer]

I'll be viewing this one. There ought to be many listeners and participants.

 

[John Pollard]

Looking forward to this, saw my first Lab Grown Diamonds recently and very interested to hear what the knowledgable thinking is. Is 12pm CT the equivalent of 17.00hrs GMT? Thank you

Confirmed... 12.00 pm Central (Chicago) is 13.00 New York / 17.00 GMT /18.00 London / 20.30 Mumbai / and 03.00 Friday in Melbourne

 

[John Pollard]

Reminder: If you have any questions on the topic - past, present or future - post them here and I'll try to cover them Thursday. No guarantees regarding the future, but I'll break out my finest crystal ball.

See you then.

 

[Karl_K]

What do you see as the future for as grown fancy colored lab diamonds?
There are still some no nuke hpht blues floating around but the majority of blues are nuked these days.
My favorite, the oranges are pretty much all gone.
Where do you see this going in the future?

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

When do you think prices for larger stones will dissociate from natural diamond prices John and be based on cost plus?
Where is the most investment money flowing? e.g China, India, Israel, USA, Europe and Eastern Europe/Asia?

 

[Double E]

Several venders claimed there’s proprietary growth process for their stones, that their stones are better, or have cleaner hues etc. then others suppliers’. Is there or will there be a golden or more transparent standard for lab stones’ qualities and attributes? And when should we expect that? Consumers are somehow like in the mist at the moment.

 

[DejaWiz]

Several venders claimed there’s proprietary growth process for their stones, that their stones are better, or have cleaner hues etc. then others suppliers’. Is there or will there be a golden or more transparent standard for lab stones’ qualities and attributes? And when should we expect that? Consumers are somehow like in the mist at the moment.

This is something that I yearn for: a quality grade for the LGD material!

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

I have wanted that for natural diamonds too and GIA's Yun Luo et al have a solution.

https://www.gia.edu/doc/summer-2021-gems-gemology-v2.pdf

 

[John Pollard]

Thank you for the comments and Qs above. Noted.

Any further Qs can be sent using the Q&A tool during the webinar.
See you in 30 minutes.

 

[DejaWiz]

That was an outstanding Webinar - lots of fantastic info!
Thank you very much, John Pollard and crew!
I'm willing to bet a $10 Savings Bond that GE regretted their lack of praise to Tracy Hall which led to his departure from the company!

 

[celledge]

@John Pollard - Any chance you can post a link to the recorded webinar ?! I had to drop off for work issue

 

[Karl_K]

re: as grown color.
Good point that the colors just being available at a reasonable price is a great thing.
That is true.
However the argument can be made that the as grown colors are more comparable to untreated mined none mmd diamonds in many cases.

 

[Ibrakeforpossums]

Outstanding webinar! Thank you, John. Concise and fascinating.

 

[Double E]

Thank You~!

 

[John Pollard]

@John Pollard - Any chance you can post a link to the recorded webinar ?! I had to drop off for work issue

Yes. The PriceScope team will update this thread with a link once it's posted to the YouTube channel. Thank you for attending while you could.

 

[John Pollard]

That was an outstanding Webinar - lots of fantastic info!
Thank you very much, John Pollard and crew!
I'm willing to bet a $10 Savings Bond that GE regretted their lack of praise to Tracy Hall which led to his departure from the company!

I'm not taking that bet.

Outstanding webinar! Thank you, John. Concise and fascinating.

Thank you for making the time to be there.

Thank You~!

You're welcome. There were a lot of great questions at the end of the session.

 

[John Pollard]

re: as grown color.
Good point that the colors just being available at a reasonable price is a great thing.
That is true.
However the argument can be made that the as grown colors are more comparable to untreated mined none mmd diamonds in many cases.

That's a fair comparison @Karl_K.

I have a helicopter view on this topic, but I don't know whether anyone would want to be my co-pilot.

For natural gemstones the concept of treatment is generally a stigma, which makes sense. Nature made it. Adding an extra manmade step to alter its appearance from what nature produced is seen by many as cheating.

HPHT is truly a synthesis of what nature does. It’s basically saying, ‘Hey nature, you showed us the way. We are going to do it the way you showed us.’ So I understand the concept of extra manmade steps after it's finished cooking could be seen similarly, even though it's already a manmade thing.

CVD is something completely different. It doesn’t complement nature. With CVD we found a way around nature by essentially using energy to cause diamond to bond, atom by atom, without using pressure. There's an argument that if HPHT replicates natural growth, then you anneal it afterward, that’s a treatment. But if you start with CVD, however you establish its finished color is just another step you came up with outside of nature.

 

[Karl_K]

That's a fair comparison @Karl_K.

I have a helicopter view on this topic, but I don't know whether anyone would want to be my co-pilot.

For natural gemstones the concept of treatment is generally a stigma, which makes sense. Nature made it. Adding an extra manmade step to alter its appearance from what nature produced is seen by many as cheating.

HPHT is truly a synthesis of what nature does. It’s basically saying, ‘Hey nature, you showed us the way. We are going to do it the way you showed us.’ So I understand the concept of extra manmade steps after it's finished cooking could be seen similarly, even though it's already a manmade thing.

CVD is something completely different. It doesn’t complement nature. With CVD we found a way around nature by essentially using energy to cause diamond to bond, atom by atom, without using pressure. There's an argument that if HPHT replicates natural growth, then you anneal it afterward, that’s a treatment. But if you start with CVD, however you establish its finished color is just another step you came up with outside of nature.

Yes, they are both a manufactured product and within reason anything they do is just another step in the manufacturing process.
I don't really have a problem with color the result of treatment as much as I dont want to see the as grown color replaced entirely by treatments.
It may even work out that as grown color draws a premium over treated. I think I would pay a premium for as grown blue and oranges over treated stones.
Some colors are always going to be the result of treatments.

 

[nojs]

I found it on YouTube by name. Excellent info, thank you!

 

[John Pollard]

Wow @nojs you are swift. I see it was put up this morning - nice catch.

Now available on demand.

Webinar: Lab-Grown Diamonds - Past, Present & Future

 

[nojs]

Wow @nojs you are swift. I see it was put up this morning - nice catch.

Now available on demand.

Webinar: Lab-Grown Diamonds - Past, Present & Future

I didn’t notice that you would have addressed the issue of lab diamond prices in future. Could you elaborate that?

 

[MightyDucks]

Fantastic webinar! This was my first time watching one from here. My only thought is everyone seems to say natural mined diamonds hold better resell value than lab diamonds. I have a different perspective. Vendor offers both ideal cut natural diamonds and ideal cut lab diamonds. Vendor also offers one year buyback of certified natural mined diamond within one year at 70% buyback. Natural mined diamond is a 2.5 ct F VS1 AGS Ideal at roughly $60k or so. Lab diamond is a 2.5 ct F VS1 GCAL 8X (similar cut parameters as AGS Ideal) at $5800 which equates to roughly 10% the purchase price of the natural mined diamond. Lets say I decide to sell either diamond within the year. Natural mined diamond: $60k-70%=$42k at a $18k loss. Even if i get lucky and get 80% its still a $12k loss. If i get zero dollars for the lab diamond second hand I still come out financially ahead with a $5800 loss versus a $18k or $12k loss. You could also take some of the $54k difference you would of spent on a natural mined diamond versus a lab diamond and invest it for long-term value return. Just another perspective I wanted to share.

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

John what a wonderful wrap up of human made diamonds, their history and quirks!
Well done my friend!

 

[John Pollard]

I didn’t notice that you would have addressed the issue of lab diamond prices in future. Could you elaborate that?

It's speculative. Moore's law would indicate the cost basis will continue to go down. That doesn't necessarily mean all product prices will go down, however. The difference will be differentiation, meaning propositions which add value. People are willing to pay more for an organic tomato appetizer, sustainably produced at a ritzy restaurant with a celebrity chef than they would be willing to pay for the same tomato at a grocery store.

John what a wonderful wrap up of human made diamonds, their history and quirks!
Well done my friend!

High praise indeed. Tip of the hat and thank you, sir!