lab enhanced diamonds

[flagenta]

Obviously lab enhanced diamonds are more expensive than natural ones. I read somewhere to NOT buy anything other than completely natural, but they didn''t give any reason for this. I plan on getting a 2.0 carat diamond, as colorless as I can afford. Should I consider lab enhanced diamonds for the sake of saving money?

 

[strmrdr]

You have that backwards here "Obviously lab enhanced diamonds are more expensive than natural ones" they are less expensive.

I wouldnt even consider clarity enhanced diamonds because the treatment isnt permenant and does nothing about the weakened condition of an allready brittle material.

 

[SeaOats]

Strm, I think that part of the original post was just a typo. At the end of the post, the poster acknowledges that lab enhanced diamonds save money.

But I agree with Strm, I wouldn''t purchase one just to gain size, clarity, or color. Not for long term wear at least!

 

[denverappraiser]

Treated stones are generally less expensive than similar looking untreated stones. This is why people buy them.

There are a couple of treatments that fall into the general category of lab enhancement. The color treatment is called ‘High Pressure – High Temperature’ treatment (HPHT). It’s a clever process that works on a very small percentage of diamonds and can show a considerable change in the color. All of the HPHT stones that I have seen are being sold through high quality dealers and branded cutting houses that otherwise sell for a premium. This makes it a little difficult to decide how much of a discount you are getting due to the treatment. If you are shopping in a store that sells these, compare them to similar untreated stones at the same store and you should be able to get a feel for the relative pricing. You can then compare their natural untreated stones with similar stones being offered elsewhere to get a feel for how that dealer sets their prices in general. A little bit of math will tell you how much the treatment saves. Be careful about using dealer supplied ‘appraisals’ as a basis for comparison, especially if different companies prepared the documents. These are not standardized and can lead to enormous misunderstandings.

Much of the criticism of these stones is based on an unknown affect on their resale value and because of fears of unscrupulous dealers who may be selling them as untreated natural goods. The resale prices are unknown because they are still relatively unusual in the secondary market but it’s almost certain to be bad. Since the resale opportunities for diamond consumers are pretty grim anyway, it’s a legitimate to be worried about making this issue worse. If you intend to resell, I would not recommend buying an HPHT stone unless you are a professional dealer. The tradeoff is that they are also less expensive to start with.

HPHT stones are lovely and at least the ones that I have seen have also been well cut. The treatment is permanent and undetectable without some very exotic equipment.

Neil Beaty
GG(GIA) ISA NAJA
Independent Appraisals in Denver

 

[strmrdr]

Good point Neil.
Id forgotten about the HPHT treated ones and was only thinking of the clarity enhanced ones.