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Lab Grown 3 Carat Diamond.

R

RMI

Rough_Rock
Joined
Sep 7, 2018
Messages
10
Hello,
My wife and I were looking at a 3 Carat Round cut, SI1, I Color Diamond at Robbin Brothers for $17,500.
I looks very nice compared to many others that we've seen. But, it's a lab-grown diamond.

I don't know anything about the value of lab diamonds. Is this a good value?

Thanks,
Robert.
 
It could be, but you would need to provide a lot more information and images/video of it for anyone to provide you with a useful answer.
 
Lightbox is a company set up by De Beers that is now selling <1ct Man Man Diamonds / Lab Grown Diamonds for $800/carat.

They don't plan to go over 1ct in size, as I understand it, but the effect on the wider market is yet to play out.

I think I would (personally speaking) be inclined to hang fire on buying any MMD for a substantial amount of money at this moment in time. It maybe that MMDs drop in value considerably - we just don't know - and long-term secondhand values of MMDs seem either very low or completely unknown, so it is a potentially 'dangerous' purchase (in financial terms) at this moment in time, I'm afraid.
 
My apologies. My wife saw this particular diamond. From other 3-Carat mined diamonds that I've seen, were priced from $15K to $20K for SI1, IColor. I realize I'm missing more vital information, like cut dimensions, but I don't know about lab grown diamond value.
Do lab grown diamonds retain have much resale value? What would an equivalent mined diamond cost?
 
RMI said:
My apologies. My wife saw this particular diamond. From other 3-Carat mined diamonds that I've seen, were priced from $15K to $20K for SI1, IColor. I realize I'm missing more vital information, like cut dimensions, but I don't know about lab grown diamond value.
Do lab grown diamonds retain have much resale value? What would an equivalent mined diamond cost?
Click to expand...

Lab grown diamonds don't have resale value. No diamond vendor or jeweler will buy them. The only chance for you to sell is to an independent buyer...who will probably also realize there is no resale value. You can use the search function above to price comparable mined diamonds (assuming well cut it would be around $30,000).
 
skypie said:
Lab grown diamonds don't have resale value. No diamond vendor or jeweler will buy them. The only chance for you to sell is to an independent buyer...who will probably also realize there is no resale value.
Click to expand...
... at this moment in time... :P


Who knows what might happen! lol
 
Where would a lab diamond owner go to sell or upgrade the stone? Anything reputable online?
 
I don't know of any reputable hub for reselling lab diamonds. If your goal is resale value you'd be better served with a natural mined diamond.
 
Wait, I saw on in IG. Let me find it.

Edited, never mind, it was a nearly 2carat new European cut from parksfinegroup
 
Robbin Brothers wouldn't let my wife forward the IGI cert to me for the 3 Carat Round, SI1, I diamond. They said it against their policy. I just wanted to check prices for similar lab-grown 3 Carat diamonds. They are asking $17,500. The diamond looks nice, but I'm now concerned about paying so much for MMD diamond that has no value for future upgrades or resale.
 
My (almost) 3 carat superideal I colored VS2 WF ACA was about twice that, so the value is definitely there. The proportions matter though, so you'll need to find out the table/depth/pavillion/crown #s to know whether it's worth persuing at all. It won't really be worth much to resell, so be very sure this is what you want forever
 
RMI said:
Robbin Brothers wouldn't let my wife forward the IGI cert to me for the 3 Carat Round, SI1, I diamond. They said it against their policy. I just wanted to check prices for similar lab-grown 3 Carat diamonds. They are asking $17,500. The diamond looks nice, but I'm now concerned about paying so much for MMD diamond that has no value for future upgrades or resale.
Click to expand...

That is pretty shady, IMO. Did they let her look at the certificate?
 
Don't even consider buying a diamond without the certificate. Tell that to Robbins Brothers, then walk away.

Diamonds in general have very little resale value. A $17,500 IGI certed diamond from Robbins Brothers would resell for $1,750 if you had to unload it to a pawn broker. Realistically you'd get three times that, but you might get a little more because of the size.

From what I can tell the resale price of lab stones is actually pretty similar--10%. It's hard to compare because there are no lab Whiteflash H&A ACA or anything like that. A stone like that might sell at 70% or even greater than 100% of retail depending on swings in diamond prices.

The difference is as skypie says, you cannot unload them to a jeweler or pawn shop. You are forced to use less than fun means like E-bay and online forums. But you'll get more money from those anyhow.

I agree with HappyNewLife, Brilliant Earth is the best option. Not awesome, but acceptable. This one seems pretty comparable. It's under $12,000 and it's well cut.

https://www.brilliantearth.com/lab-diamonds-search/view_detail/6330001/

This one is more fire, less bright white.

https://www.brilliantearth.com/lab-diamonds-search/view_detail/5741004/

I haven't figured out yet if Brilliant Earth will do Idealscopes, but I'd ask them for a couple. These assessments are based on the HCA, which does not consider minor facets and cannot guarantee good light performance.

As far as color, both of these should face up with a lot of sparkle and light, but the yellow tint will be visible from the side. This does apply to the Robbins stone though. Remember everything looks awesome under store lights.
 
I'm a believer in lab diamonds, but if you are thinking about upgrading in the future, then buying from a jeweler with a great upgrade/trade-in policy is crucial, and so far as I know those jewelers only sell mined diamonds. A good upgrade policy is sort of an "out" of needing to worry about resale (which frankly isn't good even for mined diamonds).

You've been seeing mined diamonds I/SI1 3ct for 15-20,000? That seems really low and I worry about what kind of cut quality you could be getting. I certainly wouldn't buy a lab diamond at the same price as a mined alternative.
 
I just noticed Dnea’s 100% lifetime trade up policy, but that said, their stock is limited. What they do have is favorably priced with 3+ carats in the 12k range.

http://d.neadiamonds.com/trade-up-buy-back-diamonds

I like that they also sell fancy colors. I find it interesting that there are so few places that offer fancy color lab diamonds now considering that’s all there was when lab diamonds first came into the market. That, and the price differential between a fancy color lab diamond and a mined one is way more than that of white diamonds. I’m now terrified of losing my yellow stone since I’ve not seen any other diamonds with the similar specs, lab or mined.
 
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Thanks everyone for your advice. It been very helpful.

My wife and I found a 3 Carat, SI1, IColor, Ideal Cut, Lab diamond that looks Beautiful. I was hoping to get your opinion on it before we buy it for $18,500. I saw a few similar on Brilliant Earth, and neadiamonds. This is a local jeweler, so can have the same day.

I.G.I CERTIFICATE # LG10741106 LABORATORY GROWN DIAMOND
Weight : 3.03 CARATS
Measurements 9.22 - 9.25 x 5.75 MM.
Total Depth Percentage 62.2 %
Table Diameter Percentage 58 %
Crown Height - Angle 15.0 % - 35.5 º
Pavilion Depth - Angle 43.5 % - 41.0 º
Culet Size NONE
Girdle Thickness MEDIUM, FACETED
Polish EXCELLENT
Symmetry EXCELLENT
PROPORTION/CUT GRADE IDEAL
CLARITY GRADE : SI 1
COLOR GRADE : I
FLUORESCENCE NONE
 
This is what we call a 'steep-deep' diamond. It won't have optimal light performance. 35.5 crown does not pair well with a 41 pavilion. I would pass.
 
Skypie, Thanks. What would be a decent crown, pavilion to look for?
 
I finally received the perfect 3 carat 20181010_085944.jpg diamond, just in time for our 15th anniversary. My wife loves it!

I want to thank everyone here for their great advice.
 
That is quite a ring! Lots of bling.
 
Thank you. We kept our previous setting. It's has 4 carats total weight. My wife is super happy with it.
 
Congratulations!

That is a whole lotta bling :))
 
RMI said:
Do lab grown diamonds retain have much resale value? What would an equivalent mined diamond cost?
Click to expand...

Resale prospects is a slightly unusual way to define ‘value’, but this is one of the problem areas for diamonds. Most people who sell diamonds find themselves selling at half or even a quarter of the price the paid, especially when you consider mountings, taxes and the like. That’s a BIG hit and although they have been appreciating for the last century or so, it takes decades to overcome that. For that reason, I would never recommend going into a diamond deal as a financial instrument.

Lab diamonds are often accused of being worse.

To some extent that's true, but not really. The customary commercial buyers are pawn shops and second-hand jewelry stores. Mostly they won’t buy synthetics at all. That’s because they don’t sell them. They don’t buy shoes either. Frankly, I expect this to change and to some extent, it already has. It’s just a relatively new market and it hasn’t really settled out. I don’t recommend specific stores but I know dozens who will happily buy them, for the right price. There’s always eBay, craigslist, Loop Troop, Etsy, Facebook, and the other usual suspects where you can sell just about anything.

Shopping for an otherwise similar mined diamond is easy peasy although you don't have the specs. There's a giant database of diamonds for sale attached to this very site. Actually, shopping for similar lab stones gets easier every day although they don't advertise here. There are several large databases where they do. Just snoop around a bit. (Reading this forum is a good place to start).
 
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By the way, a 3-carat lab round SI1/I for $17.5k is not an easy find anywhere, much less in a mall store. In that sense, yes it's a good 'value' unless there's something massively wrong with that description.
 
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