margins of jewelers on the high end jewels

[koester_2010]

Hello,

I have a question, mentioned the margin of high end jewelers. I have heard, that a high end jeweler do not have such a high margin, because he buys the stones expensive on wholesale basis.

If a jeweler, for example buy a stone for 2 Million US Dollar on wholesale basis, what is the average selling price ?
Or better said, the factor of high end jewelers ?

Thank you

Mathias
F.G.G. Gemmologist

 

[strmrdr]

These days a 2 million dollar diamond would most likely be sold at auction and the selling price could be all over the place depending on who bids and how many are competing.

 

[denverappraiser]

‘Wholesale’ is not a very meaningful term in the diamond business, especially at the high end. Few jewelers stock that sort of thing and few customers who are interested in one will buy it from what you would call a traditional jewelry store. Almost always this is done as a brokerage type arrangement between two private owners. Brokers are going to charge anywhere from a few percent for a service that amounts to an escrow operation up to , say, 10% or more for folks that actually find the buyer and put together the deal. It varies quite a bit depending on the relationship they have with the client (either or both of them) and the extent of the services they’re prepared to offer. Selling this kind of goods is not so easy. In the case of auctions, the fee is usually split between a sellers commission and a ‘buyers premium’ that’s added to the sale price after the hammer along with an assortment of fees for things like photography, cataloging etc.

Neil Beaty
GG(GIA) ICGA(AGS) NAJA
Professional Appraisals in Denver