Puzzled about prices on a EF 2.2-2.5 ct with HCA < 1.2

[Pianissimo]

Greetings to all, kudos to pricescope! please help me understand the price tendencies... our story: we started in 2008 with a pricescope-recommended stunning Tolkowski cut beauty, and the most recent purchase was in 2018... another lovely HCA 0.9 find, a 2.28 ct F VS1 for 26k. Today, I see similar 2.2 ct F for 38k, and another 2.40 ct for 53k. This is hard to comprehend. What happened? Five years ago 2.28 ct is half the price of today's 2.4 ct? I know it may be hard to compare without further details, but there seem to be a step-increase at about 2.3 ct today.. please advise, Thanks much!

 

[MissGotRocks]

The pandemic happened and then came the war in Ukraine. Diamond mining and cutting was severely limited during pandemic. There are sanctions against Russia for diamond export so that supply line was cut off and others deeply affected. Short supply means higher pricing!