Rappaport Prices

[jeff0514]

I have a question concerning rappaport prices. Should I expect to pay a little bit over rappaport for an ideal cut diamond?

 

[oldminer]

Go on the www.Pricescope.com search and find out exactly what you need to pay, in real dollars, for just about any diamond. Rapaport prices have no, zero, importance in the process of a consumer obtaining the best stone for the best price. If you have access to Rapaport you could confirm where the prices on actual diamonds lines up with the Rap sheet price. I'd say it is a waste of time. It may create more confusion than any benefit.

 

[Dancing Fire]

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On 5/10/2004 12:08:54 PM jeff0514 wrote:

I have a question concerning rappaport prices. Should I expect to pay a little bit over rappaport for an ideal cut diamond?----------------

Seems like most vendor try to avoid talking about rap price. In fact, there's couple of vendor that i ask about what rap price is. They say they don't know or I don't care what rap is (you can bet anything they know what rap is when they were buying the stones).Right there, it tells you that this vendor is probably over rap. Sure doesn't hurt to know what rap is. You can use it as a guideline. I would sleep alot better if I paid 10% back of rap than paying 10% over rap for an ideal cut. Isn't rap a New York cash asking price? Aren't we paying cash to buy diamonds? Is rap full retail price?

 

[valeria101]

I think you should expect some premium. However, the respective benchmark would be the least of my worries...

Here are some local stats:

1 carat, H-VS2 rounds get listed from $3400 to $5000
Those singled for the cut go from $5600 to $6000.

and so on... (this kind of exercise is already done in better detail in the "price sheets" here).

Obviously there is a premium on cut. You could well assume that the respective Rap. falls somewhere in the range, while the H&As would always be quoted somewhat more. What difference does it make if the line is drawn beyond the whole range or in the middle or below? You would always have to fight with whatever prices are presented to you regardless... and of course PS is not the end of the world either.

 

[diamondsbylauren]

Since you're asking for "ideal cut" diamonds it's likely you will pay somewhere between 5% below to 5% above the Rappaport list if you buy aggresively ( online).
A well cut "non ideal" will likely be 10-15% below the Rappaport price in the 1.00 range-again with aggressive internet shopping.

Dave has a very good point though- one can not make general rules about the Rap sheet.
There are certain market conditions which can affect the prices.
Fancy Shapes are a different story all together.

 

[niceice]

Don't fall into the Rap Trap Jeff, it's confusing enough to figure out any sort of consistency with it on a dealer level, it's practically impossible for consumers to figure it out with any accuracy or consistency... Even as dealers we sometimes pay "over Rap" for a stone depending on it's characterisatics and (we hate to say) "rarity" in the current market. The best advice we can offer is to find a diamond that you like and then try to compare it to some comparable diamonds here on PS, but we can tell you that this won't even work unless you are comparing the "exact" same diamond to the "exact" same diamond because minor variances in the location, type, and extent of the inclusions can result in pretty significant differences in price... For instance, we paid about 3% more than one might expect for a VS-2 clarity stone the other day because it was a fabulous VS-2 that could very well have been graded a VS-1 on any other day, so we ended up paying a bit more for it than we might have paid for another diamond with the same clarity grade, but we feel like we paid a fair price considering the "characteristics" of the specific stone in this particular instance.