Same diamonds different prices?

[Joel21]

I was looking at these two diamonds the other day and I noticed that they had exactly the same specs but there was a couple grand difference in their price. Why is that?

 

[whitewave]

The vendors have access to the same diamonds, so yes, sometimes you will see the same diamond on more than one vendor website; check the GIA numbers. Either buy the cheaper one if it is a vendor you wanted to go with anyway, or ask the higher vendor if they price match if you wanted to go with that vendor.

 

[diamondseeker2006]

It's important to know things like return and upgrade policies. Usually prices are not that far apart unless it is a high priced stone. On rare occasions there are pricing errors, and they will correct that if someone orders.

 

[Joel21]

That's very helpful, thanks. I'll bet there are a lot more people out there who think that they have to go with whatever price that they see on a diamond that they want. I am so happy to learn that I may actually be able to get a dealer to reduce the price.

 

[kenny]

I was looking at these two diamonds the other day and I noticed that they had exactly the same specs but there was a couple grand difference in their price. Why is that?

There could be many explanations.
But first some questions.

Were both at the same vendor? If not some vendors offer better policies and better pricing than others.
Were they both graded by the same lab? If not labs vary on color and clarity grading. Shocking but true.


There may be important differences not revealed by the published specs:
1. The cut quality, one could be cut better than the other but the lab or report does not reveal this. For instance GIA does not even grade the cut of diamonds that are not round.
2. Even with the same clarity grade one may be more eye-clean than the other.

 

[Rockdiamond]

Joel- when you say the same specs… Was it the same GIA report number?
To Kenny's point: sometimes there will be stones who's specs seem identical, but there's very different value. They're also cases of two vendors offering the exact same diamond -and you can tell by checking the GIA report number

 

[Joel21]

I guess I may not have phrased it correctly, but they were at two different vendors, and I think I get why they were different prices now. I'm convinced it's the same diamond, only different prices from the vendors. Thanks for helping to clarify this for me.

 

[WinkHPD]

While the price difference you mentioned was rather large, normally that is not the case.

Some vendors here on Pricescope look at every single diamond before it is shipped to a client. Other's will have the diamond drop shipped to the client from the actual owner of the diamond. You can easily guess that the vendor who brings it in to look at it pays more in expenses to bring in the diamond, and for the equipment to properly observe the diamond before telling you what he/she thinks is going to charge a little more for that diamond.

Many find that well worth the slight extra cost, others want it as cheap as possible, and devil take the details. That works, unless they get a stinker and are not happy. Either way, be sure you have a good return policy from your chosen vendor.

Wink

 

[Rockdiamond]

Good point Wink!
To say nothing of the fact that we've seen a lot of cases where the site with the cheapest advertised price can't even obtain the diamond they are offering.
Unfortunately, the mere presence of a given diamond on a virtual site does not guarantee it's availability.

In many cases the sites that are a slightly higher priced is related to industry standings-
Just one example: There's a few sites that have both Virtual and real inventory. These sites are generally not the cheapest on the virtual side of things- but because they've actually invested money in inventory, the cutters favor them- so they are far more likely to actually come up with the diamonds on the virtual list.

 

[Joel21]

You're right, some people really would compromise on a lot just to get the cheapest possible price. I know I could never take that risk, so I would pay that little extra for peace of mind.