selling diamond ... need help pricing

[yaheardbish]

I have a loose diamond that i want to sell and want to get the most out of it i can. I need some help with pricing. Its a princess cut 1.68 ct Medium Very good IF D EGL certified diamond. how much should i be looking to get for it? thanks!

 

[denverappraiser]

I’ll start by saying I’m not going to answer the question.

That said, the key issue in setting prices is deciding on your marketing strategy. There are a couple of choices ranging from ebay to consignment jewelers to pawn shops and more and it’s a bit much to write a thesis on the topic here but the folks here may be able to give some advice on the topic. The big variables on this are time pressure, your patience to work with dealers and your tolerance for marketing expenses.

The second question has to do with what you’ve got. EGL sells at a considerable discount from GIA. D/IF's are hard to sell anyway but it’s harder to sell EGL as well, even at a discount (E/VVS isn't all that easy to sell either by the way but it's important to understand the difference). On the other hand, the reason it has an EGL in the first place is probably because the original seller thought it wouldn’t get that grade at GIA. Any market analysis would require an understanding of what it really is. Is it best to keep it as an EGL or re-paper it as GIA? Would an 'update' at EGL help? It might.

Now a few questions for you:

Have you had it appraised by your own expert? Do they agree with the grading?
Where are you?
Which EGL lab and when was the inspection?
Is there time or financial pressure?
Are you interested and/or experienced at private sales of expensive items?
Did you buy it? If so, when? Have you spoken with the dealer who sold it to you?

 

[denverappraiser]

There's not a single EGL/D/IF/princess to use as a comp anywhere near your size in the database here but GIA/E/VVS's without any obvious cutting or other sorts of problems seem be asking about $18-22k retail here. If we assume that's what you have, and assume you have no condition problems, this is your competition. As a private seller you'll see half to maybe 3/4 of that depending on how you go about it and how lucky you get. To see what the range is if you go lower just do a search with the hunt utility at the top of the page and play with the parameters a bit.