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Selling diamond to local jeweler

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MommySalami

Rough_Rock
Joined
Dec 23, 2018
Messages
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I brought a 1 carat marquise cut diamond to a local jeweler who says she will give me half of wholesale value once she is able to evaluate it. I don’t have paperwork for it. It’s a good cut stone, eye clean, probably g-h color. Any ideas what I should expect? Does half of wholesale sound reasonable. Any tips?
 
Hi,
How much is a 1 carat diamond worth?
On James Allen (a well known diamond seller) a 1 carat diamond marquis diamond sells for between $2,000 and $13,000 depending on colour and clarity. That’s retail prices. I’m not sure what your jeweller might mean by wholesale, say 20% cheaper, so say she’ll give you 60% of James Allen prices - that’s a price between $1,200 and $7,800.
Big difference.
So how do you know if your diamond is a $1,200 one or a $7,800 one?
Only a diamond Lab report can clarify this because a diamond lab report states what colour it is, what clarity, what carat weight and details on the diamond including quality of cut and polish.
So, you should send your diamond to the GIA first and get a report. A report costs $105 US.
Then you can look on James Allen website (for example) and check what price a marquis diamond like your one sells for so you can be more confident that the price the jeweller offers you is a fair one.
 
Sending the stone to IGA for assessment is the first step! Worth every penny. Then compare your stone with comparables and know what the market holds for it. From there you can make selling choices, even eBay or loupetroup. Good luck!
 
Ack! Spellcheck! I hate spellcheck! Plus the number of times I’ve typed out “GIA” in the last six months, you would think my iDevice would have learned by now. Sorry, all.
 
For me, the IGA is International Guide Academy... anyone else out there?

Sorry for the threadjack. OP. :-)
 
50% of wholesale is a reasonable enough dealer offer but the bigger topic is going to be how they decide what ‘wholesale’ means and how they grade the stone.

Neither of these are trivial questions. The difference between an SI1/G and an I-1/H, for example, is more than a factor of 2. Over/under 1.00 makes a huge difference.


I’m not sure I agree with the above advice about automatically sending it to GIA first. The problem is this. An undamaged 0.98/I-1/G/marquise will retail for about $2000 for example. You can use the search engine on this site to see a variety of offers. 40% discount from that makes ‘wholesale’ $1200. Half of that comes to $600. GIA is going to cost you $78 and, assuming you don’t live in Carlsbad or NYC, and maybe even if you do, insured shipping will be about $40 each direction. $153 net. That’s 25% of your money!

One of the other big issues to keep in mind is that proper grading involves taking it out of the setting. They may or may not be willing to do this but it renders the ring unwearable. Putting it BACK can be a significant expense so don’t have it removed unless you’re fairly committed to proceeding with the sale (to them or maybe someone else). Usually, bids are free but you may benefit from consulting with an appraiser who isn’t trying to buy it from you. These are not the same things and expert advice can sometimes be very helpful in this sort of situation. It’s going to boil down to how much time, money and skill you’re willing to devote to this process.
 
Just wanted to share that I sold my princess cut diamond (that was GIA certified but I didn't have the paperwork for it) to a local jeweler. They paid $2100 for it, which is less than I would get for it otherwise (I had a dealer from NY offer me more) BUT it wasn't sitting straight in the setting, my concern was the last jeweler who tightened the prongs may have chipped a corner. So rather than unmount and possibly find a chip which would significantly affect the value, I sold it mounted and accepted a little less. They did offer $1800 initially but I kept on pointing out how excellent the quality was, then they knew I wasn't ignorant and that also helped get a higher price.
 
In some ways I disagree with Neil.
A GIA report opens more market places if your willing to do some work and depending on what you have.
If its a desirable color/clarity you could probably make up the price of the report by selling it on loupetroop or ebay.
 
Selling to an end consumer will almost always produce more money, but it brings in a bunch of other variables. Selling is a lot harder than buying and marquises are not the easiest things to move these days. More importantly, the original question was if the local jeweler made a reasonable offer. Within limits mentioned above, I think they did, and adding a GIA document probably wouldn’t raise the offer by enough to justify it on a 1-carat marquise. Are they making money on this deal? Of course, and it’s possible that a well-orchestrated DIY approach would net more but that takes time, skill, capital, and a bit of luck. That’s what dealers do and there’s a value-add in that a seller can just take their money and run. Not everyone has the temperament for this stuff. Is the jeweler likely to get a GIA on it themselves before moving it down the line? That’s going to vary depending on the grade, condition, and other details, but it’s certainly possible. That would be their problem. GIA is not the easiest company in the world to work with.
 
Maybe I missed something in the thread .... but the OP dies not know any grading for the diamond, right? so the jeweler could say anything.

In this case, I would suggest getting the diamond graded so that you know what you’re selling. Hopefully, it won’t be too much out of any profit.

I can’t imagine getting a fair price without knowing the grading by a reputable lab like GiA or AGS.
 
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