When will lightbox sell 3 ct + ?

[acaw2015]

I am sure I am not the only one thinking lightbox will sell larger ct sizes eventually... What do you think, how long will it take? Maybe some of our trade members with insights want to chime in too?

 

[FL_runner]

Good question. Seems like there is a market out there who would certainly buy them. But will it make sense financially for DeBeers to go to that size? I think that it would be hard to keep consistent pricing (the "$800/carat") at current costs. Maybe sometime in the future? Interested to hear from people who have more in depth knowledge of the industry.

 

[acaw2015]

@FL_runner we were discussing this at home, how far it would make sense financially to go for debeers... what size etc. I am sure there are a few people who would buy a 5 ct lab stone 800 usd/ct, but I wonder how much people in general are prepared to pay for a "fun" stone.

I do think however that a 3 ct would look nice in a pendant.

 

[distracts]

@FL_runner we were discussing this at home, how far it would make sense financially to go for debeers... what size etc. I am sure there are a few people who would buy a 5 ct lab stone 800 usd/ct, but I wonder how much people in general are prepared to pay for a "fun" stone.

I do think however that a 3 ct would look nice in a pendant.

I think most people aren't buying them as fun stones but as engagement rings etc - and for that market, MANY would be happy with 800/ct pricing.

I suspect it'll take 1-3 years though given how long it took them to roll out 2 cts.

 

[tkyasx78]

I think it will take 3 years or so. Can't wait though! I hope it is sooner than later!

 

[sparklyshrink]

I think most people aren't buying them as fun stones but as engagement rings etc - and for that market, MANY would be happy with 800/ct pricing.

I suspect it'll take 1-3 years though given how long it took them to roll out 2 cts.

Yup. Debeers can try and market them as “fashion” jewelry as much as they want, but plenty of people are having success using the stones for engagement rings and for fine jewelry. The truth is the vast majority of people probably can’t tell the difference between a very good and excellent cut when looking at an engagement ring. They’ll notice how big, white, not included, and shiny the stone is.

 

[acaw2015]

I agree with you all here, I would myself buy a LG as ER, no question. My thoughts were more regarding larger sizes. For an everyday ring like an ER I would hesitate to go any larger than 2 ct in a RB for practical reasons. Assuming the majority of people are like me, then the RB in larger sizes would be for other projects. That is what I really meant re "fun". This may, or may not, limit the market for very large RB lab diamonds. Adding to that the fact that the lab stones arent all that cheap if you add a number of carats...

If you think my reasoning is strange I should put it in context: in my area, people do not wear larger diamonds at all. The norm is 0.1-0.5 ct with 0.5 ct being considered huge no matter the income. I doubt people here would start buying larger sizes even if they were readily avaliable, simply because they do not buy larger mined stones today, even if they can afford to. Some may, dont get me wrong, I have bought larger stones myself, but I am an oddball...

Eta, I am not really discussing LGD vs mined here, although it is easy to fall into that.

 

[oncrutchesrightnow]

If Etsy, Reddit, and alibaba are any indication, we will see cheap 3 ct LGDs within a year, although maybe not from LB.

 

[_dracarys_]

I would 100% buy and wear a 3 ct LGD as my engagement ring and wear it daily. I'm not sure if/when Lightbox would get on board with stones larger than 2 ct., but lucky for me there are many other vendors who see the market for large LG stones.