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Where have all the cape diamonds gone?

E

ededdeddy

Rough_Rock
Joined
Jun 7, 2010
Messages
82
I used to be able to find M-Z diamonds pretty easily on search engines but they seem to have disappeared. Any ideas on where to find this color range?
 
From my perspective, this is part of the massive changes taking place in the Natural Diamond industry.
It would seem that if a company is going to cut natural diamonds, they're going to want top of the line product- as compared to years past when lower end goods were in demand.
Nowadays, lab diamonds have pretty much upended the low end market for diamonds.
That's going to put a big hit on Cape Diamonds it would seem......
 
Absolutely so. The warm diamonds are lovely.
 
I like diamonds with a bit of warmth and actually stay away from colorless. I have an E and a G, but most of my stones are old cuts and they go from H to O/P. It seems to me that for people who aren't looking for lab stones, a bit of color helps to differentiate. I know nothing about lab stones, so I'm assuming there aren't many that are "warm".
 
Lookinagain said:
I like diamonds with a bit of warmth and actually stay away from colorless. I have an E and a G, but most of my stones are old cuts and they go from H to O/P. It seems to me that for people who aren't looking for lab stones, a bit of color helps to differentiate. I know nothing about lab stones, so I'm assuming there aren't many that are "warm".
Click to expand...

I’ve seen some tinted diamonds recently but it does seem to be pretty niche.
 
Rockdiamond said:
From my perspective, this is part of the massive changes taking place in the Natural Diamond industry.
It would seem that if a company is going to cut natural diamonds, they're going to want top of the line product- as compared to years past when lower end goods were in demand.
Nowadays, lab diamonds have pretty much upended the low end market for diamonds.
That's going to put a big hit on Cape Diamonds it would seem......
Click to expand...

Not so much in the antique diamond market niche. One carat range does seem more impacted.
 
I think lab diamonds have pushed the customers' expectations that "good" diamonds are colorless. They certainly made colorless diamonds affordable for many. But the Cape colors were always a tough sell in modern round hearts & arrows cut. Years ago, like back in what? 2006-2007, maybe, Jon tried to sell a few superideal cuts in the O/P colors on Good Old Gold and they flopped. A fantastic O or P H&A ound up getting recut into a smaller August Vintage OEC. Pricescope community was insistant that Cape colors look great in antique cuts, but we should run screaming from them in modern H&A. Then Wink tried some Cape H&A stones in the Crafted By Infinity line, and he even shared photos of his CBI P color H&A in his personal ring. Still, Cape colors couldn't get better than a "meh" from the regulars here at the time. I have an M that was recut into H&A by Brian Gavin. I bought it at a pawn shop back in 2004 or early 2005, and it was a good performer but wonky symmetry. So I had it recut. It's around 1.12ct now, iirc. I never got a lab report on it. The head is a Stuller Octet, and Brian Gavin's bench shaved the prongs into those lovely claws. This stone looks mighty white in these photos, except from the side, but it's a chameleon that can look a very lovely buttery pale yellow in LED lighting in stores and offices.
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Lucky for those of us who might like one. :) Natural diamond lovers who can tolerate low clarity in addition to low color must be having a field day right now.

Etsy is a good source.

Hopefully more online vendors will start listing them, and low clarity, too.
 
lulu_ma said:
Not so much in the antique diamond market niche. One carat range does seem more impacted.
Click to expand...

as someone who doesn't scour the second hand market- wow, this is great news.
My point was that "new" cape diamonds coming to market were more rare.....
Also the hit in terms of prices being lower this year than last....

For those who do watch, would you say the prices on the re-sale market on larger cape diamonds fallen, stayed pretty much stable, or risen?
 
@AdaBeta27 what a nice walk down memory lane! I remember those days well. I also prefer tinted old cuts over modern but there isn’t a good reason for that.
 
Rockdiamond said:
as someone who doesn't scour the second hand market- wow, this is great news.
My point was that "new" cape diamonds coming to market were more rare.....
Also the hit in terms of prices being lower this year than last....

For those who do watch, would you say the prices on the re-sale market on larger cape diamonds fallen, stayed pretty much stable, or risen?
Click to expand...

Fallen slightly. I think a stone like this would have been listed for $89k last year.

 
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