Upgrade Policies

[afs580]

I am trying to understand the various upgrade policies which i read about in many online sites. The most common is the offer to give a 100% credit on the original purchase if the buyer upgrades to a diamond that is 2 times the original purchase price. Can someone tell me how this works economically? I don't get it.

 

[seekingshiny]

So as in your example you cited, let's say you bought a diamond from XYZ Jeweler (made up, of course) for $5000. If their policy is that you would get a 100% credit on the original purchase if upgrading to a diamond that is 2 times the original purchase price, then how it would work is that you would get a 5000 "credit" - your original purchase price - applied to your new purchase from them as long as you bought a diamond that is > or = to 10000.

 

[Rockdiamond]

HI Joshua,
Welcome to PriceScope!
Trade members here need to identify themselves as such.
Your signature does- but you'll notice the "trade" icon under my name.

 

[flyingpig]

With some vendors, the new stone needs to be at least 2x the price of the original stone. If you bought a 5k stone, the new stone needs to be at least 10k. (Jame Allen, Blue Nile)
With some vendors, there is no such restriction. If you bought a 5k stone, the new stone can be 6k, 7k, or 8k, etc... (Whiteflash, Brian Gavin [with some restrictions])
Some vendors charge a 20% re-stocking fee.

You need to read all fine prints, since these policies are subject to change without any notice.
Some vendors may refuse to honor its own upgrade policy, because the market is against them.

 

[diamondseeker2006]

Off the top of my head, the best upgrade policies are from Whiteflash and Good Old Gold which allow you to upgrade for a stone (in-stock) that costs any amount more than the first with full credit paid for the first stone minus shipping costs. If you ever contemplate upgrading, absolutely go with one of the ones that has no restrictions. The others that might have the same policies are Victor Canera and High Performance Diamonds. If you are going round, Whiteflash usually has the largest selection and would be the easiest to upgrade with. I have upgraded my studs from them a few times and they always have a great selection of matched pairs.

 

[Lula]

Off the top of my head, the best upgrade policies are from Whiteflash and Good Old Gold which allow you to upgrade for a stone (in-stock) that costs any amount more than the first with full credit paid for the first stone minus shipping costs. If you ever contemplate upgrading, absolutely go with one of the ones that has no restrictions. The others that might have the same policies are Victor Canera and High Performance Diamonds. If you are going round, Whiteflash usually has the largest selection and would be the easiest to upgrade with. I have upgraded my studs from them a few times and they always have a great selection of matched pairs.

High Performance Diamonds does indeed have one of the best -- if not the best -- upgrade/trade up policies among the recommended PS vendors http://highperformancediamonds.com/company/trade-up-buyback/:

100% lifetime trade up (some vendors limit the amount of time the trade up is available, e.g., one year).

No requirement that you spend 10% more, 50% more, 100% more, etc. The HPD stone you are trading in simply needs to cost less than the HPD "trade up" stone.

HPD is one of the few vendors that offers a nonrestrictive trade-up policy. Most vendors place some restrictions on trade ups.

HPD also has one of the most generous buyback policies among the recommended PS vendors: 80% lifetime buyback (some vendors limit the amount of time buy back is available, e.g., one year; many vendors have trade up policies, but no buyback policies). 80% may not sound like a lot, but when you look at the prices buyers are willing to pay for diamonds on the secondary market, you'll quickly discover that 80% is not too shabby. Especially if you taking advantage of the buyback policy during a time when diamond prices have fallen, as they have in 2016.

Since 2009, I have used HPD's trade up policy three times and the buyback policy once (major lifestyle change). I recently purchased five CBI diamonds from HPD (for a future 5-stone ring, just have to decide on a setting )

In my view, diamond consumers don't give trade up and buyback policies the attention they should. Excellent buyback and trade up policies benefit the consumer for sure (none of us knows what the future holds) but they also say a lot about the vendor's confidence in the goods he/she sells. Personally, I'd rather buy from vendors who stand behind their merchandise, not just for a year or two, but for a lifetime.

 

[retrogamer]

Lula- That is a very generous buy-back policy and I was unaware they even offered such a thing as lifetime buy-back! Good to know.

 

[pyramid]

I think upgrade policies are good to get up to say 1 carat or so. However, we are told we do not know what goes into pricing, e.g. in the rapaport description on pricescope and on other posts. A lot of the cost of a diamond is in what the vendor bought it for and what their operational costs are. I know for some to just get a bigger stone is what they want but I feel there are lots of other things we don't know about e.g. twinned diamond rough, rough with internal graining etc . The things I have read the big houses do not choose diamond rough with. (Must add here though that a diamond vendor on this board once said that was because these houses would not know how to cut it due to graining etc. So maybe I am wrong in this. I mean I am not a diamond expert so how would I know). Another thing is I would not want to buy a new diamond (well what I thought is new as far as I knew), have it say 10 years and trade up to another a few sizes bigger which the vendor really bought in cheap of a dealer somewhere because there were inherent flaws or things a buyer would not know about. Maybe if trading up within a year or two but I just wonder if over a span of years, is the diamond you already hold not a different animal than what is being sold or in your price range today, although I know that changes too.

Say I have a G color and buy another G, but mine was very nearly an F color and this other diamond I trade for is nearly an H color or even an I color as color grade strictness and clarty grade too seem to deplete over the years due to lab and lab staff. What if my new stone is a lesser stone and not only that but the vendor originally bought it at an estate sale for 30% of the price of the one I traded in. I just wonder if the upgrade is a way for vendors to make a lot of money, I mean we buyers never know and never will know all the marketing intracacies of diamond dealing. Lots of stones we buy are previously owned, bought cheap and recut and sold at top prices with ideal or excellent reports.

Now if there is anyone here unbiased who has been a diamond vendor years ago and no longer has anything to do with the diamond or jewelry industry who can tell us it is a good deal then I may belief them but I think I would need to know them in my real life to have proof that is what they were.

A bit like the way someone has said on this board that he would not buy a diamond unless knowing the price first, this was talking about these cutting from rough stones. He said he would not commission a diamond as how does he know the vendors are not pricing on what they know about a person or from their looks and putting a higher price on it. I feel I cannot trade in a diamond, no matter what size I am getting as over the years, I do not really know the true value of what I am trading in and the true value of what I am buying. I may think 'oh this new one is bigger' but not being a REAL diamond expert, how do I know it is not just bigger to the eye and on paper but the quality of the rough is far less or the diamond belonged to a family for 85 years and they only got 30% of what I am trading in say my $40,000 diamond for with a trade up policy plus I have paid another $25,000 for. An expert looks at the new stone, and for example has seen my last one before and says this stone is only worth half what your old one was.

Maybe a reason independent appraisers are needed when buying and not just blind faith in vendors on here we have dealt with or read about over the years. I don't see many of the regulars here or even newbies who are buying talking about having their diamonds appraised. Most are just praising the vendors they have dealt with and especially the ones they have just dealt with within a short span of time. The appraisers need to get more praise I think, they are the unbiased ones after all.

No. I think I would rather keep what I buy from new over the years and not just jump for size or lower color when I don't know enough about the diamond industry in the way a professional does.

How do you know your stone has not increased over the years more than others, I mean the price table we see each month on here is for an average of colors and clarities shown on the pricescope database only, none of us buy an average diamond (a D to K color with average clarity of FL to SI2, our diamond has one color and one clarity grade), so although we see the price decreases on this chart is our stone doing the same, how do we know? I have always wondered this.

I know they say diamonds are not a commodity, so why are we treating them like that.

I know I am a cynic

 

[egemnoel]

100% agree with Lula.

Not only the best upgrade policy but service that goes along with it and one of the most important factors is PEACE of MIND.

It also show shows you the confidence they have in their product to be able to offer this upgrade policy.

 

[pyramid]

I really wonder how many people get an independent appraiser to compare the diamond they are upgrading with the one they are ugrading to. Have many here done this? The appraisers are the experts where money value comes into play I suppose, the deal you have got is it good for what you are getting, ignoring what the diamond vendor has made off of you and the stone he is selling to you now.

I find it wrong when newbies come here with titles 'Want to ask the experts' and they mean the prosumers who are answering about the stones they're wanting to buy. They prosumers are not experts but 'experts', none of them are qualified in gemology or appraising. I know I used that title when I first came here too. There are no experts replying to you just people the same as you but with some experience of reading a forum. Independent Appraisers and Diamond Vendors who previously did some GIA training are the real experts and they are not allowed to discuss stones in detail with you as they cannot talk about another vendors products. An independent appraiser or diamond vendor can work with you on a one to one basis though and it will cost you. You get nothing for nothing they say and only get WHAT YOU PAY FOR.

I think this only get what you pay for stands steady in diamond upgrades too. What you pay to upgrade your diamond and what you paid for your diamond originally is what you get. Upgrade policies are just a thing, a marketing thing.

Psychology is also another thing and buyers are brainwashed!

 

[pyramid]

Lifetime upgrades are good for the lifetime of the company. What happens in ten or fifteen years when the company no longer exists?

Companies have to find ways of fighting for their share of the market.

I don't know about the USA but in the UK diamonds are not big business like over there and they seem to be decreasing a lot. Young people seem to go for oxidized titanium and engagements are rarer amongst the twenty and early thirty year olds. Lots just get married now.