When I am buying a diamond, I price it according to the carat weight, the color, and the clarity and if there is a certificate – what the certificate says. There are many times a seller comes into my office and they can make more from their diamond sale, but there is a trust factor that has to be involved. This is not only a true story, but also a set of strategies that you can use to make more money from your diamond sale.
Setting The Scene
A woman came into my office and she was recently divorced and wanted to sell her diamond. She didn’t have a certificate for the stone. I looked at it and so did my partners. Here was the issue; the color and the clarity could have gone either up one grade or down one grade, which makes a big difference on the price that she would get for her diamond sale.
Let me give you an example, a diamond could be either an F color with a VS1 clarity or an E color with a VVS2 clarity. Although we were fairly certain about the clarity, we were not about the color.
The Solution
I want my clients to get the most money possible from the sale of their diamonds. Add that to the fact that I’m an honest diamond buyer, and I can’t sleep at night if I don’t shoot straight. So, I explained to this woman that I could pay her a certain amount for the diamond and send it to the GIA lab. If it came back the grade higher in color, I would then pay her more, if not, she would keep the original amount.
She agreed. Most clients do not though and take their goods and walk out of my office.
However, let me show you why it is better to agree and allow me to send your diamond to the GIA for grading, and how it can benefit you with your diamond sale.
How a GIA Grading Helps Your Diamond Sale
The diamond was graded higher. She was cut another check and she was thrilled! Was it a guarantee that it would come back higher? Absolutely not. But, if it came back lower, she wasn’t going to have to give anything back. You see, if you don’t have a certificate and your diamond looks phenomenal, you will get more if you either send it to the GIA yourself or you allow me, or your diamond buyer, to send it to the GIA to grade it for you.
There are ways to set up a trust factor if you are worried about that. In this case, my client already had a check for the balance and a letter that we both signed stating what would happen after the grading report came back.
What My Customer Has To Say About All Of This
And if you don’t believe me, here is the email that she wrote to me and gave me permission to publish on my blog.
“Sergio was honest and more than fair in his purchase of my diamond. I had an engagement ring diamond to sell post-divorce. Of course, like most people in my position, I had no knowledge of diamonds and had no way of knowing whether I was dealing with an honest person. A jeweler (who I didn’t know well) gave me Sergio’s name as the only person they knew of that bought diamonds – but they had not personally dealt with him.
Although I thought I knew the color and clarity of the diamond, I did not have a GIA appraisal of it. The first thing I did was go to an individual who was an independent jewelry appraiser who gave me his opinion of the clarity and color and a range of what I might be offered for it. This made me face the fact that even the best possible offer wouldn’t be the same as what I would have to pay for it if I went to a store to buy it at retail today: I would be selling it to a buyer who would be re-selling it and any offer I got would have to be low enough to give the buyer some profit on the resale. The question was how much of a profit would that buyer be trying to get from my diamond.
I then took the diamond to both Sergio and another jeweler who buys diamonds to see what I would be offered. I guess my diamond was a tough case because everyone had a different opinion as to the clarity and color — it was border line between two grades in both respects.
The first buyer/jeweler offered me a flat, very low amount based on his view that it was the lesser of the two grades. Sergio, however, offered me this deal: an amount based on his view of the quality at the lower grade (but in any event almost double the offer of the first jeweler) and then an additional amount if, after the diamond was sent to the GIA for official grading, it came back graded at the better grade — 50% more, less the cost of the GIA evaluation.
I agreed and after some waiting the report came back from the GIA that it was of the higher grade in both respects. Sergio called to tell me the result and then paid the additional amount, all told almost 3 times the amount originally offered by the first jeweler.
I have always had the impression that the diamond business is a snake pit and that for those of us not in the industry we are merely lambs to the slaughter – how would I know, for example, if with some sleight of hand my diamond were switched out for a fake or whether the buyer’s pronouncement on the color and clarity is just posturing in order to justify a lowball offer?
I wouldn’t and neither would most anyone. For most people, selling a diamond is a once in a lifetime event so there’s no way you can really know whether you’re being treated fairly. All you can really do is try to find a buyer who has a reputation for being honest and hope that that reputation holds true in your case.
You may not like the offer you get but you want to at least have confidence that you aren’t being played for a fool. I am convinced that Sergio is not just honest but truly fair – he went out of his way to figure out how to justify offering the most he possibly could for my diamond and then made good on that offer. Thank you, Sergio!”
If you want fair, if you want the most money for your diamond sale…contact me by email at Sergio@jfjco.com or call me at (713) 977-9885.
