Certification

I'm considerably less adamant than David about this topic but I agree with his point.

It's not the grading report that makes a beautiful diamond beautiful but it does make them easier to sell. That's why dealers buy them. The selection of which lab to use is a strategic choice made by the dealers and there are a variety of reasons for choosing one over another, most of which are not in your best interest and most of which have nothing to do with the gemological properties of the stone.

#1. Some labs will give higher grades for the same stone than others. This is the biggie. If the dealer is selling the paper, and the customer is buying the paper, it�s important to understand what the paper means and how to compare it. Clarity, color and even weight are surprisingly flexible terms. There�s not even agreement about what constitutes a diamond. If you don�t know what the grader is describing, and you don�t have an outside reason to believe that their opinions are useful to you, ignore them entirely. Concentrate on the diamond, not the paper.

#2. Not all labs include the same information on all of their reports. Sometimes dealers will choose a lab because they want to include certain information on the report that they can point to as a selling feature. This is the big reason people choose to use AGS documents. AGS includes a cut grade on some of their reports and a grade of AGS-0 will sell at a premium because the stones are 'ideal'. The opposite is also true. The lab can be chosen because they want to avoid showing a particular piece of data or because they want things described in a certain way. For example, there are other labs that will call a stone ideal who are using that term very differently.

#3. Some labs are cheaper than others. GIA is one of the most expensive. For inexpensive stones, the lab fees can be a significant portion of the cost of the stone and this is a valid reason to use a less expensive lab or to avoid the lab entirely. Stones under 0.25cts rarely have lab reports for this reason and stones ranging from 0.25 to 0.75 will often have reports from other providers. As the stones get bigger and more expensive the reports and the credibility of the people who issue them becomes more and more important to the shopping process. The less expensive labs are usually faster too.

#4. Not all labs will grade all stones. GIA, and most other labs, will only grade natural diamonds where they have the opportunity to examine the stones unmounted. They also will not issue a report for stones that have been through certain treatments, especially �clarity enhancement�.

#5. Not all labs do business in every country. The location of the stone was when the lab exam was ordered may have had an effect on the decision, as does the location of the dealer trying to sell it and the market they are trying to sell into.

I�ve never heard of LGL. This doesn�t make them wrong any more than GIA is always right but an unknown brand lab is a red warning flag. The selling dealer is well aware of this and if they aren�t prepared to defend their choice of an unusual grader, that�s another red flag. If they described the stone as �certified� and point to this document as proof of the grading, that�s flag #3.

As David points out, knowing that some unknown grader called something a D/VS1 doesn�t really mean much. The fact that dealer described it that way when they sold it to you means considerably more and whether you can rely on their statement will depend on how much credibility you put in the dealer. There are plenty of dealers where their word is their bond and others where their word means nothing. The difference is important.

Certification

#1 Guest_tarabollingerjacob_*

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#3 diamondsbylauren

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#5 denverappraiser