3 replies to this topic

[Sloanhaus]

Hello, I am looking at at 1.67 round cut diamond. It is an SI2 color is I and I am buying it from a wholesaler. The price is $7500. Is this a wholesale price or is this a jewelry store price. Thanks for your help.

Sloanhaus

[Feydakin]

By legal definition any thing sold to the end customer is sold at retail.. I personally have takenthe approach that anyone claiming to be selling at "wholesale" is just using it as an advertising gimmick..

That said, more needs to be known about the stone before an accurate price can be guessed at.. Cut quality, grading lab report?? Etc..

[thegemmarket]

I would agree that there are Alot of companies saying they are selling wholesale as a gimmak
Are you looking to purchase for yourself or for resale?

[denverappraiser]

Sloanhaus,

Go to the button at the top of the page titled ‘find online jeweler’ and do a search for the following:

Weight: 1.60-1.70
Color: I-J
Clarity: SI2-I1

That produces 9 pages of results. Click twice on the column header for ‘price’ and you’ll see that the price range is from $2287 - $9853. This is the difference between a single grade variation of clarity/color grading accuracy and unknown cutting (the cheapest is almost certainly bad) and claimed ideal cutting (which is almost certainly pretty good).

Is $7500 a good deal for a stone claimed to be a 1.67ct. SI2/I? Maybe, maybe not. You simply don’t have enough information to answer this. Who graded it and why do you believe them? It makes a factor of 3 difference whether they’re correct or not and it’s in the interest of your “wholesaler” to get you to believe something that’s overgraded. You already know they’re a liar because they are selling directly to a consumer while claiming to be a wholesaler (which means that they are either lying to you or to their wholesale customers, maybe both) so again I ask, why do you believe them?

Let’s assume the grading is correct. Repeat the test with 1.60-1.70 I SI2 and you’ll see a range of $3614 to $9853. Not much progress is it? Now ignore every one with no lab report or with a report from a lab other than GIA or AGS. Now the range is $6911-$9853. This difference now is about cutting, added dealer services and, even then, a bit of grading accuracy issues. Pick a few that seem promising, click through to look at the dealer’s site and read it in detail. It’s not about the stone (at the moment). You’re looking to be convinced that this dealer is someone who you want to be doing business with. Pick your dealer, then your stone, not the other way around. Ask yourself that same question: Why should you believe them? The default answer is don’t. The burden of proof is on them and the good dealers are really good at answering this question. The rules are the same if you’re shopping storefront jewelers and websites that advertise elsewhere. If they can’t convince you that they deserve your business, they don’t.

Neil