4 replies to this topic

[bmwdriver82]

Hi All, I am new on here and I am actually a diamond dealer and wanted to get some inputs from other dealers on what to do.

last week I purchased this diamond from a customer of mine and it had an old 1999 GIA Cert, so I immediately looked it over carefully and thought it would at least get a better clarity grade. It was : H SI1 with the old report 1999.

I put the stone in GIA and got H VS2 so I was somewhat happy about that but received a Fair cut grade and thought, NO this is a disaster ! I never thought for a second it would get a Fair cut grade. If you look at the stone you would never guess it has a Fair cut grade.

So I took the stone to my cutter and he said we have 3 options here :

1. get it down to 1.50 for a : Good cut grade
2. get it down to 1.40 for a : Very Good Cut grade
3. get it down to 1.30 for a : Excellent cut grade (also have a chance to get VS1 if i cut this far down) because of the large feather that would be taken out.

or I can sell the diamond the way it is and basically make no profit at all because the offers I have received were -40% off Rap.

Any suggestions would be appreciated ..... I have attached some pics of the cert and of the actual diamond (again face up you can never tell its a Fair cut)


Thanks,
Shawn

Attached Thumbnails

• 
• 
• 
• 

Edited by bmwdriver82, 23 September 2011 - 09:54 AM.

[denverappraiser]

I feel your pain. This is one of the reasons people use EGL. You'll take a hit for the EGL branding but it'll probably be a hit from a higher grade so it may not be so bad. Personally, I probably wouldn't cut it because of the hit for landing under 1.50. A 'bargain' 1.50/GIA is not without it's fan base.

1.54/VS2/H - 40%
1.3x/VS2/H - 25% - cutting fees
1.54/VS1/G - 50%

I think these are all going to land at about the same place and choice 1 is already in hand with no additional risks. I would seriously consider just taking your lumps and moving on to the next deal muttering mean things about GIA on your way to the bank. If you could get to 'good' and be CERTAIN that you'll stay over 1.50 I might do it but you don't have a lot of room to work with. 1.49 would not be good news, as I'm sure you know and every time a cutter touches the wheel there's a risk that it won't come out the way you expected/hoped.

Have you played with the facetware to figure out exactly what is needed to go from fair to good?

[bmwdriver82]

Hi Neil thanks for your input.

Yes I did actually play with facetware and when i changed extremely thick to slightly thick, it changed to Good cut.

I am just worried if I do that, GIA will still leave the cut grade the same and all my cutting fees and re-certing fees go down the gutter.

I'm in such a bad situation on this stone and can not figure out what to do .....

you think I should get an EGL Cert on it and sell it that way ?

I think it will get G color for sure and might even get VS1

[denverappraiser]

Personally I would suggest you suck it up, sell it as is, and move on. It depends on how well you do with EGL's. You get a 27% 'bump' for the increase in color/clarity (assuming you get it) but you're likely to take a 25% hit for the EGL branding. That's not much progress in my book, you damage your own reputation by selling off graded stones, you tie up the money for a few MORE weeks, you incure a few fees for the lab, shipping and insurance and you don't actually KNOW that it'll come back with a better grade. That's quite a bit for a few hundred dollars in potential uptick.

That's just me. I tend to look at it like this: You made a bad buy but you still have the opportunity to duck out gracefully and quickly and get your money back. Take it. Bad buys can look a LOT worse, cost you a LOT more and take a lOT longer. You can't make a home run on all of them. This one's a sacrifice bunt.

[bmwdriver82]

Thanks Neil, I will take your advise and just move on to the next stone and sell this.

Have a Wonderful weekend !

denverappraiser, on 23 September 2011 - 10:22 AM, said:

Personally I would suggest you suck it up, sell it as is, and move on. It depends on how well you do with EGL's. You get a 27% 'bump' for the increase in color/clarity (assuming you get it) but you're likely to take a 25% hit for the EGL branding. That's not much progress in my book, you damage your own reputation by selling off graded stones, you tie up the money for a few MORE weeks, you incure a few fees for the lab, shipping and insurance and you don't actually KNOW that it'll come back with a better grade. That's quite a bit for a few hundred dollars in potential uptick.

That's just me. I tend to look at it like this: You made a bad buy but you still have the opportunity to duck out gracefully and quickly and get your money back. Take it. Bad buys can look a LOT worse, cost you a LOT more and take a lOT longer. You can't make a home run on all of them. This one's a sacrifice bunt.