That is good. All that really matters is that YOU are happy with your purchase.

Wink

When we bought my diamond, we were young and had know idea what to look for. We went to Zales and bought a .67 princess solitaire for $1,650. Get ready...clarity I1!! I never paid much attention until recently and I am know seeing just how bad of a diamond it is. I went to get a quote from an online retailer who buys diamonds and the response was "We don't even consider diamonds S1 or lower". I feel so ripped off knowing I own a worthless diamond, I'm mad that Zales even carried such a crappy stone. But in the end, it was our fault for not educating ourselves before making such a purchase. I just received a loose canary moissy and boy have I been missing out on sparkle! I can't wait to mount it. I am over diamonds!

I had a platinum wedding set with 0.5 carats set in both the engagement ring and the wedding band and a 44 point D colored VVS2 center stone (I had the GIA report) - the most I could get when I sold it was $900 for the set - I paid $3800. I was told by a jeweler that you can only get AT MOST a quarter of what you paid. Also, many jewelers wouldn't even buy it. Ever since then, I've gone to sims.

Just wanted to add an important distinction to this discussion:

For white naturals, you really have two very different markets, namely:
Below 1ct white diamonds
Larger than 2ct white diamonds

When you read about millions of carats of diamonds per year being mined, 95%+ (maybe 99%+) of that refers to stones that will yield below 1ct size (typically .25ct - .5ct on average).

On the opposite extreme, each year there are only about 10, 100ct+ pieces of natural diamond found.

So you can see you have a very large difference in actual distribution and that is reflected in pricing over time.

It has become very hard for mines to produce stones that will yield the larger diamonds (i.e. 2ct+ finished) and thats why last year, 2ct+ sizes went up in price nearly 25%....because there is a true rarity.

For similar reason, DeBeers has also started rationing their stones in order to extend their supply (right now the South African mines are the ones that produce the largest stones).

Thus, larger stones, esp if well cut (H&A) and good color/clarity, do go up in value over time.

More common stones, ala .50ct and lower color/clarity, generally don't b/c there is always more coming out of the ground each year.

For similar reasons (true rarity), natural pink/blue/red diamonds have gone up consistently in price over time since the annual production of those colors can fit in the palm of your hand.

Anyway, just wanted to point out that there are really two seperate 'diamond' markets and their behaviour is based on the ability of diamond mines to offer up similar stones....but the easy summary is that < 1ct diamonds are not rare, > 2ct diamonds of higher quality are relatively rare.

And btw - one likely reason for this from our experience with lab grown diamonds - diamond likes to 'spawn off' new crystals of itself as it grows, meaning that as it expands, instead of staying as one crystal, there are carbon atoms eager to start their own crystal (you can sometimes even find these newly starting diamonds inside natural diamonds as an inclusion).

I think its this propensity to fragment into new, smaller diamonds as it grows that explains why small diamonds are so common, yet larger ones are so rare.

The one exception is type IIA (no nitrogen) which can become huge diamonds (ala the Cullinan) but it appears that nitrogen helps promote the fragmenting process...but type IIA is less than 2% of all natural diamonds...so again, the true rarity of larger natural diamonds.

Best regards
Less

This is why I am trying to convince bf to get me moissy/asha instead of a diamond. He likes brand names, so we went to Cartier, Tiffany, Harry Winston and Van Cleef and Arpels yesterday in NYC. EVERYTHING I saw was gorgeous, but insanely expensive! I'd hate to pay 26k for something that is only worth a quarter of that. Love the sparkles though.

BF said he'd rather go smaller (0.90ct for 15k instead of 1ct for 26k) than get non diamond. GRRR...I took him to Landau to show him their moissanites but that had the opposite effect i wanted....he said now he will never consider moissanites cuz they were so yellow. I tried to tell him about enchanced stones but he is not listening...sigh....

My own experience with secondary market diamonds is strictly as a buyer. Form what I've seen quality matters, cut being king. I've probably bought 60-70 second hand diamonds, 4 in the past year being super ideal cut. Even before I got into the super ideals I would seek out only the cream of the crop out there. I turned down many a 1 ct promotional grade for $300, just to buy a .60ct high color/clarity stone for $800. I normally looked for solitaires, since I was buying the stone, not the mount or even the side stones. Damaged settings were a plus because sometimes that let me get a nice stone for less $$$.

Once I started buying super ideals the secondary market prices went up. I've gotten into at least a dozen ebay bidding wars in the past year for GIA EX-EX-EX' or AGS 0's, winning 2. In both cases I paid around 80% of what I would have paid for the same stone from WF, BGD, GOG, ot JA. One came to me loose, the other is in a mount that has no real value to me. The other 10 or so that I didn't win all sold for more than the 80% of new that I usually bid.

yep, i went thru this about 4y back. I ended up selling it on Craigslist and loosing only about 15%, which I thought was a deal, considering that no one would give me even half anywhere!!

That is why I will not buy another natural diamond, and I went with ASHA this time, hopefully I wont have t sell this one

I think if you cant afford to swallow the difference you should not buy an expensive diamond ring, like I did.

It's not my business but when I see a young couple (usually peers) who buy the name-brand Tiffany diamonds, I wonder if they are going into debt just to keep up with the diamond engagement standard, or just to have that light blue box with the white ribbon.
Of course they make it my business when they post it all over Facebook! lol but really if that is what makes them happy then they should go for it! I'm not a fan of flaunting my brands in any case. Clothing, jewelry, or otherwise. Especially not my engagement ring which is supposed to have meaning, and not a pricetag to flaunt.

screw it, let him buy it. Who cares, if that's is what he wants, let him be happy and make you happy. If you are not thinking of getting a divorce why would you want to sell it anyways. If you decide to upgrade eventually, so he will buy you another expensive ring!!!!

Every one is happy, usually this is not the case where guys want to spend this much dough and is usually a problem for a girl knowing she is getting fake diamond, in your case it's all good!!

"Who cares"??? The woman who will be wearing the ring for the rest of her life probably cares!

I think what SHE wants is just as important as what HE wants. Maybe she doesn't want him spending what they could save for a down-payment on a house, or a nice car, when she can get the exact same look with an asha or a moissanite. Also, SHE will be wearing the ring her whole life, not him, she should be able to have something she likes and feels comfortable wearing.