Investment
Diamonds?
By Mark I. Sikand
Really? Well, today, more and more companies are advertising
on Social media, the radio, TV and the Internet. But who is buying
"Investment Diamonds", what is an "Investment Diamond" and
how much should a person, an Investor, pay for such a
diamond.? Answer, "retail Customers and they are paying top
dollar.
For me, and many others, an "Investment Diamond" is any
diamond that you can buy and then sell and make a profit.
The more in demand that diamond is, the easier and faster
you will be able to liquidate it and make a profit, as long
as you did not over pay for it. Remember, it is not always
about just the price. Some diamonds are just not in demand.
Buying "Investment Diamonds" is not like buying shares of
stock or a commodity that has a set price. When it comes to
buying Investment diamonds there is no pricing structure and
many, but not all, consumers are going to get ripped off big
time and be very disappointed when they try to resell.
Most of the companies selling Investment Diamonds have great
material to send you, great websites and highly skilled and
trained sales people who will contact you. The hype and the
promises of a 15% - 20% annual return on your investment are
very impressive. However, when push comes to shove and you
read the fine print, it usually indicates that you have
little to no hope of making a profit at all when you sell.
Selling your Investment diamond, when you need the cash, can
be a real problem and nightmare. Simply put, a diamond is
not very liquid at all. Even worse, if you over paid
for it and you need the cash now, you will realize a huge
financial loss.
On a more positive note, if you buy the right diamonds and
you pay the right price, you will most likely do well and
turn a profit. The problem is, how do you know? What should
you buy and how much should you pay? There are a lot
of dishonest and misleading companies out there so be
careful.
Here are a few ideas for you. 1) Ask the company if they
will buy the diamond back from you. If they say "yes" or "we
will work with you to help you sell it", Ask for at least 10
current references. If they say that that information is
confidential, then you need to walk away. 2) Find out which
company certifies the quality of the Investment Diamond,
make sure that it is either the GIA or the AGS. If it is NOT
then you need to walk away. 3) Find out the specific size
and quality of the diamond and do some competitive price
shopping. If they refuse to tell you it's because they are
overcharging you. Do not let them pressure you into make an
instant decision or giving them a deposit.
There is a lot of information about Investment Diamonds
available to you on the Internet. Make sure that you do your
research before you make any decision.
MAKE SURE THAT YOU USE
TheBuyReport.com to check diamond prices. Try the 10 day
FREE trial.
Buying Diamonds Off The
Street
Retail jewelers, diamond dealers and
private independent diamond buyers have a NEW wholesale
source for buying diamonds - The Public.
Are you or is your company advertising that you
buy diamonds from the public? Why NOT? Are you afraid
because you don't know how? Or is it because business
is so bad that you don't have the working capital and you
are embarrassed ? Well, need to keep reading.
As a means for survival, additional revenue and huge
profits, successful and smart jewelers have learned how
important it is become sharp professional diamond buyers and
be better that their competitors. Why? Because they want and
need to make the purchase..... MONEY and PROFIT. And they
don't want the customer to walk and lose the opportunity to
buy the diamond at a fraction of the actual wholesale price.
If that customer walks, you know that they are never coming
back. And if you have insulted the customer with your "Buy
Presentation" or your "Buy Offer", you know that they
are going to tell their friends and family what a rip-off
and idiot you are. We have all been there and it hurts
because we know that we will lose a lot of future
customers, opportunity and profits.
Just as there is and art, talent and skill to SELLING
diamond to retail customers, there is an art, talent and
skill to BUYING diamonds off the street from private
consumers who want to liquidate.
Consumers who are selling an important diamond are smart,
they have done research, they know the approximate wholesale
price and they know what they paid for it (retail price).
Most likely they have already received offers from other
professional diamond buyers. If you are their first stop for
a price quote, don't expect them to just sell to you at your
lowball offer, they will not. The price that you quote for
the diamond needs to be a sharp fair market cash liquidation
price.
You NEED to know what you are doing. You need to know how to
work the customer, your presentation needs to be
professional and you need to know what price to offer your
customer. You NEED to invest the few dollars and take the On
Line training program
"How To
Buy Diamonds Off The Street" and if you have employees
they need to take it also. As for what price to offer for
the diamond, use the "Cash Liquidation Price Chart"
offered here on
TheBuyReport.com. , the subscription price is not
expensive or you can try the FREE TRIAL OFFER.
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Have You Ever
Tried To Sell Your Diamond?
By Edward Jay
Epstein
The diamond invention—the creation of the idea that diamonds
are rare and valuable, and are essential signs of esteem—is
a relatively recent development in the history of the
diamond trade. Until the late nineteenth century, diamonds
were found only in a few riverbeds in India and in the
jungles of Brazil, and the entire world production of gem
diamonds amounted to a few pounds a year. In 1870, however,
huge diamond mines were discovered near the Orange River, in
South Africa, where diamonds were soon being scooped out by
the ton. Suddenly, the market was deluged with diamonds. The
British financiers who had organized the South African mines
quickly realized that their investment was endangered;
diamonds had little intrinsic value—and their price depended
almost entirely on their scarcity. The financiers feared
that when new mines were developed in South Africa, diamonds
would become at best only semiprecious gems.
The major investors in the diamond mines realized that they
had no alternative but to merge their interests into a
single entity that would be powerful enough to control
production and perpetuate the illusion of scarcity of
diamonds. The instrument they created, in 1888, was called
De Beers Consolidated Mines, Ltd., incorporated in South
Africa. As De Beers took control of all aspects of the world
diamond trade, it assumed many forms. In London, it operated
under the innocuous name of the Diamond Trading Company. In
Israel, it was known as "The Syndicate." In Europe, it was
called the "C.S.O." -- initials referring to the Central
Selling Organization, which was an arm of the Diamond
Trading Company. And in black Africa, it disguised its South
African origins under subsidiaries with names like Diamond
Development Corporation and Mining Services, Inc. At its
height -- for most of this century -- it not only either
directly owned or controlled all the diamond mines in
southern Africa but also owned diamond trading companies in
England, Portugal, Israel, Belgium, Holland, and
Switzerland.
De Beers proved to be the most successful cartel arrangement
in the annals of modern commerce. While other commodities,
such as gold, silver, copper, rubber, and grains, fluctuated
wildly in response to economic conditions, diamonds have
continued, with few exceptions, to advance upward in price
every year since the Depression. Indeed, the cartel seemed
so superbly in control of prices -- and unassailable --
that, in the late 1970s, even speculators began buying
diamonds as a guard against the vagaries of inflation and
recession.
The diamond invention is far more than a monopoly for fixing
diamond prices; it is a mechanism for converting tiny
crystals of carbon into universally recognized tokens of
wealth, power, and romance. To achieve this goal, De Beers
had to control demand as well as supply. Both women and men
had to be made to perceive diamonds not as marketable
precious stones but as an inseparable part of courtship and
married life. To stabilize the market, De Beers had to endow
these stones with a sentiment that would inhibit the public
from ever reselling them. The illusion had to be created
that diamonds were forever -- "forever" in the sense that
they should never be resold.
continue -
CLICK HERE
Professional Diamond
Buyer Training Fall 2012, MIS
With today's economy
and competitive markets, PROFESSIONAL Diamond Buyer Training
may be more important than PROFESSIONAL Sales Training. On
the back end of our industry (buying off the street) there
is big money and profits to be made .... and today, with
soft retail sales, we need that back end money and profits
more than ever. We provide you, your employees and your
company with that necessary PROFESSIONAL Buyer Training. That's what we do. We know
how the top most successful Buyers and Companies operate, and they
are professional and good. No matter how much experience you have or
how good you think you are, our goal is to make you even better so
that you earn the customers trust and confidence and you win the
BUY. You need to be better.
"How To Buy Diamonds Off The
Street", an exclusive industry training program, will help you
make money and increase your revenues and profits. In today's
economy, big companies, small companies, existing jewelers and
private individuals have sharpened their professional buying skills
and are buying more and more diamonds and fine jewelry off the
street, and they are making big money. It will help you purchase
fine quality diamonds at approximately 1/5 - 1/2 of current
wholesale prices. Then, you can sell it retail and increase your
margin or you can flip it on the wholesale end and still make big
money.
Professional Buyer Training, to buy,
is just as important as professional sales training, to sell.
Don't think for one minute that a consumer who has a GIA
certificated 1.04 carat G VS1 round diamond ex, ex, none is going to
just walk up to you and sell you the diamond for $2,000.00. In
today's economy it's just not going to happen. The consumer is going
to check prices on the Internet and then go to 3 - 5 professional
diamond buyers. Whoever makes the best and most professional
presentation and offers a fair cash liquidation price will end up
buying that diamond. And, they will make good money when they flip
it or retail it. They will most likely end up paying about
$2,800. - $3,500. Then, they will retail it and make a huge profit
margin or they will flip it on the wholesale end, a few days later,
and make $1,500 - $3,000 profit.
For every
ten (10) customers who come to you to sell their diamonds, what is
your closing ratio or successful buying percentage. Most likely 1 -
2 out of 10 or 10% - 20%. Well, what if it were 40% - 60% OR MORE
and you paid a fair market cash liquidation price? How good would
that be? Big money, big profits!!!!
LEARN MORE -
CLICK HERE |
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Which Diamond Grading Certificate is Best?
Don’t Buy the Certificate!
February 10th, 2010 by James L. Sweaney,
CGA, FGA. GG
We posted this about a
year ago–with the tough economy, this
insider information is more pertinent than
ever, so we’ve tweaked the original blog a
bit–here it is again.
In their quest for the best value, consumers
looking to buy a diamond often make the
mistake of giving equal weight to diamond
grading certificates. Diamond grading
certificates/reports are issued by various
laboratories for the purpose of identifying,
measuring and weighing, and grading a
particular diamond. These reports are
not appraisals.
One problem is that even though the various
labs all use the diamond grading
system/language developed in the 1950′s by
the Gemological Institue of America (GIA),
each lab has its own internal methods,
standards, experience and skill levels.
Another issue is independence. The GIA
decided early on that their lab should be a
disinterested third party, independent of
the buying and selling of the gems. To this
day, GIA is very careful to maintain the
“arms length’ rule and does not participate
in buying, selling, or appraising diamonds
or colored gemstones in any way. However,
all labs, including GIA, do charge for their
expert grading services–the fees are usually
paid by the diamond merchants who own the
stones.
Many of the other labs are profit making and
some are closely affiliated with the firms
for whom they grade diamonds–and this
relationship is not always apparent to the
ultimate consumer. The important thing to
remember is that even though diamond grading
reports/certificates may look very similar,
but the quality
of the information can vary
significantly. Our case history reported
below shows just how much this disparity can
mean in dollars.
Consumers tend to shop by comparing prices
using the grades stated on grading
certificates as their basis of
comparison–the internet makes it very easy
to do this. The grading reports all look the
same and have what appears to be the same
information, so this seems like a fool proof
way to shop prices.
A stone
graded SI1 F by one grading laboratory sells
for 30% less than a stone of similar weight
graded SI1 F by another grading laboratory,
so you buy the less expensive stone. You’d
be stupid to spend more than you have to,
right? The grading paper says it’s the same
as these other stones, must be true, lots of
dollars, good deal, right?
Wrong! We
call this “Buying the Certificate.” The case
history of an insurance appraisal we did of
a 3-carat round diamond and ring shows just
how much a diamond grading certificate can
affect the price of a diamond.
During the
take-in procedure and before looking at the
grading report, I gave this particular stone
a preliminary grade of SI2 clarity, H or
possibly I color. The stone was nicely cut,
but the inclusions within were positioned so
that they reflected throughout the stone,
much like a kaleidoscope. In diamond
grading, we call this a “reflector” and
usually deduct 1/2 to 1 clarity grade
depending on the impact of the reflections.
And the stone had a somewhat darkish look
overall.
So I was
really surprised when the client disclosed
that he had purchased the stone as
“colorless” (the range of D-F) and that it
had a grading certificate from EGL showing
the clarity as SI1 and the color as F. Turns
out he had purchased the stone from a dealer
in downtown LA who assured him that it was a
really super deal at $35,000 for the ring
and who gave him a “feel good” appraisal for
$72,000.
My
research of comparable items actively being
marketed showed the current wholesale prices
for well cut 3 ct. round SI1 F diamonds
graded by EGL labs
ranged from $7,950 to $10,100 per carat and
averaged about $9100 per carat. Multiply 3
cts x $9100, add 26% markup on the diamond,
about $2000 for the 18K ring and voila! —My
appraisal was for $36,500, within 4% of what
he said he paid
A survey
of well cut 3 ct round diamonds graded SI1 F
by GIA averaged
about $13,600 per carat—almost 50% more. I
also checked prices for well-cut 3 ct rounds
graded by GIA as SI2 H color (my original
grading). What do you know – the price range
of the 39 SI2 H stones I checked was $7,350
to $10,080 per carat! Virtually the same
price range as the stones graded SI1 F by
EGL.
The lesson
is that the market knows the reality–diamonds
are what they are, regardless of what a
piece of paper says. My years as a
professional diamond grader and
diamond-grading supervisor at the
Gemological Institute of America (GIA) told
me that this stone should not be graded SI1
F. The marketplace confirmed what I knew to
be true.
As sellers
of diamonds, we at Mardon always recommend
diamonds graded by GIA or AGS because we
know the quality of their work. Their
grading is the most consistent and the most
conservative. These are the two labs most
respected in the marketplace, period.
Moral of
the story–When you buy a diamond, don’t
make the mistake of buying the certificate.
Don’t just look for the lowest price.
Look at the stone, and if you can, compare
it with a similar stone side by side. Most
importantly, work with a diamond
professional, preferably an experienced
gemologist who can help you play the grading
certificate game and win!
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