| Judging
Clarity
How
Clarity Affects Price
As you
might expect, the higher the clarity grade of a diamond, the
more it costs. Also, usually the higher the color grade of
a diamond, the more the clarity grade affects its cost. For
example, in January 1993, the Rapaport wholesale diamond price
guide listed a one-carat, round, D-color, IF diamond as about
10 times higher than a D-colot , I3 diamond of *It same size,
whereas a one-carat, K-color IF was priced about 4 times higher
than a K-color 13.
There
is no systematic increase in cost as the clarity grade gets
higher. For example, on the Rapaport price guide, a two-carat,
round, G-color VSZ was $1100 more per carat than an H-color
VS2. A two-carat, G-color VS, was $500 more per carat than
an H-color VS1. Diamond pricing is based more on supply and
demand than it is on rational systems.
When
buying diamonds, it's important to realize that clarity differences
that go unnoticed by laypeople looking through a microscope
can mean thousands of dollars in value. For example, a 5-carat,
D-color, IF diamond can have a wholesale value of $100,000
more than a 5-carat, D-color, VVS2 diamond.
Therefore,
if you are planning on investing in a high clarity grade diamond,
it is well worth your money to pay for an independent lab
grading report on it before purchasing or insuring it. Grading
reports can be expensive so they are seldom done on low-clarity
diamonds. Even when a grading report comes with the stone,
you will probably have paid for the report indirectly, as
reflected in the cost of the stone.
Dealing
with a reputable jeweler will also help insure getting the
quality you pay for. Grading differences and questions can
arise with any jeweler or lab, but with someone reputable,
you have the peace of mind of knowing that you could get a
refund if there were any problems with the grading.
The
specks might
Decrease
the brilliancy
Book
has stores
Are
called pinpoints
Indentations
where chunks
There
are various
Allows
people throughou
Unaided
eye through
Grading
reports can
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