Hello everyone,
I am looking for a 6.5mm round diamond to fit into a custom mounting
for my customer.
My search has been fruitless so far due to my customers budget but I
know there is a beautiful stone out there just waiting to be found.
Please e-mail me offline so we can discuss the details.
I have a tax i.d. number, I am listed in the red book but not rated
and I have many references I can supply which clarifies me in
business.
Thank you in advance.
My search has been fruitless so far due to my customers budget but I know there is a beautiful stone out there just waiting to be found.
Yes, me too. If anyone wants to get rid of one carat diamond, D color
with E been acceptable, grade VVS and higher will do just nicely. If
you are tired to look at this chunk of carbon, I have $500 bucks
waiting for you.
Leonid Surpin
I have $500 bucks waiting for you.
You missed another 0 or you could buy a Moissanite
Hello Laurie,
Perhaps you should consider either remaking the setting to fit a 1/2
ct. SI -I diamond of at best an F colour given the $500 price cap -
although you may have to /be able to find a chipped or otherwise
damaged stone where the damage wouldn’t be visible once set in the
"custom mounting"! Ordinarily jewelers have a stone first- then make
the mounting…particularly for a custom or one-off piece !
Try “gold buyers”: often these store operators take out the stones
and have jars full laying around ( although not in a 6. 5mm size as
that will run - even from a “store” that knows zero about jewelry
but has the capitol to begin buying and selling metals ( which pretty
much sums up 90% of the proliferation of “gold buyers” out there) in
the thousands- for a 6. 5mm stone. To buy from a wholesaler to the
trade you will probably need to have a budget of 7-8 thousand for a
fair stone…not good, not great just big… even if they offer you
what’s called ’ rose cut ‘, included and a take out! Even these
resellers that have no real experience and less knowledge in most
cases realize the size you are looking for is not usual from the
hundreds of “bridal sets” that have potentially crossed their
store’s threshold and the "take outs’ came from.
In your situation I would try and explain to your client that a white
sapphire, topaz or zircon, if a natural stone is preferred or
insisted upon, would be available in that budget range… some
stones have higher refractive indices than others so you would have
to see the actual stone you are buying rather than trying to find it
online without the possibility of inspection before payment… a
tricky proposition…best to have a dealer you know or have had prior
relationship with in business or engage a jeweler you know with a
reliable supply chain to help…
Otherwise top of the line cubic zirconia ( stones that are optically
flawless and will give plenty of sparkle to a ring) are quite a bit
under the $500 budget. Really high quality CZ’s don’t look as cheap
as lower quality stones. A lower quality CZ has a visible to the
naked eye spectrum at every angle, while “diamond simulants” other
than Moissanites are stones of the same chemical composition but
produced by a different method than the fast growing CZ’s sold in
quantity or Moissanites- a risky simulated diamond as they are very
very brittle, and in my opinion nowhere near worth the price for the
end product that varies batch to batch, with many recent recalled
lots due to imperfections and breakage, even though they are “
guaranteed”). These are called CVD 's or CVD process(ed) - carbon
vapour deposition processed cubic zirconia.
This type has fairly reccently ( 1990’s or thereabout) become
available in white or colourless stones, and until reccently were
available only up to about 1. 5 carats- far from the 6. 5mm you seek
! ( the density of natural diamond material is less than that of cz
by any process so estimating isn’t equal to estimating the weight of
a diamond of that size into carat weight). An example is one of the
largest reccently sold on a popular jewelry e-commerce site: a 1.
24-carat princess-cut diamond, J color, VS1 with very good cut graded
by the International Gemological Institute (IGI) was priced at $3,
494. 82 as a loose stone! A Moisannite is yet higher, with natural
diamond still higher for the same grade, etc. certification.
…While cheap CZ’s are available in any size and a range of colours
( except the white and colourless varieties of the simulants not
possible in “regular” mass produced cz’s) for next to nothing to the
trade. For instance one of my favourite Jeweler’s tool, supplies and
equipment vendors has 7 mm x 7 mm square cz’s on sale at the moment
for $1. 56 USD each, compared to the regular wholesale price of $2.
60 each! ) large CVD cubic zirconia is about 20% less than natural
diamond. Also cz’s produced just after the dawn of the science was
being explored ( around the 1930’s- when crystals of cz large enough
to be cut and faceted were first produced at the turn of the 20th
century) can also run about half the price of natural diamond
material- provided the sellers of such vintage “costume” jewelry
know what they have- these stones are generally found in high end
antique dealer’s shoppes or those jewelers that actually know estate
jewelry and have extensive testing equipment to back up their claims
( and usually some GIA or equivalent certification displayed in the
store) !
So why you undertook making a mounting without the stone seems a bit
backwards, to me anyway, the reality of finding what you may have
"promised" your client is an entirely different task! what you do
want to try and find is a machine cut stone- no matter what it is
made of, provided your calculations were correct in making the
mounting for a 6.5mm anything. hand cut stones vary in girdle, and
pavillion. So provided you have been exacting in your model, or
setting making until now, at this point you are either locked into
that size, or can remove the setting from shank and melt it down,
roll it out and rework it to a more suitable stone for the budget or
buy another white stone altogether ( the sapphire, topaz, spinel, or
even a silver tourmaline are some possibilities) with the client’s
knowledge…If you signed any contract- now is the time to admit your
knowledge of " the current diamond market is lacking " and refund
their deposit(s) or otherwise make alternative arrangements to
accomodate the completion of the job to their satisfaction
…I wish i could say differently but what is done is done and now you
have to repair the situation… if there is anything i can do to help
let me know off list please and allow a few days for a complete
response as it’s Jazz and Heritage Fest time in New Orleans, the
second biggest holiday to Mardi Gras!..rer
fit a 1/2ct. SI -I diamond of at best an F colour given the $500 price cap-
Since $500 has been mentioned twice now, I’m gathering that some
dreamer imagines they can buy a 1 ct. diamond for that. Well, on
Ebay you can get drill bit quality for that, if you shop around a
bit. Otherwise…
I haven’t updated my Rap sheet (Rapaport…), so it’s October
2011. The lowest quality listed on the sheet, M/I3 (drill bit…)
for 1 ct. and up is 1100/ct. A decent stone of G/SI1 is $7300/ct.
R.E.'s half carat F color is going to set you back $3200/ct or
around $1600 for the stone. M color I3 in that category is $600/ct,
yes.
Now, to be sure, stones are sold “back of Rap” or at a percentage of
the list. 40 back on a 1 ct. M/I3 is still
$660…That would be cost, not with a markup.
I know a few liquidators who do breakout, and none of them are
fools…
Listen up folks,
It was me who started this thread. I never mentioned how much money
my customer had to spend but asked for people to contact me off line
as we would discuss it. No one did. Where the $500.00 figure came
from, who knows but it was not me.
Laurie
asked for people to contact me off line as we would discuss it. No one did.
Thanks for clearing up the $500 part, Laurie. Speaking for myself
only - periodically someone here posts mail that they are looking
for stones or other things, especially diamonds of various kinds.
There are places that are relatively public - Otto Frei, Stuller, and
other places that are some what accessable. Someone was looking for a
garnet lately and I thought of Pala Gems because they have a website
that anyone can look at. Those people are in the UK so I didn’t post
it…
Diamonds? I re-sell diamonds, so it’s not really economical for a
maker to buy from me. I don’t deal with people I don’t know and
especially not at long distance. Referrals to the dealers I know
just aren’t going to happen unless I know you personally AND think
you are someone I can vouch for. This is really directed to everyone
here when they post something about gemstones and especially
diamonds. Go to Stuller - they’re far from the best price but they
are available. They are also very good when you need 50 matched,
machine cut sapphires and the like.
Laurie,
I went back and looked and someone made a comment that actually
wasn’t a price and somehow it got picked up as your budget…so
everyone went off on a different tangent than what I think you
wanted…sometimes a post is not completely read before fingers
type a response. It does help when someone says a client has a budget
to give a ballpark figure. I know from dealing with clients that some
have a good idea of what they want and a realistic budget…others
want an incredible stone at a very unrealistic price, so we have to
do some education and figure out what is more important, given the
budget: size, clarity, color, cut…So my guess is no one contacted
you because they had no idea of your budget or exactly what is the
most important. From your subject it looks like size is primary so
would be helpful to know budget and what is most important to your
client after that. And as you can see, when no number was provided
somehow it was filled in.
Terry