A Diamond-Buying Guide For People Who’ve Never Done It Before

Buying diamonds is a big investment. While they are plentiful in the Earth’s crust, actually getting to them is incredibly difficult. Miners have to invest in giant machines that dredge up the Earth, often many kilometers into the ground. And that makes them expensive.

In this post, we take a look at some of the considerations you’ll need to make before buying a diamond. This way, you can avoid mistakes and get precisely what you want for your style. 

Choose The Shape

Diamond sellers prepare raw chunks of diamonds by cutting them into various attractive shapes. Usually, the shape of the final diamond resembles the un-cut rock to avoid wasting material, but not always. 

Options include round, princess, oval, emerald, pear, asscher, radiant, heart and marquise. Usually, you can compare various options in the store before you buy. 

Check That The Diamond You Want Is In Stock

In stock vs virtual diamonds: which is better? Well, that depends on how fast you need the diamond. 

“In stock” literally means that the diamond seller has the diamond that you want on their premises right now, ready for you to pick up. Virtual means that they can get the diamond from a third-party if you need it, but they don’t have it in-store. 

Knowing this difference is critical if you are in a hurry. If you need a diamond quickly, say for an event, you want those that are already in-stock.

Choose Your Carat

Carats refer to the weight of diamonds. Usually, stores will quote this next to every diamond they sell. 

Carat measurements need to be accurate so that you know precisely how much diamond you’re getting for your money. As you might expect, the price of diamonds of the same quality rises with the weight. The heavier they are, the more expensive they become. 

Note too that the price of larger intact diamonds goes up exponentially. That’s because 1 carat diamonds are more than twice as common as 2 carat diamonds, and so on. 

Choose Your Cut Quality

Not all diamond cuts are the same. In fact, cut quality varies substantially from vendor to vendor. Some use crude techniques that take a few minutes, while others apply longer processes that play out over many weeks. 

Choose A Suitable Color Grade

Experts value diamonds based on their color. In general, the clearer, the better. Diamonds that are more transparent (and less yellow) have fewer impurities. 

The best rating is D, though these attract the highest prices. Most people choose diamonds in the G-I range. L-M tend to look quite yellow. 

Choose The Clarity

You’ll also need to choose the clarity of the diamond. This is the extent to which you can see its internal structure, and how the light reflects around the rock. High clarity diamonds have virtually no impurities, even on close inspection. 

Before you buy, make sure that you understand what each clarity grade means. If you’re happy with less clarity, it makes buying a diamond much cheaper. Some diamonds have no blemishes at all.