How to Buy a Diamond Ring

1. What Is a Diamond?
2. Why Are Diamonds Expensive?
3. The Four C's to Buy a Diamond
4. How to Buy a Diamond Ring by Carat Size
5. How to Buy a Diamond by Its Clarity
6. How to Buy a Diamond by Its Color
7. The Cut of the Diamond in the Ring You Buy
8. How to Save Money When You Buy a Diamond Ring
9. Buyers Receive the Diamond Certificate with the Ring
10. Should I Buy a Diamond Ring as an Investment?

When you buy a diamond ring you get a symbol of endurance and love. The beauty of a diamond comes from the LUSTER as it reflects light. The FIRE of a diamond is the refracted light that it disperses, like a prism, into the colors of the rainbow. The ice cold touch of the gemstone and the brilliant fire combined are called the “fire and ice” of a diamond.

What Is a Diamond?

When you buy a diamond in a ring, you get a mineral, a natural crystalline substance, the transparent form of pure carbon. Diamonds are found in a type of igneous rock known as kimberlite. The diamond itself is essentially a chain of carbon atoms that have crystallized under extreme heat and pressure.

The diamonds that you buy have come to the Earth's surface. They are generally very old, ranging from under 1 billion to 3.3 billion years old. Diamond-bearing rock is brought close to the surface by volcanoes that erupt from deep inside the earth. Carbon is one of the most common substances on the planet, but diamonds are extremely rare.

Diamond is the hardest substance known. Nothing can cut a diamond, except another diamond. A diamond is a good conductor of heat and draws heat away from your skin, so it feels cold to your touch. These properties make the diamond useful for industrial applications, such as cutting and polishing. Like other carbon forms and coal, diamonds will burn at approximately 800 degrees Celsius.

Why Are Diamonds Expensive?

Diamonds and diamond rings are expensive because they are scarce. Diamonds have strong symbolism through history. They were used two thousand years ago in India in statues as the eyes of the gods. The Greeks believed diamonds were tears of the gods . Romans thought they were splinters of fallen stars. In the symbolism of gemstones, the diamond represents steadfast love. Diamonds are the symbol of the 60th and the 75th wedding anniversary. They are also the birthstone designated for the month of April. The diamond ring is the popular symbol of enduring love.

The Four C's to Buy a Diamond

When you buy a diamond ring, you should know what to look for. In a diamond ring, as in all jewelry, diamonds are judged by the “four Cs”: carat, clarity, color, and cut. There is also a “fifth C”, which is cost. When you buy a diamond ring, choose the best color and clarity within your budget.

How to Buy a Diamond Ring by Carat Size

You buy diamonds by their size, or carat weight. The carat weight of a diamond measures its mass. One carat is defined as a fifth of a gram, or about .007 ounce. To measure smaller diamonds, the carat is divided into 100 points. The point unit is equal to one one-hundredth of a carat (0.01 carat, or 2 mg), which is .00007 ounce, 7/100,000 of an ounce. The carat is the unit of weight in the diamond industry and is standardized as 0.2 gram (0.0071 oz or 200 milligrams) and is divided into 100 points. Thus a 10-point diamond weighs 0.1 ct (0.00071 oz or 20 mg). The largest diamond, the Cullinan, weighed about 3000 ct (4.27 oz or 600 g) and was the size of an average human fist.

How to Buy a Diamond By Its Clarity

Buy a diamond ring with the best clarity. The second of the four Cs, the clarity of the diamond, is determined by the inclusions it contains. No natural diamond is perfect. The number, size, color, relative location, orientation, and visibility of inclusions all affect the clarity of a diamond. Inclusions do not affect the durability of the diamond. However, large clouds affect its ability to transmit and scatter light, and large cracks near the surface may cause the diamond to fracture.

How to Buy a Diamond by Its Color

When you buy a diamond ring, you have a choice of colors for the gemstone. Diamonds can occur in nearly any color, though yellow and brown are by far the most common. The color scale for colorless diamonds goes from 'D' (colorless) to 'Z' (bright yellow). Pure or nearly pure diamonds are transparent and colorless. Colorless diamonds are preferred over those with a yellow cast. However, diamonds with a strong color, such as red, pink, blue, yellow, are very rare and are highly valued. These are called colored diamonds and fancy colored diamonds. It is impurities in the stone that give a diamond its color. Nitrogen impurities give the diamond a yellow color, and boron impurities give the stone a blue color. What we call black diamonds are not truly black, but rather contain numerous dark inclusions that give the gems their dark appearance.

The Cut of the Diamond in the Ring You Buy

When you buy a diamond ring notice the shape of the cut stone.The fourth C is the cut of the diamond for your ring. The skill in cutting determines how well the diamond will reflect and refract light. The cut of a diamond affects its beauty. A well-cut diamond appears to be of greater carat weight and appears to have a better grade of clarity and color. Due to its particular crystal structure, the diamond has 4 planes of weakness along which it can be split, which diamond cutters use. Even with modern techniques, the cutting and polishing of a diamond crystal always results in a dramatic loss of more than half of its weight.

When a diamond has too much “fire,” it looks like a cubic zirconia. A poorly cut stone appears dark at the center, and sometimes the ring setting may show through the diamond as shadows. To help you buy a diamond ring, there are a number of viewing machines that measure the light performance of the stone.

The shape or cut of a diamond can be Brilliant, Baguette, Princess, Marquise, Heart, Briolette or Rose, and Pear cut. A diamond ring with a Brilliant cut has the best cut to reveal the intricacies and the natural perfection of the stone. The Baguette cut for a diamond ring is shaped like a loaf of bread, and was popular during the Art Deco period. Right now, the Princess cut is popular for diamond rings, because it accentuates a diamond’s fire rather than its luster, and also wastes less of the original gemstone.

How to Save Money When You Buy a Diamond Ring

When you buy a diamond ring, you can save money if you avoid a one carat damond ring. Buyers often prefer the one carat diamond ring. Consequently, its price is disproportionally higher than the price of a smaller stone. You will get a better value for your money if you purchase a slightly smaller diamond or a slightly larger diamond.

The diamond you buy might be cut poorly to increase the carat weight. The cutter compromises the reflectiveness, in order to increase the weight of the cut stone. This happens most often when a diamond is near 1.0 carat weight, the weight most desired by buyers. Suppose that, ideally, the diamond should be cut to a .95 carat weight. But the 1.0 carat weight will sell better, so the cutting is compromised. The cutter might make the girdle thicker or increase the depth. These changes reduce the sparkle, but do not change the diameter of the diamond. So a poorly cut one carat diamond may look the same size as a well cut .85 carat.

Ideally, you can tell that a round brilliant diamond is well-cut if it has a diameter of 6.5mm, which is 6.5 times the cube root of the carat weight. Also the depth of the ideal round brilliant should not be more than 62.5%.

Some jewelry experts advise consumers to buy a 0.99 carat diamond for its better price or buy a 1.10 carat diamond for its better cut, avoiding a 1.00 carat diamond which is more likely to be a poorly cut stone.

Buyers Receive the Diamond Certificate with the Ring

Most diamonds come with a certificate of authenticity, which lists the rating of the diamond for the four Cs. There are four gemological laboratories which issue recognized diamond certificates, including the Gemological Institute.

Buyers rely on this Certificate that comes attached to the diamond to specify the grade, and hence the value, of their diamond. Not all the certificates, however, come from the Gemological Institute of America. Many certificates have been issued by less reputable, or even nonexistent, laboratories, and the diamonds might be of a much lower grade than that certified. Even if the certificate comes from a bona fide laboratory, another assessor may dispute its evaluation of the diamond. The director of the Gemological Institute observed, "I've never seen two experts agree on the quality of a particular diamond."

Should I Buy a Diamond Ring as an Investment?

You should not buy a diamond ring as a financial investment. For investment commodities like copper and oil, there is a strong resale market. In a commodities market, the dealer quotes a price at which you can sell (the bid price) and a price at which you can buy (the asking price). There is no resale market like this for diamonds. The value of diamonds, it turns out, cannot be established through an large open market. Accordingly, you should not buy a diamond ring as an investment for resale.

When you buy a diamond ring, the retail market on your diamond ranges from 1 to 2 times its wholesale price. Jewelry stores will not repurchase your diamonds, because you will be insulted at the price they offer. All dealers have a strict policy against repurchasing diamonds. A few dealers will offer to sell your diamond on consignment, and a few will offer you about 1/3 of the retail value. Furthermore, retailers buy their diamonds on consignment from wholesalers, and do not pay for them until they have sold them. A large buyer of resold diamonds, Empire Diamonds, will pay you about 60% of the wholesale value of the stone.

However, large, nearly flawless diamond rings and diamonds owned by celebrities can be resold through the auction houses of Christie's and Sotheby. Even these diamonds sales do not result in a profit. Insurance premiums on good diamonds can be as much as $30,000 a year. When you consider annual insurance premiums plus auction fees and sales taxes, the owner could even have a net loss. Yes, the diamond ring you buy is priceless. Wear your diamonds as a symbol of commitment and strength. Enjoy diamonds for their natural beauty. Display them as a token of wealth and power. Cherish your diamond ring as a symbol of love.

Now you know how to buy a diamond ring. Good luck, all the way.

I hope life brings you much success.
I wish you a very happy day.

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