How To Calculate Diamond Prices Guide

Before buying diamonds and jewelry, it’s smart to do your research, so that you can find the best prices for the best diamonds. One way to do your research is to calculate the price of  the diamonds yourself before you purchase them to ensure that you’re getting a fair price. This post will be going over how you can calculate the price of a diamond so that you have more knowledge and power as a consumer.

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The First Three Steps:

1. Certification- This first step is super important for diamond buyers looking for diamonds of a price of $1,000 or more. A certification ensures you that the product you are getting is the real thing. Certified diamonds are typically higher quality. The two best certification standards that you should look for are GIA and AGS.
2. Quality- Next, you’ll want to determine what qualities fit your certified diamond the best. The qualities are based off of “Four C’s.” If you would like to learn more about the 4 C’s of Diamonds, be sure to check out our article on the 4 C’s of Diamonds.
3. Pricing- The easiest way to price diamonds is to shop around! Check out stores like Blue Nile and James Allen. Theses stores are the best in the industry. These stores are typically more expensive than what you will find online and these prices serve as good baseline for what you are buying.

Diamond Qualities that Can Affect Price:

• Shape- Shapes available can be Ascher, Marquise, Princess, Pear Shape, Emerald Cut, Round Brilliant, Radiant, Heart Shape, Cushion, and Oval
• Carats- Carats usually range from a minimum on 0.25Ct to 2.0Ct
• Color- Colors of a diamond are based off of the letters of D, E, F, G, H, I, and J
• Clarity- Given by abbreviations of FL, IF, VVS1, VVS2, VS1, VS2, SI1, and SI2
• GIA Cut Grade- GIA grades their diamonds on the rankings of Excellent, Very Good, and Good.
• Fluorescence- Fluorescence described the Diamond’s brightness. It is described by None, Faint, Medium, Strong, and Very Strong brightness

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The Details of Pricing:

Per Carat and Categories- Diamonds are valued Per Carat and what Weight Category it is in. For example, a 0.50 Carat diamond valued at $500 per carat would cost $250. But the carat is not the only thing that affects pricing. Weight Categories greatly affect the pricing of the diamond as well. Weight Category basically is the different ranges of carats that are valued at a higher price than a category range under it. The best example of this is the difference between and 0.99 carat diamond and a 1.0 carat diamond. The 1.0 Carat diamond is only 0.01 carats larger than a 0.99 Carat diamond, but it is valued at a 20% higher price because of that idea that it is 1 full carat rather than a less than 1 carat diamond.

Cutting- Often times, cutting becomes less important to the diamond’s pricing because of the weight categories. A  diamond cut at 0.99 carats that is much prettier than a 1.0 carat cut poorly can still be valued less just because of the weight categories. In conclusion, the cut of the diamond doesn’t affect the pricing of the diamonds as much as the weight category the diamond is in does.

Diamond Pricing Reports:

Rapaport Price List: Most diamonds are priced based off of the Rapaport Price list. The Rapaport Price List is released weekly and is used for pricing loose diamonds sold as single stones. It mostly compares the price of diamonds based off of color and clarity. In order to read a Rappaport Price List, you’ll need the diamond’s- Size Category, Color, and Clarity.

IDEX: IDEX is an online B2B diamond exchange industry that uses the tool IDEX Diamond Price Report. They are completely transparent about how they price. They are popular with a few major diamond dealers, however the bulk of the market has not started supporting IDEX.

Diamond Retail Benchmark: This is a report that is focused on its consumers and takes high level standard prices and applies discounts based off of diamond qualities.

Most diamonds are evaluated off of the Rapaport Price List, IDEX, and Diamond Retail Benchmark, but if it isn’t, most companies base their prices off of the Parcel Price, which is the combination of Carat and Weight Category.

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Bottom Line: 

Most diamond prices are based off of the Rapaport Price List and the Parcel Price. The diamond pricing scheme is so complex making pricing extremely difficult, but with some research, you can get a good idea about how much a diamond is worth. There are a few ways to price your diamonds yourselves to see if you are getting the best deals, but the best way to ensure that the deal you are getting is fair is to make sure that the diamond is certified under the GIA and AGS. If you need more help with purchasing diamonds, check out our posts about How to Buy Diamonds Online and How to Determine if a Diamond is Authentic!

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