How To Buy Loose Diamonds
The Internet has changed diamond and jewelry shopping habits and with huge benefits to the buyers. One such development is the opportunity to select a loose diamond from a huge inventory and partner it with a beautiful setting.
how to buy loose diamonds
A loose diamond is a diamond that is available to buy alone, i.e. without a setting. Loose diamonds are most commonly purchased to be set into an engagement ring or other diamond jewelry, however, there are also people who choose to buy loose diamonds simply for investment purposes.
The old school, brick-and-mortar process of buying a pre-set engagement ring has the advantage of offering immediate gratification. This perk is far outweighed by the benefits of buying loose diamonds.
Selection: Every diamond is unique. When you visit a jewelry store or buy a pre-set diamond ring online, the jeweler has already chosen that one diamond to go into the setting. You may fall in love with a ring, only to find the central diamond is below your required color/clarity/cut grade. This can lead to compromising. Choosing a loose diamond allows you total freedom to select your specific quality characteristics and choose from thousands of settings to create the perfect engagement ring. You could also purchase a loose diamond for a proposal and allow your partner to choose the setting.
Price: Being able to refine and tweak your loose diamond search settings allows you to work firmly to your budget. Unlike a pre-set ring, which is sold with a total price, selecting a loose diamond and a setting separately allows you to see exactly where your money is being spent.
Only consider buying a loose diamond that has been certified by the GIA or AGS. These laboratories are acknowledged as the most consistent and accurate grading authorities. Less reputable grading bodies will give inflated grades leading to customers over-spending on lower quality diamonds.
One of the huge perks of buying a loose diamond online is the large inventories of loose stones available to view. While a brick-and-mortar store may hold a few loose diamonds for you to look it, they cannot compete with the variety found through online vendors. This gives you the chance to make side by side comparisons of quality and diamond prices, and rule out unsuitable diamonds with ease.
People often ask the price of 1ct loose diamonds, for example, but whether the diamond is loose or in a setting, every quality characteristic will influence the price. Where possible, diamonds should be assessed on a stone to stone basis. You can also use our diamond price charts and calculators to get a better idea of how to set your budget.
Our top three sponsoring vendors for loose diamonds are Whiteflash, James Allen, and Blue Nile. They each take a different approach but ultimately edge competitors on imaging, inventory size, and easy to use websites.
Our advice, and the shared opinion of our diamond community, is that buying a loose stone offers far more flexibility and choice than its pre-set alternative. While it may sound daunting to a first-time buyer, the process of buying loose diamonds is easier than ever and the online experience has proven to be the first choice for buyers in the now.
The diamonds in your ring should have a perfect cut quality, with no exceptions, which you can determine using our expert tool. Explore our extensive inventory of over 1 million loose diamonds for sale and choose the diamond that suits your needs.
The PriceScope community has assisted thousands of buyers to navigate the world of loose diamonds and our extensive resources will provide you with all the information that you need to shop with confidence.
Every diamond ring or piece of diamond jewelry starts with a loose diamond. These are diamonds that have been cut and polished, but not yet set in a piece of jewelry. Many jewelers today sell loose diamonds as well as pre-made jewelry.
To ensure you have no post-purchase remorse, shop with a retailer that comes recommended across the diamond industry. Here are the best places to buy loose diamonds in 2023 (click them to get to the proper section):
James Allen have established themselves as the go-to place to buy diamonds or diamond jewelry online. Everything they offer goes into providing the best customer experience possible and allowing you to walk away happy with your purchase. The technology James Allen provide on their site allows you to closely inspect every diamond, almost as if you were seeing it in person. Each diamond has a 360 high definition photo which can be rotated and magnified to see any small inclusion or flaw in the diamond.
On top of this, they offer the #1 selection at more than 500,000 diamonds, conflict-free and certified by the GIA, AGS or IGI. They also happen to have one of the best ranges of loose lab-created diamonds, should you choose to go down that route.
Abe Mor have a selection of high-quality, rare and valuable diamonds available to view on their website. They also offer Fancy Yellow diamonds and match pairs. And since they are a wholesaler, they can find almost anything. Contact them and see for yourself.
Leibish & Co are one of the oldest names in online diamond sales, having been selling to consumers online since 1995. Where they differentiate themselves from all other diamond sellers is their range of fancy colored diamonds.
The range Leibish carries includes the more common canary yellow diamonds, bold and unique black diamonds, and even incredibly rare and valuable pink diamonds and chameleon diamonds. As well as everything in between, of course.
Begin by choosing a diamond shape to narrow down your search. There are many shapes to choose from when shopping for diamonds, from your classic Round Brilliant diamonds to unique shapes like Oval, Pear or Emerald Cuts. Choose the shape you and/or your partner likes best.
Some buy loose diamonds with the intention to eventually have it set in a piece of jewelry. This can help you better assess the quality of the diamond before seeing it obscured by a ring setting, as well as having the flexibility to have the ring or piece of jewelry made exactly how you want it.
Buying a loose diamond is kinda like going to a theme park where you can only see the line in front of the ride or restaurant, but not what you might be in line for. Yes, you might know the general theme of the theme park: diamonds. You might get some clue about what the ride is about: 4C's from the diamond report. If you are lucky enough you might also make out the vague shape of the ride: images or videos of the diamond itself.
Any diamond bought by itself, not as a finished jewelry piece is considered to be a loose diamond. A loose diamond is the preferred method of purchasing diamonds within the diamond industry to produce finished jewelry pieces.
This all changed with the invention of online platforms that listed diamonds for average consumers. With information becoming available everywhere, more and more consumers choose to purchase the diamond separately from the mounting (the non-center stone part of the jewelry).Yes, although it is more work compared to the full package that retailers offer, buy diamonds loose gives the consumer much more room to choose their center stone. Most importantly much more bling for their buck.
Your local jewelry store might actually have loose stones on hand for sale or to be turned into engagement rings and other jewelry. Some might be able to offer you competitive prices on these diamonds if they need some cash flow. The harsh reality is that old-school local brick-and-mortar stores are fighting a battle with their backs against the wall.Internet giants are eating away more and more of their business with prices that they can never dream to compete with.
If you are connected with industry people or planning a trip to New York City's famous Diamond District, you could try your luck at getting a loose diamond from the diamond traders themselves. They could offer you a good price, but that is unlikely. Not to say that they are all evil and there to scam you, but the majority of them are middlemen and not diamond polishers themselves. So at the time when they get their hands on these diamonds, the diamond itself has already been marked up.
If you keep searching for diamonds on the internet, the all-mighty ad machine will eventually put related ads in front of you. (Guilty here. I am too far gone now and all I see are diamond ads.) Should you try your luck here?
So far what I have described does not sound like a rosy path to your dream stone. Fear not! Because of the difficulty in purchasing a diamond on your own, diamond websites have taken up the challenge and made purchasing a loose diamond a much easier and less stressful ordeal than the previous venues.
First of all, you will get a sense of what types of diamonds you are looking for by playing around with the 4C selection sliders. Then you can figure out if your expectations match up with your budget. In addition, many of them have images of settings and sometimes fancy virtual reality try-on tools to aid in your selections. Lastly, it's free! You can play around with the diamond and setting until you find your dream stone.
What do I mean by that? Many of these websites make their money by selling the diamond. Rare Carat, in contrast, makes money by having you click on diamonds. That means that we can dedicate all our resources to helping you find the best diamond rather than selling a diamond.
Rare Carat has the reason and resources to invest in algorithms and features that compare prices all across our vendors, calculate if the offer is a good deal, measure the quality of the diamond against other diamonds, and even have a staff of gemologists to personally review your pick. Click HERE to check out a Rare Carat Report.
Learning how to buy a loose diamond for an engagement ring or other piece of diamond jewelry can save you money and will allow you to choose your perfect diamond with exacting precision. Online diamond jewelers make it much easier to compare and select loose diamonds compared to visiting diamond wholesalers in places like the New York City diamond district. 041b061a72