Learn about 'C' of diamond trade to make it a deal of life time

Like the diamonds themselves, there is an almost endless supply of informational websites teaching the consumer the best way to buy a diamond. The problem is, however, that if you look closely you will find that the vast majority of these informational pages are owned, either overtly or covertly, by the very same people looking to sell you a diamond. Most people know by now not to trust everything your car salesman says about the car he's trying to sell you, so should the person trying to sell you a diamond be looked at any differently?

The simple fact is that almost all advice given online about how to buy a diamond is grossly exaggerated to fit the particular type of diamond that each vendor specializes in. A vendor who specializes in "ideal cuts" is going to tell you that everything else but "ideal cuts" are junk and don't look nearly as nice as what they're selling. An online vendor who doesn't offer pictures will tell you that you need to buy a high clarity grade, or else you could wind up with an eye visible inclusion.

I would like to present to you, the diamond consumer, my take on the four Cs (Cut, Clarity, Color, Carat). What I'm going to explain to you now is the way every diamond dealer I know would approach buying a diamond for his wife or girlfriend. You'd be wise to do the same.

To preface my discussion of each "C" individually, it's important to discuss two important issues first. First of all, we need to address where to buy the diamond and the simple answer to that question is: online. While bricks and mortar stores provide the obvious benefit of being able to see the diamond ahead of time, that one benefit is not worth the much greater margin you're going to end up paying. Most online vendors markup their diamonds anywhere from 10 to 18 percent. Bricks and mortar stores will typically markup their diamonds around 50% -- and that's down significantly from where it was just about 10 years ago when it was closer to 100%.

The second issue that needs discussion is my general approach to balancing tradeoffs between the four Cs. Before you attempt to evaluate this balance, you need to define the goal for yourself. I typically advise one of two goals: Either trying to buy the largest diamond for your specific budget, or alternatively, keeping the size where you had originally planned it, but trying to buy the cheapest diamond (that obviously covers my minimum requirements) for that size. The analogy for balancing the four Cs that I like to use is that of a pie. Each "C" represents a slice of the pie. The larger (better) one slice, the smaller the other slices necessarily become. My diamond buying strategy can be summed up quite succinctly as the following: minimizing the slices that your eye doesn't notice (diamond color and clarity), and maximizing the slices that your eye does notice (carat and cut).