Pre owned diamonds

There is an interesting conversation going on over at Pricescope right now about how to tell if a stone is pre-owned. While this is not an issue with me, I realize that to many people it is, so here is just one of the exchanges happening there.

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Beacon wrote: "If the cert were over two years old, I would assume the diamond had been owned before. This would not deter me, UNLESS the stone were a super high clarity, like vs1 or higher. In that case I would want a more recent cert to make sure there had been no damage during the time after the first certification. If lower clarity, then a careful inspection should be enuf to determine if the rating is still right."

This was my response:

Rather than assume, why not ask? I just sold a stone with a cert more than two years old that had never been sold before. It was just unusual enough that it stayed in inventory for some time.

For those instances when we take a stone in trade, the first thing that happens to it is that it is repapered to make sure that it is not damaged in any way from when it was papered before. I can certainly appreciate that some will not want a stone that was previously owned for any reason, and the best way for them to know this is to be sure to ask. I have the great fortune to work with a company that tracks each diamond from rough to finished, so it is easy for me to check.

Many dealers however are getting diamonds from a wholesaler and often the wholesaler himself will not know whether or not the diamond has been previously owned. Just because a diamond is coming directly from a wholesaler does not assure you of a previously unowned diamond.

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