The Man Made Diamonds

The buying of diamonds is often associated with unfair, almost dishonest business practices. Minor or major scams concerning the purchase or sale of diamonds keep appearing, though, the minor ones involving common buyers remain unnoticed most of the time.

However, the reason for a common consumer to get tricked into buying diamonds is largely due to ignorance of the technicalities of the item on the part of the buyer.

So, before you go to buy diamonds you should arm yourself with as much of the information as you possibly can. Yet, here are some of the common tricks often employed by the sellers of diamonds.

A very common trick played by the dealers of diamonds is called as the Carat Weight Trick. Here, when you buy a piece of jewelry, say a ring, you’ll find that the total weight of all the diamonds contained therein is mentioned, rather than the individual weight of each diamond.

This gives an impression to the buyer that the weight of the main diamond is more than it actually is. Buyer should specifically enquire the weight of the central stone. You should be aware that jewelry stores are permitted to round off the weight of diamonds, meaning that a diamond said to weigh ¾ carat could actually be weighing anywhere between ½ to ¾ carat, but nearing ¾ carat.

Another trick that jewelers employ, mostly while selling blue and white diamond, is known as Fluorescence Effect.  A blue and white diamond builds the image of a very special diamond, whereas it’s not a very superior diamond. Yet, the dealer creates very impressive image of such diamond and prompts you to buy that.

You’ll also realize that jewelers tend to display their diamonds in very bright light that makes diamonds to shine extraordinarily. Try to inspect the diamond under normal lighting conditions or may be in daylight even.

The other scam is called Low Balling. If you approach an unscrupulous diamond dealer to have your diamonds evaluated, you will be informed that the piece you are carrying is worthless or not worth the price you might have paid. So, the dealer proposes to buy back that piece and sell you another “better” piece, charging you for the difference in the price of two diamonds. So, you should not hesitate to approach a second or even a third or fourth dealer to have a reasonably good assessment of your possession.

Here’s another dirty trick played by jewelers. Having bought one diamond, you may leave it with the jeweler for being fixed in a piece of jewelry, and without your realizing your chosen piece is replaced with another not so expensive diamond! So, you should be doing business with a reputed trustworthy jeweler.

Like that, there are scores of other tricks played by unscrupulous dealers and one should exercise caution while buying diamonds.