WHAT DIAMONDS ARE PEOPLE BUYING?

A LOOK AT THE LATEST 20 DIAMONDS SOLD - WHAT SIZE AND QUALITY ARE THEY?

Posted on November 14, 2018 by Richard Scott

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Confused?

Looking for a diamond, but don’t know what to buy?

Let other purchases guide you…

Knowing what size, quality, shape, and price of diamonds that other people are buying (and the mounting they choose), can help you decide on the perfect ring for you.

Point you in the right direction

James Allen makes it easy. They have a page on their website featuring recently sold rings (to give people inspiration and ideas). It shows you the exact diamonds, color, clarity, cut, everything, that people have purchased right now… And you can even design a ring similar to it if you like. It’s cool and convenient.

Take a peek:

But what’s even more fascinating is listing and comparing all of these details. You can pinpoint exactly what the top quality is (talking center stones only), and what’s popular.

So let’s do that…

The latest 20 diamonds sold are:

(latest 20 at the time of this post)

.90 Round, VS2 Clarity, I Color, Excellent Cut

.70 Oval, SI1 Clarity, F Color, Good Cut

.70 Round, IF Clarity, H Color, Excellent Cut

.91 Emerald, VVS2 Clarity, E Color, Good Cut

.80 Round, VVS2 Clarity, E Color, Very Good Cut

.91 Round, SI1 Clarity, I Color, Very Good Cut

.90 Round, SI1 Clarity, H Color, Excellent Cut

1.01 Oval, SI1 Clarity, H Color, Good Cut

.90 Round, VS1 Clarity, J Color, Excellent Cut

.90 Round, VS1 Clarity, E Color, Very Good Cut

1.01 Cushion, VS1 Clarity, E Color, Very Good Cut

1.00 Princess, VS1 Clarity, I Color, Good Cut

.90 Round, SI1 Clarity, H Color, Excellent Cut

1.00 Round, VVS2 Clarity, J Color, Excellent Cut

.90 Round, VS2 Clarity, I Color, Excellent Cut

.80 Round, VS2 Clarity, I Color, Excellent Cut

1.00 Princess, SI1 Clarity, E Color, Very Good Cut

.85 Princess, VVS2 Clarity, E Color, Good Cut

1.02 Princess, VVS2 Clarity, E Color, Good Cut

1.00 Round, VVS2 Clarity, K Color, Excellent Cut

Now let’s compare diamonds to learn more:

Creating a chart for myself, I went through and listed all of the diamond qualities (starting with color), and then averaged them out.

The most popular color was E

E color is pure white and exhibits zero color whatsoever in the diamond. It’s ultra-white, and ultra-bright (my favorite color handsdown).

After E, came H. H is at the top half of the Near Colorless color range. It’s considered a “fine white” diamond, and will still face up white (not yellow, or off yellow).

The leading clarity was SI1

SI1 is the most popular clarity because all of the inclusions are invisible to the eye (unless you magnify the diamond). It’s eye-clean and faces up beautifully.

After SI1, the next most popular clarities were higher up the chart; VS1, VS2 and VVS2 (all top notch diamonds).

The average cut was excellent

Almost all of the diamonds shown above have “excellent” cut grades. Excellent is the best there is (using GIA‘s grading system), and will give you outstanding brilliance, fire, and scintillation (more sparkle than any other cut). It really is the only cut I would recommend buying. The visual difference alone will blow you away! It’s night and day.

The average carat weight was .90 CT

This carat weight is wonderful. It’s a light-carat (just a tad smaller than a full carat – which helps keep the cost down). 90 points looks large, looks like a carat, but can actually save you thousands on your purchase.

So let’s look at the price…

The average price (adding everything up and dividing it by 20), came out to be:

$4,380

It’s a perfect price range for an engagement ring, and it gets you a great looking ring with a huge carat weight. Compare these prices to what you find in mall stores and you’ll see. There is no comparison.

What we also learned was this:

When people shop for loose diamonds, they are looking for quality. The shape of the stone varied a little, but the round brilliant cut diamond came out on top (second is the princess cut).

So putting all of this information together, this is the most popular diamond sold today:

CARAT WEIGHT, CLARITY, COLOR, CUT	PRICE	VIEW
.90 CT, SI1, E, EXCELLENT	AVG: $4,400	VIEW

So knowing what sells, and what other people pick, can help you decide on the right diamond to buy.

See all the 90 point, SI1 clarity, E color, Excellent cut round diamonds HERE at James Allen (the lowest prices online).

Cheers! :)

2 Comments on WHAT DIAMONDS ARE PEOPLE BUYING?

Shari D. // January 8, 2019 at 3:20 pm // Reply

Richard – While this is what I like to call “a little bit late out of the gate,” I thought you might be interested, just for the sake of trivia.

Like you, I love to go poking around on the James Allen site for loose diamondsin a variety of categories. My latest exploration, where I found something worthy of adding to my “♡ list” was a real whopper! I was looking for THE most expensive round brilliant diamond they had available, because, as we all know, the round brilliant racks up the price quicker than most any other cut. And boy, did I scpre on that one! A 22.08 carat, D color, VVS1, round brilliant stunner for a little pocket change – if you’ve got REALLY BIG pockets!! Over $2,000,000! Yep – over two MILLION dollars! It’s a real beauty, and I figured it would probably hang around for some time, considering the cost.

Well, I went back to the site just a little while ago (after dealing with a rather lengthy hospitalization which included the holidays, for a recently discovered heart condition, I have to admit to being somewhat distracted! And then catching up with the holidays with the kiddos and grandkids too…) and I started looking at my list, to see what’s been going on.

Well, it seems that SOMEBODY way up the “Bling Ladder” got an incredible Christmas/New Year’s/Engagement/Anniversary gift!! It’s been SOLD! Over $2,000,000! For A diamond! Two MILLION dollars! But its the size of across my thumb knuckle – over 18mm in diameter. That’s MY thumb knuckle of course- as the saying goes, your results may vary!

I can’t say I’m jealous, really. The lifestyle in which a boulder like that would easily fit is simply not anywhere near where I would be the least bit comfortable. Or, would even tempt me to join, because the way I see it, the bigger your lifestyle and the money it takes to support it, the bigger the problems that come along with it! And the more the “Imperial Entanglements” are involved that I do my best to avoid, even at my stage! I’ll stick with simplicity, and just admire the sparkles from the European royalty for my heavy doses of “Bling Fever!”

Hope your Holidays were much better than mine! I forgot how incredibly uncomfortable hospital beds can really be, even IF they are supposed to be “adjustable!” And how much I despise being unavoidably awakened at 4:00AM (!!) for a half-hour go-round of vital signs – temperature, pulse, respiration, oxygen levels – and being poked by nurses with sharp needles and widely varying degrees of phlebotomy skills for several tubes worth of lab work, after being escorted to the bathroom and back, the daily “weigh-in” and a 12-lead EKG! A half an hour it takes. Try going back to sleep after all that! Or sleeping at all, when your room is just across the hallway from the Nurses Station. Noise 24/7, LIGHTS which caused me to leave a standing request for my room door to remain closed at all times. Oh, and the food! On a low salt (no salt?) Cardiac diet!? Miserable. And the menu, from which you are required to order every meal from the Food Service line on the telephone, then wait 45-60 minutes for delivery, never changes. I got one menu while I was there, with very limited choices, and no updates. No changes. Except for their Christmas dinner, which consisted of roast turkey (probably Food Service quality turkey loaf), some roasted vegetables (which happened to be the very few I happen to dislike intensely,) and sugar cookies. It was so depressing, I just didnt even bother. I had my husband bring me a turkey club sandwich from the hospital vending machine!! And it was BETTER! I only managed to eat half of it, but it was definitely tasty by comparison! No, I didn’t put salt on it! I lost an amazing amount of weight while going through all that. About 10 kilos. I thought I would NEVER get out of there and back home with my husband, (who got the flu while I was in the hospital, and had to take care of himself ) and in my own bed again!

And now, I have another health issue to deal with, which we have determined is based entirely on hereditary factors, since it isn’t one that can be self-inflicted by bad health habits. That’s exactly what I needed – ONE MORE problem! Sheesh – sometimes it just never seems to end.

Here’s hoping for a better year in 2019 for us all!!
- Richard Scott // January 9, 2019 at 8:48 am // Reply
  
  Sounds like a horrible way to spend a holiday. And the only good side to it all; weight loss. Other than that, blah. Hope you get better, feel better, and make some good decisions about healthy food (that’s a resolution). I really am sorry to hear about the more bad news, seems like every year life just throws more on the plate just to see how much we can handle. Sucks! I had two new issues arise last year, can’t wait to see what this year brings. :\ -Richard