{"id":8500,"date":"2022-11-29T08:00:12","date_gmt":"2022-11-29T13:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewelry-secrets.com\/Blog\/?p=8500"},"modified":"2022-11-29T17:05:38","modified_gmt":"2022-11-29T22:05:38","slug":"what-is-diamond-grade-bumping","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewelry-secrets.com\/Blog\/what-is-diamond-grade-bumping\/","title":{"rendered":"WHAT IS DIAMOND GRADE BUMPING?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Diamond<\/div>\n

Scenario:<\/h2>\n

\nYou buy a big beautiful diamond. It’s a massive 1.50 carats<\/strong>. <\/p>\n

\nThe clarity is exceptional – VS2 clarity<\/strong>. The color is impressive – F color<\/strong>. You spend $13,000<\/strong> for the diamond and are completely happy and satisfied with your purchase…<\/p>\n

Until…<\/h2>\n

\nYou get it appraised somewhere else and are told that it’s not<\/strong> a VS2, F diamond<\/a>, it’s actually an SI1, G diamond<\/a> instead.<\/p>\n

How can this be?<\/h2>\n

\nThat’s one whole grade lower in both color<\/a> and clarity<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And here’s where it gets worse… You could have bought an SI1 clarity, G colored diamond for only $9,000.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Talk about being furious.<\/strong><\/p>\n

That’s a $4,000 rip off!<\/h2>\n

\nMany would want to sue over this… <\/p>\n

But wait…<\/h2>\n

It’s legal!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hold onto your hats… <\/strong><\/p>\n

It really is completely legal…<\/h2>\n

\nSuing will do you no good. And guess what? This probably happens all the time.<\/p>\n

Welcome to the real world.<\/h2>\n

It’s called grade bumping,<\/strong> and it’s been happening forever. And the funny thing about it is there’s nothing that anyone can do about it.<\/p>\n

Fact is, it’s not against the law<\/strong>. Jewelers can<\/strong> bump up the clarity and color by one full grade and the FTC (Federal Trade Commission<\/strong>) approves <\/strong>of it. <\/p>\n

Insane?<\/h2>\n

\nIt almost gets your blood boiling.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Why do jewelers grade bump?<\/h2>\n

\nWell, for one, it’s allowed. <\/p>\n

\nIf they can bump up the clarity and color they can make more money on the diamond ($4,000 for this one example.) That’s a lot of profit.<\/strong><\/p>\n

And two, because when it all comes down to it, grading diamonds is all opinion.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\nIt’s someone’s opinion of what quality the diamond really is. That’s all grading is… An educated and trained guess<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\nOf course, this is all based upon years of experience and know-how, and most jeweler’s are truthful when it comes to grading, but it’s still just an opinion. <\/p>\n

They could be wrong.<\/h2>\n

(Accidentally <\/strong>or purposefully<\/strong>.)<\/p>\n

Who’s to say that one person’s opinion is any more accurate than another? Every opinion is different and you’re going to get different results<\/strong>. Even the expert’s opinions are not always exact. That’s why GIA uses 3 expert diamontologists<\/strong> to grade their stones. It’s how they back up their gradings, claims and reports.<\/p>\n

Opinions are like…<\/h2>\n

Because grading is opinionated, the FTC allows for some slack<\/strong> and leniency. Diamond grading is not an exact science. Jewelers can be off by a grade higher or a grade lower (but no more than 1 single grade) and this is perfectly acceptable.<\/strong><\/p>\n

You could buy a VVS2 diamond<\/a> and have it be a VS1 diamond<\/a> instead. An SI2 diamond<\/a> could be an I1 clarity diamond<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\nYou could buy a J color and have it turn out to be a K.<\/strong> You just don’t know.<\/p>\n

It doesn’t matter how much you spent for it either. It doesn’t matter what the salesperson told you. If you buy a diamond, it could be off.<\/strong> Simple as that. <\/p>\n

\nIt could be an entirely different clarity or color than what you paid for<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\nYou could lose a lot of money.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Is this ethical?<\/h2>\n

Not really. But how can you stop someone’s opinion?<\/strong><\/p>\n

This isn’t to say that all jewelers do this. But it can and will happen<\/strong> if you don’t know how to prevent it. <\/p>\n

That’s right…<\/h2>\n

\nThis can be prevented.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\nAnd, in fact, there is a very easy way to avoid being grade bumped.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Prevention:<\/h2>\n

Buy only GIA certified diamonds.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\nWhen a diamond is certified by an outside independent laboratory, the color<\/strong> and clarity<\/strong> that they list on the diamond report is factual and positive proof that the quality you paid for is the quality you’re taking home.<\/p>\n

No more grade bumping.<\/h2>\n

Buying certified diamonds is the easiest way possible to totally prevent<\/strong> your diamond from being bumped.<\/p>\n

So if you want to protect yourself and your diamond, if you don’t want to get ripped off… Then look into GIA certified diamonds.<\/a> <\/p>\n

\nCertification removes the jeweler’s opinion from the equation. <\/p>\n

(It keeps the jeweler honest.)<\/h2>\n

\nAnd it also keeps that $4,000 right in your pocket where it belongs.<\/strong><\/p>\n

And that, my friends, is grade A advice.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\nCheers! :)<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Scenario: You buy a big beautiful diamond. It’s a massive 1.50 carats. The clarity is exceptional – VS2 clarity. The color is impressive – F color. You spend $13,000 for the diamond and are completely [Read More…]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8501,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,7,6,29,3,10,4],"tags":[702,703],"class_list":["post-8500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-certification","category-clarity","category-color","category-diamond-guide","category-diamonds","category-engagement","category-jewelry","tag-diamond-bumping","tag-grade-bumping"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewelry-secrets.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8500"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewelry-secrets.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewelry-secrets.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewelry-secrets.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewelry-secrets.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8500"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewelry-secrets.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8500\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewelry-secrets.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewelry-secrets.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewelry-secrets.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewelry-secrets.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}