Our Comprehensive Diamond Pricing Guide

A diamond is more than just a beautiful piece of jewellery. Diamonds are a highly valuable lifetime investment. Due to its prestige and sentimental value, finding the perfect loose stone or bespoke jewellery requires more than just a simple price tag.

A diamond’s price and value can mean entirely two different things. Value of a diamond can come down to personal tastes. Since diamond jewellery can be a sentimental gift or purchase, its value can be biased. The cost of a diamond is determined through stricter manners to ensure an impartial pricing method.

The price value of a diamond is commonly determined through GIA’s 4 C grading system. The 4 C’s stand for cut, carat weight, colour and clarity. Each stone at GemTrove is trialled and tested through the GIA method to provide accurate pricing.

Learn more about the 4 C’s in our diamond education section.

However, the cut, clarity, carat weight and colour grade of a diamond are only some of the key factors that determine the stone’s price. The 7 basic price factors for diamonds are cut quality, colour, carat weight, clarity, cutting style & stone shape, transparency, and treatment status.

Cut quality (proportions and finish)

Cut quality is determined by the proportions and finish of a diamond. It is a crucial factor in pricing as it can affect the total cost by as much as 50%. Two things need to be considered when evaluating cut quality:

• Do you see brilliance all across the stone?

• Are you paying for excess weight?

Colour

A diamond’s colour price value depends on whether it has a natural hue or is a fancy colour. Traditional diamonds cost more when there is less colour. Diamond stones that have a colourless, water-like complexion are the most expensive.

A fancy colour diamond’s price rises when its colour is more vivid. The only exception is brown and grey stones, which are graded on the same scale as normal diamonds.

Carat weight

A diamond’s carat weight is often to scale. The higher the carat weight, the more valuable the stone is. One carat unit equals to ⅕ of a gram. Although it should be noted that there is a difference between 1 ct TW (1-carat total weight) and 1 ct (the weight of the stone). A ring with a 1 ct top quality diamond can be worth more than 10 times as much as a ring with 1 ct TW of diamonds of the same quality.

Clarity

Diamonds are renowned for its sparkle. A stone that has fewer and less noticeable flaws would be priced higher. The GIA’s clarity grading is best used to determine the different blemishes a diamond could have. View our inclusions and blemishes guide here.

Cutting style & stone shape

Diamonds come in a variety of shapes. The different cutting styles and shape of a diamond are all priced differently. For example, round shapes cost more than pear types. And brilliant-cut square diamonds can cost slightly more than step-cut squares. Fancy colour can also intervene with a shape’s price value as certain hues shine best in different styles.

Transparency

Clear, colourless diamonds are highly priced. But this doesn’t mean all stones are transparent. Some diamonds can appear cloudy or translucent due to the particles within that interrupt the passage of light. The more transparent a diamond is, the higher its price range.

Treatment status (untreated or treated? What type of treatment?)

A majority of diamonds are untreated. But recently diamonds are starting to undergo treatments to improve clarity, colour, transparency and marketability. Depending on how the diamond was treated its value can either rise or lower due to the tampering of a diamond’s natural form.

Discover Our Beautiful Diamond Collection

Browse our selection of sterling diamonds and fine jewellery. At GemTrove we have a variety of luxury loose diamonds and diamond jewellery available to suit any budget. To learn more about how diamonds are priced talk to one of our consultants today. You can speak to us via phone, email or visit our flagship store in Melbourne.

View our loose diamonds and bespoke diamond jewellery.