• DIAMONDS

BUY | SELL | LOAN

Experienced Diamond Buyers for over 10 years

Whether you are looking to sell, trade, upgrade or get a loan on your diamond jewellery, we are here to help. Our staff is highly trained on all aspects of diamond buying and have been providing customers with professional and competitive service for over 10 years.

As with everything we buy, we pride ourselves in having the highest payout prices among our competition and as always encourage the customer to know the value of their jewellery and get multiple quotes to be sure they are getting a competitive and fair price. We love seeing our customers back in our store letting us know our quotes came out on top and we strive to ensure this reputation stays with us for many years to come!

We invite you to look through this page which explains in great detail how diamonds are graded and what techniques we use in evaluating your jewellery.

SELLING YOUR DIAMOND?

How it works

If you are interested in selling your diamond, we are ready to give you a free appraisal and instantly pay cash should you choose to accept our offer. There is absolutely no pressure to sell in our store and we are more than happy to look and evaluate your diamond for free.  

Selling your diamond with Richmond Luxury & Loan works in these 3 easy steps:


EVALUATE

 Your diamond is evaluated by one of our expert team members at our store while you wait. We will carefully inspect the various aspects of your diamond without any damage to your jewellery piece. This part of the process takes only a few minutes.


QUOTE

We will make you an offer for what we are able to pay to purchase your diamond, or an amount we would be able to loan. Should you choose to leave your diamond with us as collateral on a loan, we will safely store it in our shop without ever showing it to perspective buyers. For more information how collateral loans work please visit our loan policies page.


DECIDE

If you choose to sell your diamond, we will pay you immediately with your choice of either cash or cheque! There is never any pressure to sell your diamond and we encourage you to get multiple quotes from other diamond buyers to ensure that you are getting the highest payout possible for your diamonds!

THE 4 C's OF DIAMONDS

Cut, Colour, Clarity and Carat

CUT

The cut generally has the most influence over how your diamond appears and is considered to be the most important characteristic when judging the value of your diamond. It is what gives your diamond that sparkle which everyone loves. The perfect cut reflects the light from the top of the diamond, while less perfect cuts such as too deep or too shallow will redirect the light to the side or the bottom respectively.

The descriptions below outline the 5 diamond cut grades:

GRADE DESCRIPTION
Ideal Very rare. Reflects almost all light which comes through the top of the diamond.
Very Good Reflects just slightly less light than the ideal, but still a very good diamond.
Good  Most of the light reflected but down in price from the Ideal and Very Good cuts.
Fair  Some of the light is lost in this cut and generally priced quite a bit lower.
Poor  Much of the light is lost. Generally does not reflect a lot due to poor cut.

 

COLOUR

The second most important characteristic when grading a diamond refers to a diamond’s lack of colour. The less colour a diamond has the higher is its value. The highest possible colour grade of a diamond is “D” while “Z” is the lowest. Most of today’s jewellery is made of diamonds which are somewhere between I and E in colour.

CLARITY

Most of the world’s naturally occurring diamonds have tiny imperfections which show up inside the diamond as little specs and inclusions. These markings is what affects the diamonds clarity as well as its price. Diamonds which have the least of these imperfections tend to get the highest grades and virtually have no impact on how the diamond looks or sparkles.

CARAT

The final aspect of the diamond’s value is its carat. Generally the larger the carat the higher priced a diamond will be and the price rises significantly with diamonds which are above 1 carat.

The carat is a measure of weight and by itself doesn’t always accurately represent the diamond’s size. Since we generally tend to view the diamond from the top down (in a ring for example), we tend not to take into account its depth, or otherwise known as the cut. In determining the diamond size, two key aspects should be taken into consideration:

– Distance across the top of the diamond.
– Cut of the diamond.

Some diamonds may have a deep cut, which will take up more weight in the base of the diamond and therefore have a smaller top and less sparkle. Carat and cut go hand in hand in determining how big your diamond will actually appear and the most ideal combination is with an ideal cut.

APPRAISALS AND CERTIFICATION

The importance of a reputable diamond certificate

Diamond Certification: Also sometimes referred to as a diamond grading report or diamond quality document, is a report created by certified gemologists outlining all aspects of your diamond. When your diamond has a certification – it shows a trained gemologist had carefully inspected your diamond for the most important characteristics.  Not all appraisals and certifications are created equal. Some can significantly increase the value of your diamond, while others almost make no impact.

The best and most respected gemological appraisal laboratories today are:
Gemological Institute of America – (GIA): GIA laboratories set the standard for diamond grading today and provide with most respected and highest valued appraisals. Generally if your diamond has a GIA certification, we provide the highest payout for this type of certification. For more information visit: http://www.gia.edu/.
American Gem Society (AGS): Grade on almost an identical system as GIA. For more information please visit: http://www.americangemsociety.org/.
European Gemological Laboratory (EGL): Another common type of appraisal seen with today’s diamonds, the EGL certification provides high grade appraisals for your diamonds, however is viewed as just slightly less accurate then the GIA certification. For more information please visit: http://www.eglusa.com/.