Smart buying can mean just as much as smart selling for a lot of diamond dealers which their mark-up is very low, they live because of high volume sales. While some businesses live and die with buying decisions, no amount of marketing can be compensated for overpaying. International Diamond Club is dedicated to provide the best tips on buying diamonds to the dealers and manufacturers in the industry around the globe. We also look at obtaining reliable price information, how to choose a good source, different buying options, and the internal question of memo. We explore the best ways to buy a good deal in diamonds.
Top 18 Diamond Buying Tips
1. Be "important" to your supplier.
While it always pays to shop around, too much shopping around can hurt you in the diamond business, which puts a premium on relationships. Diamond suppliers give the best deals to customers who are "important" to them. If you buy a lot from one supplier consistently every month, you will be treated like royalty, as opposed to someone who calls every once in a while and wants a prime diamond. Even you should select your diamond vendors down to a select group. This is especially important during current shortages, where in-demand goods are reserved for the preferred customers only.
This is a business of relationships, and if you have a good relationship with a supplier, he will be there to help you during a tight time.
You may trust your suppliers implicitly, but unless you have a thorough understanding of their strengths and weaknesses, you may not always get the good deals.
Most dealers specialize, and the one with the great deal on fancies may not necessarily be the good source for the rounds. When you talk to a supplier, ask them what they carry, ask for their strength. Every dealer has both strong and weak areas. It also helps to know the schedule of your supplier when they have the heaviest inventory. Ask your supplier about the language of their assortment, in terms of color, purity, cut, size and the type of material.
Always keep some samples of your good buys and always compare with your samples. If you do not buy diamonds everyday, your memory will not remember the exact color, so the best comparison is with your samples. For those dealers and manufacturers who deal everyday, it is still recommended to compare with their samples.
For every single parcel of diamond you want to buy, evaluate and confirm the shade of the parcel, if it is mix color or purity, sort a part of the parcel, put a value for each part and find out the average value. Try to avoid buying parcels that are too mixed in color or purity.
Check to exact sizing assortment. Make sure the sizing combination is the original parcel. In this case, sieve every parcel and check in the between sizing and make sure that they are not missing.
The parcel with missing in-between sieves sizing is not good sizing and has less value.
If you are looking for a parcel, specify the quality range and your first and last choice, which make it easier for both.
You may be a more valuable customer than you realize. If you pay quickly, you can avail yourself to a greater range of goods, more goods during off-season, or frequent sale of the off-makes and difficult goods, and get a better selection and price from the vendors.
The best relationship between the buyer and the seller are true partnerships, which means both partners are happy in the end. It doesn't help if you squeeze your dealers to death and not let them make money.
Here again, the one hand-washes-the-other principle comes into play. If you give a fast turnaround on memo, you will definitely get a better deal in the future. You are not doing yourself and your supplier any good if you have inventories tied up in the vault.
Supply is tight on a lot of key items, and if you see a good deal on a popular stone or parcel, do not hesitate to buy it, because chances are there are other dealers looking for it too.
Relationships are important, but it never hurts to look around every now and then to ensure that your sources are competitive.
Stay up-to-date on price information and have back-up suppliers to double check prices.
The best deals are found during the spring, when the diamond business is mostly quiet. But there is more business and therefore higher prices, right before Christmas and in January (due to stocking), as well as in the summer following the major trade shows.
If you memo, you are borrowing a stone and if you are borrowing, you pay interest on it. Buying instead of memoing gives a competitive advantage - you can buy cheaper and sell cheaper. The best way to get a good deal is to walk into your supplier's office with a checkbook in your hands.
One of the best ways to become an important customer is to become a regular, which means buying all through out the year. "Being a steady buyer absolutely gets you the best deal".
It helps if you buy what everyone else isn't buying. The market sometime comes back on the less requested items, and in the meantime, you have bought some thing at a quite attractive price.
Especially if you plan to make a large purchase, give yourself time to make sure you are getting the best deal.
Timing is everything in this business. You need to get the best deal at the right moment. People buy the worst when they are under pressure.
Your supplier may not necessarily have the stones you need on time all the time, but they should at least try to fill your needs. Consistency is important. Sometimes when you get a new supplier, you get the first shipment and the goods look great, but on the second buy, the goods are not as great and the third one is even worse.
Just as a diamond supplier will get references on you, you should get references on them as well. Word of mouth is probably the most popular way of doing this.
There is no substitute for being actually present in the market. Prices change so quickly that you really have to keep in touch with what's going on.
The best source of this information sometimes can be your own vendors. If you have a good relationship with your dealer, he should give you price information. If you are new in the market, things are trickier. Price sheets such as Rapaports are the other important resource. Price sheets have proven to be popular and useful, even if the publishers admit that they are only indicators rather than the actual list of prices.
The most useful price list can be the one you make yourself. After a while, you will have good sense of which dealer is giving you not only the best buys, but also price directions in the market.
The goal of this booklet is to show you how to make more money, but don't forget that the goal of the goals is happiness and happiness is the result of good relationships.
