Happy New Year to all our Hebrew and Jewish readers.

Some of you are in the Diamond Trade and today a new diamond index launched aptly named DIAMONDS INDEX (TM) an international non-profit organization and they are publicly stating why you can’t trust the diamond values in the Rapaport List or the Idex Diamond Value lists.

It’s a simple word called TRANSPARENCY.

By being an international non-profit DIAMONDS INDEX (TM) does not have any conflicts of interest that both the Rapaport List and Idex have.

As the DIAMONDS INDEX (TM) reveals on their main page, the Rapaport List is not for the public, so that means it will never be a public index, it was created for dealers. Also, Martin Rapaport the man that created the wholesale diamond list is a seller of diamonds so conflict of interest.

Idex is owned by Sarin a company that has almost complete control of the diamond industry from how diamond rough is analyzed with their technology, to how cutters prepare diamonds to cut and even how labs then grade polished stones with their technology.

So of course Idex has a vested interest in keeping very common graded diamonds on it’s lists as does Rapaport. Both lists track off grade diamonds which are very, very common gems, if you can even call them gems. Cutters and labs are involved in creating lots of very common stones, how many women do you know in the USA who are married and don’t own a common piece of carbon or diamond? It’s everywhere. Go to a mall and you see how shops are filled with common carbon, it’s an illusion that diamonds are rare. They are not rare.

Now DIAMONDS INDEX (TM) has publicly stated most diamonds that fill up jewelers stores are not even worth tracking their value since they are that common. DIAMONDS INDEX (TM) has also excluded over 90% of the worlds top graded diamonds from their DIAMONDS INDEX (TM) due to most of them have major flaws on their high grade GIA certificates. These serious flaws mean only a small percentage of the worlds high graded diamonds even qualify to be on the DIAMONDS INDEX (TM) value list.

The non-profit organization that operates DIAMONDS INDEX (TM) has also launched GEMS INDEX (TM) the first attempt to put a clear value on what are indeed very RARE GEMS such as Rubies and Emeralds and Sapphires.

DIAMONDS INDEX (TM) says Diamonds are so common they don’t even qualify to be on GEMS INDEX (TM). So if you have a high grade common carbon or diamond, you may want to see if your GIA diamond certificate has serious flaws your jeweler didn’t reveal to you.

If your diamond is lower than a J color, sorry the color is not RARE.

If your diamond is below VS1, sorry it’s a very common grade those being SI and I.

Is your VSS a VVS2? Sorry that’s usually a center inclusion not worthy of the list.

Does your D to F color diamonds have any florescence?  Sorry automatic exclusion from the list.

Does your diamond have nasty GIA comments you didn’t understand such as color tint and knuckles or bad grain or lower than top grades on polish or symmetry? Sorry your diamond is not worth tracking it’s value.

My contact inside DIAMONDS INDEX (TM) says a dealer and a consumer can take into account if a GIA graded diamond has cert flaws and then discount such stones from the public value they have put on high grade diamonds with almost no cert flaw. Some tiny flaws are allowed in says DIAMONDS INDEX (TM) but overall the list is pretty close to being only for diamonds with nearly perfect GIA certificates and no comments.

My contact inside DIAMONDS INDEX (TM) says Rapaport and Idex have included seriously flawed diamonds in their lists since that is what the diamond industry can produce in volume, the rarest diamonds are what the DIAMONDS INDEX (TM) tracks and any diamond list should reveal to the public that all the off grade diamonds their lists put values on, are just very common stones and not even gems. The fact is off grade diamonds are very common and of little value in reality to collectors since they are every where.

So if you are thinking of buying a diamond today, make sure it is a higher grade and that the GIA diamond certificate has no major flaws, then what you are looking at is a RARE GEM.

If the Diamond is of a lower grade, then use this article to beat up the jeweler for carrying LOW GRADE DIAMONDS. Do they have value? Right now they do, but once the public is fully aware of the DIAMONDS INDEX (TM) and how even high grade diamonds have serious flaws that do not allow over 90% of diamonds to be on their exclusive list, well the value of elite high graded diamonds is probably about to soar and the common carbon should keep falling and falling, since it is only COMMON CARBON.