A new category of diamond is emerging in the diamond trade, “Internet Diamond”.  It refers to a category of diamonds that while having a certification, the certification does not communicate a problem with the stone clearly. The popular wisdom with in the diamond trade, is when you come into possession of one of these diamonds you list it  with a big diamond site.

These sites are clearing facilities, working on a percentage. They don’t buy and sell, what they do is post listing from their network of vendors, who along with listing the diamonds, assign the price and ship the diamonds directly to the diamonds  the buyer.  These sites offer a return period, after which, if the diamond has not been returned, they pay the vendor, if it is returned, they ship it back to the vendor,not paying the vendor and return the money to the consumer.

These sites are very carefully to represent only the information from the certification to the consumer. They make no guarantees beyond the return period. It is the sole responsibility of the buyer to  confirm that the diamond they recieve is what they bargained for. The buyer must then, either return it in the period allowed for returns, or keep it.  After the return period the buyer has little or no easy recourse if a problem with the diamond arises.

This opens the questions,  what is the relationship of the certification to the diamond,  what is the quality of information, and what warrantees  do the certifications offer. Clearly, the subject of my next post.