But wait, the announcers face suddenly sours after you make your
declaration that Diamond B is the more valuable. "I'm sorry" he says,
"you didn't win the prize." What happened?
The
attendants present you with the valuations applied to each diamond by
online internet retailers:
Diamond B, the one you chose with D color, is listed at
www.bluenile.com
for $1,374.00
(click this link to view the diamond itself.)
Diamond A, the one that was blue color and 25% smaller than diamond B, is
listed at
www.icestore.com for $24,800.00
(click this link to view actual diamond for sale)
Welcome to
the world of colored diamonds, where carat weight, clarity, and cut all
take a massive step back in deference to COLOR.
The problem you ran into in the hypothetical contest above is applying
rules that are only formulated for white diamonds to colored diamonds. Every year, tens of millions of carats of white diamonds are mined, vs. a
few thousand carats of colored diamonds being mined. In comparing white
diamonds to other white diamonds, it is correct that D is the most
valuable color. However, when compared to all diamonds rather than just
white diamonds, there are lots and lots of D color whites vs. very few
natural intense colors. Blue being one of the rarer colors, it does not
matter how perfect a white diamond is, it will not compare in value to a
diamond that is a natural fancy intense color based on the simple concept
of supply vs. demand.
Diamonds are created by nature in virtually every color of the rainbow. Of these, red is the rarest. There are currently 10
known natural red diamonds in the world. While people would have you
believe that white diamond is rare, ask yourself if they are so rare, why
does everyone have one? By comparison, when was the last time you saw a
natural red diamond?
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