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Looking to buy - Small Diamonds (melee)

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polaris

Member
Joined
Mar 10, 2011
Messages
9
I am looking to buy a quantity of small diamonds - (melee)

Any quantity will be of interest, and I'm hoping to end up with about 15 or 20 cwt total.
(( That should be enough to keep me busy sorting and learning ))

As for pricing... my thoughts are around $50/ct for .05 to .09 ct
and around $ 75/ct for .10 to .20 ct ... give or take, depending on avg size and condition (broken, etc)

Sizes above 0.20 ct also of interest... but since they actually start to have some value at that point.. let me know your thoughts

If interested, send me a PM and let's work out a price
My prices are best guess as to what these little stones are selling for...so I'm open to discussing.
Hopefully someone will (gently) let me know if I am totally out to lunch on my thinking

I am located in Canada.. but it seems easy and safe to send small amounts from the USA as well.
 
Hi!
In South Africa the current price for 0.01ct to 0.02ct diamonds are in the range of $215/ct from my diamond supplier. They only sell to jewellers not to the public. Maybe you will be lucky and find the stones you are looking for at much cheaper prices.
Hope you find what you are looking for!
Kind regards
Henk
 
Henk said:
Hi!
In South Africa the current price for 0.01ct to 0.02ct diamonds are in the range of $215/ct from my diamond supplier. They only sell to jewellers not to the public. Maybe you will be lucky and find the stones you are looking for at much cheaper prices.
Hope you find what you are looking for!
Kind regards
Henk

Thanks Henk
You have a buyer that is willing to pay that price for recovered scrap diamond melee ?
Any chance you could share the buyer's contact info for the forum ?

I can't pay anything near that... as I imagine unsorted melee could have a huge variation in quality and condition
But I'm thinking these prices would help a lot of the guys in this forum
 
Update to my earlier post here:

Since I had no idea what recovered "breakout" diamonds might fetch.. I went looking.
And this is what I found... (( and I'm more curious now than when I started this quest - I can feel that sense of getting "hooked" ))

Melee... .01 to .19 ct
Posing as a seller... I was offered everything from $15/ct to $140/ct.. (the higher being for "sorted perfection rounds" and over .15ct)
For a mixed bag of .10 to .19..rounds-only - no baquettes... the best I could get was an offer of $115 on a "maybe, maybe - we gotta see first"
The common "first" price .... $50/ct as long as the bulk stayed .10ct and larger.. but this quickly went to $75/ct
The highest $140/ct.. was for "strictly .15 to .19, round, sorted, no damaged stones.. and as always.. "gotta see'em first"
Under .10ct..... nobody is tripping over themselves to buy them, although they do want them.. $50...although $15 was tried
((In fact.... turning the tables for fun... junkers were even "offered" to me... I-clarity, M-colour .08 to.15ct... $50/ct for as much as I wanted to "buy"))
Generally.. if you start tightening up the prices... non-rounds get you cut in half on pricing... across the board

Stones of .20 to .29 ct
As I expected... these were worth more interest.
The cutoff for real interest seems to be .25.. but the talk is at .20
Range was from $100 to $250 /ct (not per stone)
Common "first" price $100-$150/ct.. above that... you start to hear the hem and haw and "we really need to see it first"

Ok.. so this was fun... Hope someone can make use of this as most of you must have a stash of stones squirrelled away.

But since this was only scratching the surface....
For the benefit of others...Would anyone care to share more ?

Ron
 
Hello:

I have a whole bag full of gemstones & pearls.

There are lots of garrnets, sapphires, rubys, and emeralds.

They are all pretty small - all recovered from gold & silver jewelry.

Included in this collection is about 75 or so diamonds.

The largest is about .25 carat.

I have an electronic diamond tester and these diamonds are all verified with it - guaranteed.

Are these of any interest to you?

Thanks for looking - kadriver
 

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I can tell you the price of smalls is going up and up as the dealers can't sell the big stones as easily and the discounts are slowly coming down on the larger stones.
There are loads of melee around at present and the big boys want to trade a kilo (5000 carats) at a time so the smaller collectors are looking to buy to furnish their needs, I think most are headed back out to China and India to be reset and sold again in jewellery.
 
I don't know where that last statement comes from large diamonds 3 carats and larger keep flying up in price. Smaller goods are so easy to come bye it's not even funny discounts to current wholesale prices are as steep as 60 percent off current market prices just to move the goods. I have been in the diamond business for years and buy rough diamonds and have them cut and sold
 
I've been meaning to ask you this josh,
Do you buy or sell the Mr and Mrs Saad from skygems?Or do you work for them?
 
greatgems said:
I don't know where that last statement comes from large diamonds 3 carats and larger keep flying up in price. Smaller goods are so easy to come bye it's not even funny discounts to current wholesale prices are as steep as 60 percent off current market prices just to move the goods. I have been in the diamond business for years and buy rough diamonds and have them cut and sold

Well you need to come over to the UK then as the dealers here are raising the price of smalls very quickly, by smalls I mean up to 10 points. The 1/2 carat plus stones are now subject to much smaller discounts off the rap and the prices are going up and as to large 3 carats plus that's a whole different world and always has been.
 
I used to buy some gems from him back in the day mostly sell to them now when I have what they want I buy all my gems direct from the mines and and have them cut is there any reason for the mr saad question
 
But it's been some time as I have many other buyers right now that take my diamonds and emeralds in a heart beat
 
OK, I guess I can throw in my two cents.

First, I'm just getting started at this - I have been buying/selling/using small diamonds for only a year. From what I have seen so far, the buy/sell spread on melee is absurd - buyers are willing to pay almost nothing, and sellers want too much. As an example, take 2-2.5 mm (3-5 point) rounds, near colorless, I2 clarity. In my experience this is average or better than average melee from scrap jewelry. At the Tucson gem show most sellers wanted $400/ct "wholesale" for this stuff, and the absolute lowest I saw was $200/ct. However as a seller I could get maybe $75/ct for these stones and most buyers offer less.

In my experience even larger stones are discounted. The easily obtainable resale on a 1ct round, in my observation, is $800-$900 or so in I1 clarity, maybe $1200 in SI clarity. I have declined buying at near these prices because I don't have a buyer who will pay more.

So in summary:
For melee, I see about a 5x difference in buy prices vs "wholesale" sale prices (for small purchases)
By the time you're up to 1 carat, the difference drops to 3x

If these seem like "cash-4-gold" spreads, that's what I though too. I suspect these spreads narrow rapidly as quantity increases, but I have no experience with respect to larger quantities.

greatgems and nickvc, I welcome your comments - have your experiences been similar or different?

Steve
 
Ok for 1 carat and larger price percarat is only relivant to the color clarity cut and what cert company certed the stone this actually applies from .50 carat up as that is the smallest stone I have ended up with after cutting in years. Raprapor price list is key I sell 50% off but I'm out of inventory looking for more rough. Smaller .25 to .49 stones are harder to move At 50% off I know dealers sell for more but one needs to sell to dealers has to understand the dealer has to make money. Anything .20 is much much harder to move at fair prices at any discount I think I got 75 to 100 per carat to clear out all my .10 to.20 stones last time near Christmas when market was stronger. So really unless you have a marker melée is a dangerious game to be in that can be said for diamonds for general. I was talking to a large buying friend of mine in isreal he stated he is having issues moving quality stones 1 to 4 carat stones at 40 to 50 percent back and any more discounting he will loose money because thebrough prices are so high
 
greatgems,

75-100/ct for 0.1-0.2 seems awful low to me, unless they were low clarity or champagne color. For anything at least I1 and near colorless I'd be a buyer at these prices.

I'm impressed that you can even find rough for reasonable prices. Most places want the same or more than for finished goods, simply because the rough supply is low (it gets bought out by all the major cutters). This is especially true for colored stones.

Steve
 
I have around 80 to 100 carats of melee to sell... I have roughly sorted the stones out into stones 1mm and smaller (14 carats) and between 1 and 2mm (85 carats) I have separated out most 98% of the baguettes into a separate lot. Most of the stones will range between I1 and I3, however a small percentage are worse. Im willing to bet a small persentage will also be in the SI range as well. What kind of prices should I expect to get for the melee if I leave the stones mixed versus sorting out the stones?
 
The price paid here in the UK for melée is around $65 a carat but only if they are fairly white and bright, if you have low colour and or clarity that price drops rapidly.
The price to buy SI clarity G/H colour smalls has risen by $165 a carat over the last 2 months and I gather from my friends left in the manufacturing business that all stones are rising in price rapidly, this makes me smile :x as the sales of diamond jewellery here in the UK at least is also declining rapidly as are the margins available when sales are made.
Whether this is due to the DTC raising the price of rough or the dealers trying to keep profits buoyant I don't know but it's a road to nowhere in my opinion.....the one thing that has come into play is that dealers are now selling direct to the public either through their own sites or hiding behind an established business but listing their stock of stones on them :shock:
 
We are diamond buyers - melee bust out stone. We pay anywhere from $80-$100 per carat and will buy your broken diamonds as well at $40/ct and up. If interest let me know.
 
Man, that same price of $.50 - $1 per point has been in effect for at least 20 - 25 years. I guess inflation doesn't count when you're dealing with an artificially priced material.
 
Hello,

Gold Craft Co, is buying and selling melee and larger stones with GIA Report or EGL grading papers. We would like to buy small or large quantity of melee or make purchase offers. Any party interested in selling or buying please contact us with inquiry.

Mike
 
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