Diamonds are forever a girl’s best friend, and of course, a wonderful investment. Buying wholesale diamonds, whether they are loose or adorned in jewellery can be risky business if you’re not too sure about what you’re doing. There are plenty of deals up for offer, and doing a quick Google of the subjects brings up scores of all kinds of different places promising to bring you the best offers. So which one of those can be trusted? To answer the question, you have to do a little bit of homework, and it won’t take long to figure out which ones can and which ones can’t. There are a few things to consider when you’re buying diamonds because the price is high and the market is strictly regulated (and for good reason). To help you avoid unprecedented surprises of the unpleasant kind, here is a guide to making sure you buy from the best and most trusted suppliers available.

1. A Few Things You Have To Know About Diamonds First

For those of you who have seen the movie Blood Diamond, it’s easy to point out that they have a long and turbulent history of being sought after, stolen, smuggled around, re-stolen, and killed or enslaved for. For these reasons, the wholesale diamond trade is very strict and regulated. Losing a huge sum of your money in a dodgy investment is certainly not the worst thing that can come out of making a mistake, not when compared to prison time for dealing with illicit or blood diamonds. You must take care to be able to confirm the legitimacy of the stones you are purchasing and make sure they are conflict-free diamonds. If you are unsure, for any reasons, it’s best to just steer clear.

2. Stick To Your Neck Of The Woods

As I said before there is a slew of companies selling diamonds wholesale. Narrow down your search by sticking to your area. If, for instance, you are looking for a genuine wholesale diamond Australia, it would be worth your while to include ‘Australia’ in your search online. This would save you time and money on currency exchanges and shipment. As far as shipment is concerned, the further the distance travelled by the stones, the higher the risk to their safety. Ideally you want to get them from the seller’s hands, into yours, as soon as possible. This also ensures that you can physically inspect the stones, to determine if they are real or not.

3. Look And Search And Scour

Next, scour for a few sights; glean the World Wide Web if you must. So many sellers operate out of the internet, and most of them can be trusted to give you a good deal. All their prices differ, some greatly and some just a little bit. Shop around and ignore the anomalies. If the prices are too low, it’s probably too good to be true. Remember, they are a commodity so similar quality stones should not differ too much in price.

4. Checking The Stones

There are a few ways you can check to see if the stones are real, but you will need to be able to actually handle them (obviously, photos won’t do).

1. The Fog Test – Breathing on the stone should not cause it to fog up. Diamonds disperse heat very affectively and so shouldn’t hold the fog from your breath.
2. A Jeweller’s Loupe – Use one to inspect the diamond; you can most likely borrow one from whoever is selling the stone. It should have imperfections from the mining process, though if the diamond is pure enough, not always. Finding mineral specks and slight differences in colour is also a good sign that the diamond is genuine.
3. How Well Does the Stone Refract Light? Diamonds bend light exceptionally sharply, hence their many engineering benefits. They should refract light vibrantly; if they don’t, their refractory level is probably equal to… well, glass.

Armed with these tools, finding a good seller shouldn’t be too daunting a task, and the rewards of making a good decision should come a little easier. There is no reason to be suspicious or paranoid about being sold bunk goods, not when you know how to spot them easily. This will give you the buying power to choose the least risky deal.

Image by Koshy Koshy via Flickr