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  For those who already have a clear budget in mind, these 4 following techniques will surely help you achieve your plan.

1. White Diamond or Big Diamond?

There are 2 ways to narrow down your choices: 1) Aim for bigger diamonds, and lower your color spec 2) Aim for high color grade, and choose smaller size diamond And if you have a budget of 100K THB, your possible choices may look like:

• Round Diamond 0.80ct G/VVS2 = 95,200 thb
• Round Diamond 0.70ct G/VS1 = 93,000 thb
• Round Diamond 0.50ct D/IF = 98,000 thb

This helps you determine which of the 4Cs you prefer to invest in to control the budget.

2. “Premium size” diamond

Sometimes it is called oversize diamond. It will allow you to have a big face in a lower budget. The challenge is the premium size diamond is rare and thus not so many choices available. Let’s see the examples

3. Certificates have their own price

Certificates from different lab make price differences in diamond. There are 3 popular diamond certificates in Thai market. They are GIA, HRD and IGI. 1) GIA is a laboratory from USA. Diamonds that are GIA certified are the most expensive ones. 2) HRD is a laboratory from Belgium. HRD diamonds will be about 25-30% cheaper than the ones from GIA. 3) IGI is a laboratory from USA. IGI diamonds are the cheapest, about 35-40% cheaper than the ones from GIA.

It should be noted that each lab has their own sets of standard. If notice well, there are differences in D color VS diamond from GIA, HRD and IGI. And that is why their prices are not the same. At the end of the day, it is subjective so just make sure that you buy from a reliable jeweller and that it is the genuine and widely acceptable certificate and all the decision is yours.

4. Round VS Fancy Cut Diamonds

The price of a fancy-cut diamond with the same spec is significantly lower than a round diamond. For example:

• Round Diamond 1.01ct D/vvs1 = 477,225 thb
• Fancy Cut Diamond 1.01ct D/vvs1 = 325,220 thb

Credit photo by:  gia.edu

These are the 4 secrets to planning your budget for the best diamonds. Do not forget the budget for the accessory body as well! Consult with your jeweller before purchasing for the best recommendations, and the perfect diamonds.

(*Remarks: Prices mentioned above refered from the rapaport as of Jul 5, 2024 and calculated from a random weight at the exchage rate of 1USD = 35 THB, which doesn’t include any discount that may be applied ) 

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	Written by Sornsida Y. Chanonprapa (G.D. GIA 2015)
	Diamond Nerd จากสถาบัน GIA ศึกษาเรียนรู้ หัด grading เพชรมาโดยเฉพาะ บวกกับพื้นฐานเป็นลูกช่างทอง มีประสบการณ์ทำงานใน Field จิวเวลรี่มากว่า 20ปี จึงอยากใช้พื้นที่นี้แบ่งปันความรู้และประสบการณ์กับทุกคนค่ะ