Diamond Certificates

A diamond certificate is also known as a 
Diamond Grading Report. This report comes 
from the Gemological Institute of America 
(GIA), and you should require this report 
when you are purchasing a diamond.

With a diamond certificate, you can verify 
the color, cut, carat, weight, and clarity of the 
diamond. You don’t have to worry about a 
diamond dealer telling you anything less than 
the truth, because the certificate comes 
from the GIA – not the dealer. You may be 
required to pay for the certificate, but the 
cost is usually low, and in many cases, it 
will help you negotiate a better price on the 
diamond – or keep you from purchasing a 
lower quality diamond altogether.

If you buy a high quality diamond, and then 
later decide to sell the diamond, you will 
need to have the certificate, or you will have 
a hard time selling it to someone else. 
Furthermore, you can use the Diamond 
Grading Report to look up the wholesale 
value of the diamond in question. Use the 
guide that is used by the diamond cutting 
industry.

With the Certificate, or Diamond Grading 
Report, there won’t be any doubts when you 
are trying to purchase a diamond. You can 
easily find out what the diamond is worth. 
This will prevent you from overpaying, and it 
can prevent a seller from under-charging as 
well. 

A copy of the Diamond Grading Report 
should be given to your insurance company 
as well, when you insure the diamond. This 
provides absolute, unquestionable proof of 
the value of the diamond should it be stolen 
in the future. Insurance companies cannot 
argue with the report.

Avoid diamond dealers who seem reluctant
to provide a certificate! Also avoid sellers 
who tell you that a certificate diamond will 
cost you more – the only additional cost 
should be the cost of the certificate, which 
is low. If the dealer doesn’t want to provide 
a certificate, then you don’t want to do 
business with that dealer.

Don’t accept certificates from Gemological 
Laboratories other than GIA. There are many 
fly-by-night Gemological labs these days, but 
in the end, GIA has been established as the 
most respectable and trustworthy – not to 
mention oldest – of the lot. So avoid dealers 
who don’t want to use GIA for certification 
purposes as well.

Don’t buy an expensive diamond without 
paying the extra cost of the certificate. If a 
dealer tries to convince you to make the 
purchase without the certificate, or if they 
want to use a company other than GIA, you 
can be sure that the dealer has probably 
greatly inflated the price of the diamond – 
they have something that they are hiding 
from you.

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