How to Buy a Diamond: Insider Secrets for Getting Your Money's Worth

How to Buy a Diamond: Insider Secrets for Getting Your Money's Worth

by Fred Cuellar
How to Buy a Diamond: Insider Secrets for Getting Your Money's Worth

How to Buy a Diamond: Insider Secrets for Getting Your Money's Worth

by Fred Cuellar

Paperback

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Overview

Buying a diamond can be one of the most important and intimidating purchases you ever make. Whether you're getting engaged or buying for an anniversary, investment or "just because," How to Buy a Diamond will take the pressure and uncertainty out of getting the best diamond for your money.

Newly revised and updated, How to Buy a Diamond is the only book on the market to include wholesalers' secret pricing charts that you, the public, never get to see! The charts are broken down by carat, clarity, and color —including the various types of color within each color grade.

This eighth edition includes:

  • Matching your funds with the perfect diamond
  • The four Cs explained: clarity, color, cut and carat size
  • Ring styles and settings
  • Grade bumping: what it is and how to spot it
  • Picking the right jeweler
  • Jewelers' tricks of the trade
  • Wholesaler' secret pricing charts!

Praise for How to Buy a Diamond:

"Finally, one of the top diamond experts breaks the silence and demystifies the world of diamonds for regular folk like you and me." —Gregory J.P. Godek, author of 1001 Ways to Be Romantic

"Whenever anybody asks me about buying a diamond, I give them this book." —Rob Bates, National Jeweler


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781492667339
Publisher: Sourcebooks
Publication date: 11/06/2018
Pages: 368
Sales rank: 659,765
Product dimensions: 5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Fred Cuellar is founder and president of Diamond Cutters International and is known as one of the world's top diamond experts. Cuellar is accredited in diamonds by the Gemological Institute of America. Cuellar is the official diamond expert for MSNBC, Men's Health, AOL’s theknot.com and The Wedding Network, and Icon magazine. He has been featured and discussed on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, NBC’s Today Show, CBS Morning News, CNN, ESPN, the Wall Street Journal, Cosmopolitan, US Weekly, In Style as well as over 100 other news and talk shows. He lives in Houston, Texas.

Read an Excerpt

My first experience with diamonds, long before I became a gemologist and diamond merchant, happened for the best of all reasons: I was a young man in love, with a burning desire to offer my bride-to-be a diamond ring and ask for her hand in marriage. It seemed simple enough. Between college classes I would stop by a jewelry store, select a diamond worthy of my beloved, and be on my way. I thought it would be easy-and it was, until I glanced at my first price tag.

After I was resuscitated by the jeweler, I realized this wasn't going to be as easy as I thought. The only "rock" I could afford then was one I could pick up off the ground.

That experience, however, led to a management trainee position with a major jewelry chain, followed by an opportunity to run a jewelry store. Then I became a wholesaler, and over time my business evolved into what it is today, where I can practice what I preach about buying and selling diamonds.

Keeping in mind my own first experience with diamond buying, I have always tried to teach my customers everything they should know before making their purchase. If you were planning to buy a new car or a washing machine, you'd probably read Consumer Reports to educate yourself before the purchase, and you'd at least want to kick the tires and look under the hood before putting your money down. That's what this book is all about. It puts you in charge of the transaction by showing you how to tell one diamond from another, what makes a diamond expensive, and what "investment grade" diamonds are. I'll also show you the tricks of the trade, how to avoid shysters-in short, how to get the most for your money.

When I first published How toBuy a Diamond, it created quite a stir. Honest diamond dealers-and there are many-loved the book. They said to me, "Fred, we've needed this for a long time, because it's hard to compete with dealers who cheat." The dishonest diamond dealers-and there are many of them, too, unfortunately-hated the idea of educating consumers, of revealing the "tricks of the trade." They were the ones who made threatening phone calls, who vowed to put me out of business. "You can't do this," they warned. "You can't let the suckers (that's you) see behind the curtain. You'll ruin us!" So of course they threatened to ruin me instead, and even went so far as to make attempts on my life! Things got so bad I had to hire a bodyguard to stay at my side for a couple of years.

During that time, a lot of people saw me on TV, heard me on the radio, read about me in their newspapers-and bought my book. Becoming well-known made me harder to threaten. Now I'm the jeweler to the Super Bowl Champion Dallas Cowboys and Denver Broncos, and service the diamond needs of nineteen other pro sports franchises. I supply two hundred jewelers with their diamonds and colored stones, supply replacement diamonds for three major insurance companies, and I'm one of just two suppliers of diamonds to the Saudi royal family. But I also provide fine diamonds to private clients, individuals who may be just like you. And what matters most to me is that I've helped thousands of ordinary people get diamonds at fair prices. Helping you get a good deal on a diamond is just as important to me as creating a ring for baseball star Roger Clemens, because it takes me back to when I was a young man in love, shopping for an engagement ring.

Read my book. Call my HelpLine if you have questions. And walk through your jeweler's door with confidence that you'll walk out with the right diamond at the right price.

Table of Contents

Prefaceix
Forewordxv
Introductionxvii
The Shortcutxxi
B.E.S.T.xxiii
Chapter 1The 4 Cs1
Carat Weight4
Clarity6
Color19
Cut28
Proportions Made Easy42
Proportion and Price43
GIA Classes of Cuts45
The 61 Percent Factor48
Artificial Lighting50
Super Cuts54
High Definition Diamonds55
Proportion Questionnaire Sheet61
Chapter 2Cost65
Buying Big Diamonds85
Buying Shy88
To Thine Own Self Be True109
Too Good to Be True113
Chapter 3Ring Settings117
Accents118
Adding Color118
A Word about Gold...119
...And Platinum120
Chapter 4Picking the Jeweler123
Jeweler Questionnaire Sheet123
Bonded Jewelers128
Who Will Help Me Now130
The Gift of Jewelry132
Gift Questionnaire Sheet132
The New York Diamond District136
Disposable Jewelry139
Buying Diamonds on the Internet140
Certifiable? Lab Grading Reports148
Real Versus "Fake" Diamonds158
Making the Purchase166
Chapter 5Tricks of the Trade169
Blue Diamond Blues169
The "50% Off" Sale169
Bait and Switch170
Is White Really White?171
Grade Bumping171
The Fraction Scam171
The Old Switcheroo172
The Sandbagger172
The Vanishing Act173
The Dirty Dozen173
Torquing175
Inscription Deception176
The "True Weight" of Diamonds178
Diamond Mysteries-Things Aren't Always What They Seem179
Chapter 6Common Myths about Diamonds193
Chapter 7After the Purchase205
Insurance205
Do's and Don'ts206
Some Final Suggestions207
Cleaning Your Diamond208
Jewelry Care Guide209
Chapter 8"Will You Marry Me?"213
Planning the Perfect Proposal214
Five Proposal Styles216
Diamond Guy Seal of Approval218
Soul Mate or Cell Mate?219
For Men Only229
For Women Only243
Newlywed's Prayer259
Chapter 9Buying Your 2nd, 3rd, or 4th Diamond261
New Marriage261
Replacement Diamond262
Diamond Upgrades263
Trade-ins263
Special Occasions and Gifts264
Chapter 10How to Sell a Diamond267
Step 1Appraisal267
Step 2Rapaport Value268
Step 3Buyers268
Antique or "Estate" Jewelry272
Chapter 11Anniversaries and Occasions275
Conclusion281
Appendices283
Index320
About the Author324

What People are Saying About This

Gregory J. P. Godek

Finally, one of the top diamond experts breaks the silence and demystifies the world of diamonds for regular folks like you and me.

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