**Fear and Loyalty Among Diamond Buyers**

[Paul-Antwerp]

Hi Diagem,

* By way of example, yes. I am not implying that this is the general difference.

** Yes and no. They go on the market in parcels, but if we get an offer on individual stones, we know exactly our assessment, and have no problem in selling these individually.

Live long,

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

Date: 1/2/2009 10:12:59 AM
Author: Paul-Antwerp

Date: 1/1/2009 11:34:49 PM
Author: Garry H (Cut Nut)


Re buying from the heap vs cutting:

You can John West from the heap at little cost (vs cutting you must have a costly second channel to sell the near misses)

I have no idea what to ''John West'' is, but this remark shows a dichotomy between your and my views of the industry, between a traditional trade-oriented one (yours) and a consumer-oriented one.

From a technical perspective, it is entirely possible to organize a production that achieves its goals exactly. We are doing this on a daily basis. This does not involve any near-misses, and no need for a secondary channel. It just implies a dedication and focus for a specific goal and good preparation.

Your idea about buying from the heap is a traditional trade-view, where the goal of a cutting-operation is often seen as achieving a certain lab cut-grade for instance. In that way, the cut-grade becomes synonimous for the brand, and one can buy whichever stone from whatever source if it has that grade. It is a producer-oriented commodity-type point-of-view.

Ours is different. We see that within any top cut-grade, there are still different levels of performance. And we see that a number of consumers is willing to seek the best performance possible. Having identified this market, one can organize a production specifically for that market. But one is limited to only using one''s own production, and not buying from other sources. We for instance often get offers for fine productions, but we cannot use them, since part of our brand is that it is produced by us. And because of this own production, we have an unmatched consistency, that would be lost if we would allow the introduction of other sources.

In this latter consumer-oriented view, lab-reports, measurements and pics (ideal-scope, ASET, H&A) are only secondary, in the sense that they only show and describe the product in a simplified way, they are not the essence in designing the product.





Live long,

Thanks Paul (and thank Fabian for his lovely card too please).
I made a few sections bold.

There is no doubt about the skill and standards you bring to the craft. And you have my utmost respect for that.
But as you say, it is possible to pick the cherries from other vendors, and this is what I say in response to Deb''s original topic - a cutter brand or a cherry picker brand.

Both are valid and serve different fussy consumers. Only the cherry''s and cherry seconds have some efficiencies in terms of potential sales volume vs your model of eliteism.

Interestingly most big brands these days have closeout stores where NQR''s and old slow selling goods are sold. There ius eternal debate as to if this damages the BRAND.

Putting on my OctoNus hat now:
You design a tight set of round or princess into the rough. We would prefer you could design a much wider range of shapes, and a business like yours with highly skilled craftspeople should be able to gear up to custom designed lines and even one off''s.
Some of the constraints are the market''s current expectations, limitations on cutting and holding devices (dops) and the inability to design really nice looking new cuts. Labs cant grade the cuts etc (imagine a totally freeform stone must be graded as poor symmetry under current rules).
OctoNus is solving all of these problems. It is a huge undertaking.

It might just be that when the market is really tight as it is now, that elephants that do produce fractions of billions of dollars a year could learn to dance.
But branded small manufacturers like Infinity should be better placed for such niche''s

 

[WinkHPD]

What a fascinating discussion, with input from some very brilliant minds all working a different angle of the business. Nice to see you all.

Wink (going back to bed now...)

 

[startech]

Date: 1/2/2009 3:04:43 PM
Author: Garry H (Cut Nut)

Date: 1/2/2009 11:07:20 AM

Author: startech




Paul, John West is an Australian-owned canned fish company. They have a pretty well-known advertising slogan back home, referring to their quality control and choice in selection of fish: ''It''s the fish John West rejects that makes John West the best.'' That probably sums up Garry''s sentiments quite well

I thought they were global!!!

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=zOpKFPEah3E

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=1BBzpLEjAr8&feature=related

Well yes, they operate globally, but are Australian-owned

They were actually British by origination, until we bought it outright. Thanks for posting up the ads too - haven''t seen them in a while!