Yellow Sapphire vs. Yellow Diamond

[Cave Keeper]

Someone wishes to sell me a 38 carat yellow sapphire which has a color similar to fancy intense canary yellow or fancy vivid canary yellow for $37,000.

For that price, I could buy a 2.5 carat fancy vivid canary yellow diamond.

So far, exercising my eyeballs

has reaped me the following knowledge:-

Black diamonds are the most common color; so common, such opaque stones are not even considered worth making into jewellery-grade gemstones.

Brown diamonds are the next most common color; the World''s largest brown diamond, a.k.a., the Star of Earth and weighing about 111 carats, sold for only between $8,000 and $9,000 per carat.

Light brown and light yellow are very, very common.

Vivid canary yellow diamonds are comparatively cheap, compared with other nice colors.

Colorless diamonds are very, very expensive; but it is said that there is an estimate that there was enough such diamonds amounting to a cupful for every person living in the United States (of America, not Africa, Australia or Mexico, i.e.) [CK: probably the population at that time this guestimate was made was 200 million only].

Blue diamonds are even rarer than colorless diamonds.

Orange diamonds are extrememly rare.

Red diamonds are so rare, they probably sell at a million dollars per carat.

The rarest according to the experts are those in the purple range.

Personally, I think actually the rarest of rare are the truly white diamonds, especially a vividly white diamond.

So which one deserves the vote? Or should I exchange the $37,000 for a 25 kg. Ammonite, capable of providing me with 10,000 carats of gem-grade Ammolite @ $100 per carat, instead?

 

[Cave Keeper]

And another few things I''ve learned about colored diamonds.

Gemesis Corporation is lab-growing yellow diamonds; so far they only produce up to 1 or 1 1/2 carats size diamonds, maybe up to fancy intense canary yellow color.

Their American rival, Apollo Corporation, may or may not be producing yellow diamonds; but they claim their process can produce larger stones, up to 3 carats.

Then there''s the Japanese rival, Takara Corporation, also lab-growing diamonds, which I believe are those sold by sellers with their hearts and arrows logo.

But of course technology will improve and even 3 carat fancy vivid canary yellow diamonds may be commonly lab-grown.

My idea is to hold on to the stone for at least a decade.

At the end of that period, the World''s distribution of income would have change, as India and China will become two huge economies. But there''s no guarantee; there is a high possibility a worldwide economic depression will be in the middle of its phase at that time.

 

[valeria101]

Where are these prices comming from ? Is it a single source or multiple ? Just curious... so do not seem to add up.

 

[Richard Sherwood]

Date: 8/27/2005 9:50:17 AM
Author:Cave Keeper

Someone wishes to sell me a 38 carat yellow sapphire which has a color similar to fancy intense canary yellow or fancy vivid canary yellow for $37,000.

For that price, I could buy a 2.5 carat fancy vivid canary yellow diamond.

I don't think so. Probably more like $50,000 or $60,000 plus on a fancy vivid.

The price on the sapphire sounds like it could be quite reasonable though.

 

[Cave Keeper]

Date: 8/27/2005 10:15:48 PM
Author: valeria101
Where are these prices comming from ? Is it a single source or multiple ? Just curious... so do not seem to add up.

Wow! Just a few, though it''s multiple. My fingers do the walking all over the net at light speed, but it''s a strain on my pair of eyeballs. But, please don''t be too hard on me, which particular prices do you refer to?

 

[valeria101]

Date: 8/28/2005 6:45:46 AM
Author: Cave Keeper

Date: 8/27/2005 10:15:48 PM
Author: valeria101
Where are these prices comming from ? Is it a single source or multiple ? Just curious... so do not seem to add up.

Wow! Just a few, though it's multiple. My fingers do the walking all over the net at light speed, but it's a strain on my pair of eyeballs. But, please don't be too hard on me, which particular prices do you refer to?

Please forgive the weird tone of the previous post... it wasn't meant to sound that bad.

Perhaps I didn't read in your post exactly what you wanted to say, so a couple of things just did not fit my own limited knowledge of these things. For once it was what Richard said - thinking 2.5cts vivid yellow SI2-I1 and still it would be close to double your range as far as I know.

Then the argument about diamonds got me lost. It seems that either kind you mention (rare colors, exceptionally large brown and the 'reasonable' size of colorless) draw their desirability from different factors: some are rare at the source, some in demand. Neither factor has an upper hand IMO, so it is hard to come to a conclusion from that mix. I would think my personal rpefference (do I even have one ???) does not count for much in a general overview and the democratic vote on them is probably clear cut given the long market track record of these things, for what that matters.

All in all, I didn't quite get the final question. Personally, I would not refuse any such thing

although perhaps trade one for another at a loss just for the sake of that idiosyncratic taste of mine.

 

[Cave Keeper]

Date: 8/28/2005 8:47:15 AM
Author: valeria101
:
Perhaps I didn''t read in your post exactly what you wanted to say, so a couple of things just did not fit my own limited knowledge of these things. For once it was what Richard said - thinking 2.5cts vivid yellow SI2-I1 and still it would be close to double your range as far as I know.
:

OK, I think Richard''s quite right. I actually don''t see any 2.5 carat for any price. But there''s a few nearer to 3 carat that''s in Richard''s price range. Probably $37,000 can get only a fancy vivid canary yellow diamond of at least 2 carats and slightly over.

Is there''s some kind of dividing line at the 2.5 carat size for fancy vivid canary yellow diamond, as if anything above is for the multi-millionaire class, such as Texan oilmen, California actresses, entertainers and sportsmen, while anything below is for the more conservative old money?