Diamond Price List History – Martin Rapaport

LAST UPDATE ON: April 18th, 2019

Martin Rapaport is an affable and bubbly version of Bill Gates. A genius with an economics background, he grew up in a diamond family and rose to fame by reporting wholesale diamond prices during the 1979-80 commodity boom when 1.00ct D Flawless reached a dealer price of $36,000 (twice today’s list price).

He has since built a substantial diamond information and service business, and like Gates, he is loved and hated but never ignored.

Most diamond business agreements and dealer sales are based on Rap or List prices. Buyers want him to lower the prices and sellers want him to raise them! He is more powerful than De Beers yet Mr. Rapaport handles this power without any sign of corruption. He understands his responsibility and is of devout religious and philosophical character.

People argue wether Rap reports prices or sets them, but it doesn’t matter, the fact is every dealer and diamond merchant uses Rap. In the trade we ask “how much back?” Asking for the price per carat, or worse still, the price of the stone shows you are a beginner. Only at the last stages of haggling would you work out the stone cost if it was say $5013 you might demand “OK, round it to $5K!”

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