Can a girls best friend really be a solid investment?

[Rock Private Office]

Within the diamond trade itself, awareness of the inherent value of high quality polished diamonds as an alternative investment is growing.

 
In a recently published article, Benji Margolese - marketing manager of Leibish & Co. and one of Israel's most dynamic and likable fancy color diamond traders - was eager to make the case for natural fancy color diamonds as a solid long-term investment.

And his article makes a great case...

Natural fancy color diamonds often grab headlines as they are auctioned at extraordinary prices and thus make for great publicity for the auction houses. In fact, come to think of it, most of the more impressive natural fancy color diamonds almost always end up under hammer.

However, their rareness is such that when auctioned the prices they garner are invariably only readily paid for by collectors - not investors.

While there are several price lists for colorless polished diamonds available - some of which have almost reached the status of a benchmark, there is no such indicative tool for natural fancy color diamonds. Therefore, neither diamond companies nor their trusted brokers can offer individual investors who wish to 'test the waters ' of the fancy color diamond market any tools to guide them.

In addition, there are a wide variety of treatments that turn colorless diamond into colored diamonds. While these treatments are detectable and the disclosure of such treatments is standard for reputable traders, caveat emptor remains true here!