Monthly Archives: September 2008

Letseng For The World’s Biggest Diamond – Well Almost The Biggest Diamond.

Hey Guys! Any of you currently shopping for a diamond engagement ring? Well, take a l@@k at this!

The Letseng Diamond Mine in the African country of Lesotho earlier this month gave forth one of the largest pieces of diamond rough ever mined.

478%20carat%20Diamond%20on%20the%20scale.jpg

This diamond rough weighs 478 carats! and has been analyzed as being of top icy-white “D” color and excellent clarity. Diamond Experts believe that it will be possible to craft one 100 carat round brilliant diamond from this rough that will achieve a top color and clarity grade.

This diamond, which was found in September, ranks as the 20th largest rough diamond ever found, but is not the biggest ever taken from the Letseng Mine. Two bigger stones — 603 and 493 carats — were previously found back in 2006 and 2007.


Man, what an engagement ring this would be!

The world’s largest diamond is the Cullinan, discovered in South Africa in 1905. It weighed more than 3,100 carats before it was cut into more than one hundred separate gems, many of which are now part of the British crown jewels.

BBC Reports: Jewish Presence In Antwerps Diamond Trade Is Declining

A cultural revolution is now playing itself out among Hasidic Jews in the Antwerp Diamond trade.

While Antwerp is the world’s largest diamond trading center selling 80% of the world’s diamond rough and 50% of its polished diamonds every year, the increasing power and emergence of both China and India as major world players on the Diamond Trading stage, DeBeers entry into Retail Sales, and the introduction of beneficiation by African Diamond Mining countries to train their people to become skilled diamond cutters and thereby develop a strong middle class, the generations long, strong Jewish presence and employment in Antwerp’s Diamond Trade has significantly decreased over the past several years to the point where the unemployment rate for this group now stands at 50%.

Times are a’changin.

The BBC Report with Video and pictures is here: Where have All The Antwerp Diamond Cutters Gone?

A Heartfelt Testimonial For www.ExcelDiamonds.com

We continuously receive many testimonials from our happy customers and seldom do I post a testimonial for Excel Diamonds to this venue. However, for this testimonial which we received last night, I’m going to make a rare exception.

This heartfelt testimonial, which means everything to us, was submitted to us last night:
——————————————————————————————————————————

“Barry,

What can I say other than…WOW and AMAZING….both describe you and your business.

Your customer service was both unbelievable and unexpected. On the first diamond we purchased, you called and were completely honest about the flaw and urged us not to buy it but we were hard headed and bought it anyway..and just as you had warned my wife was not happy.

We picked out another diamond and without a hitch you refunded the first diamond and mounted the second diamond we purchased perfectly onto my wife’s setting. All I can say is Thank You Thank you Thank you for you speedy and professional service. The only complaint I have is that we didn’t seek you guys out sooner, you’re absolutely wonderful. Thank you again, and you can count on our repeat business.

Thanks again — Ray”

Recession? Diamond Engagement Ring Sales to Hit 9 Billion by 2013!

So says The WeddingReport.com Bling-Bling, We Sing.

Engagement ring spending will total an amazing $6.1 billion in the United States in 2008, with another $2 billion in spending on wedding rings for brides and grooms.

This $8.1 billion bridal market will increase to $9.2 billion by 2013, a growth of 13.4 percent over the next five years. The majority of both engagement and wedding rings will contain diamonds with more than two-thirds of the rings being of white gold composition.

Other items in this report: Couples typically begin their engagement ring search 6 months before their wedding with ring style and budget the main factors, December is the most popular month to get engaged and Saturday the most popular day for the Guy to pop the question.

Happy Shopping!

Diamond Grading Labs: What You Should Know.

There are many diamond grading labs on the market today, all with varying levels of grading consistency and accuracy. The most well known “brand” diamond grading lab and considered by many to be the best is the GIA (Gemological Institute of America).

Never consider buying a diamond without a lab grading report and in our opinion that lab grading report should be from GIA.

Our colleague, Ken Gassman of idexonline.com has just published an interesting statistical evaluation of the the diamond grading labs that covered over 12 million diamonds!

GIA grades over 2/3 of all diamonds and overall these 6 labs: GIA, EGL-USA, IGI, EGL-International, AGS and HRD hold 99.7% of the lab business.

Ken’s full report is here: Diamond Grading Labs

Definitely worth your time.