At the JCK Show, I was with a group of people who work with lab-grown who were upset that a certain lab was supposedly lax in its lab-grown grading.
“It doesn’t matter,” one said. “It’s only lab-grown.”
I’ve complained in the past that some people in the lab-grown world sometimes devalue their product, and that’s a good example.
Of course the grades do matter, or at least they should. Otherwise, why have the report at all?
When lab-growns were first introduced, trade members disagreed on whether they should be graded along the standard GIA color and clarity scale, rather than the “category grades” originally favored by the GIA and eventually Lightbox. Today, that’s largely been settled. Almost all labs offer standard “Four C” grades for lab-grown diamonds.
But just because the scales are the same doesn’t mean the methods are.
As lab-grown prices have continued to fall, I’ve heard some complain that they are spending more on the diamond grading reports than on the actual diamond. And so lately, we’ve seen retailers and growers develop procedures to provide low-cost alternatives to grading them individually.
READ ENTIRE ARTICLE HERE
Photo: Getty Images
