A new diamond price list hopes to become an industry-wide resource that will tally data from many different sources.
The Natural Diamond Price Guide, developed by fintech company Uni.Diamonds, is calculated using price data from 90 manufacturers and dealers as well as online exchange Idex. That amounts to 1,200 searches a week, representing about $5 billion in inventory.
The hope is to bring more major players on board, says UNI’s CEO, Mahiar Borhanjoo, a former De Beers sales director.
“This is an open platform,” he says. “Anyone who has price guidance and can provide transparency on how they have come up with their numbers is more than welcome to join.”
All the data will be encrypted to ensure privacy, he adds.
The guide is being set up as a not-for-profit business, though it’s currently owned by Uni. It will be free for the first six months, and then users will have to pay a “minimal” fee for upkeep of the website.
It was developed with software company Qedit, which will monitor the validity of the data.
“We wanted to make it something that can be managed without any particular company or human being putting any thought into it,” says Borhanjoo. “If you put one organization in charge, they may put their opinion on it. Our numbers will be based solely off the data. It will be driven solely by the market.”
In addition, Qedit will “smooth” the data out, so that it cuts out outliers and ensures that, say, D VS1s sell for more than E VS1s.
The service will issue full-fledged price lists on a quarterly basis. It will also update prices weekly online, and there will be monthly “trend reports.”
