De Beers to Look into US Consumer Diamond Reselling

Rapaport reported that through the International Institute of Diamond Valuation, De Beers has created a program aimed at “assess[ing] the effectiveness of reselling approaches and to explor[ing] ways to improve the process.”

It will initially operate with a small group of retailers.

Tom Montgomery, senior vice president of strategic initiatives at De Beers, commented:

The practice of consumers looking to sell back their diamonds isn’t new. For the vast majority of people, a diamond is something they keep hold of forever and never look to sell. However, for reasons such as death, divorce or financial distress, some people will always look to resell their diamonds. Some retailers have expressed reservations, however, about how the current reselling experience could impact consumers’ views on diamond equity in the long term. We believe that the only way to gain a true understanding of diamond reselling activity by consumers, is to run this small-scale program to assess how reselling has developed, how it might evolve and how it impacts consumer perceptions of diamonds.

Click here to read the full Rapaport report.