Market Conditions

The world has many diamond mines. The world also has laboratories creating gem-quality diamonds. Realistically, supply is very high, and the addition of a few more laboratories or a new diamond mine should not impact the diamond ring prices. Additionally few people realize that the diamond market is not a ‘perfect market’ like that for stocks and bonds—it is a near monopoly that for more than a century has been controlled by the Oppenheimer family through their majority stake in the DeBeers holding company. Today the Oppenheimer family shares majority ownership with a global mining conglomerate Anglo American. Founded in 1888, DeBeers managed to gain a monopolistic position in the world’s rough diamond markets in the 1930’s by tightly controlling the supply of rough stones to the diamond market. They achieved this through ownership of or strict partnerships with all the largest diamond mines in Africa (primarily Botswana, Africa’s largest diamond producer) and, at some point, with Russia.

Even if there were a sudden spike in the number of engagements requiring diamond rings, the demand would not likely impact diamond ring prices in the open market. Realistically, couples get divorces. Others pass away. Some inheritors of diamond rings return them to the market, selling them to jewelers or whoever makes a decent offer.

The only possible shock to market conditions that would significantly impact diamond ring prices would be either a huge anti-diamond ring movement or a major breakup of the DeBeers monopoly on rough diamonds supply. DeBeers monopoly has been gradually diluted over the last two decades as Russia’s Alrosa, a giant diamonds producer based in Siberia, has been largely refusing to play by DeBeers’ rules. However, Alrosa has also learned that dumping stones into the market is not in its own interests. So, it started pricing diamonds at or close to DeBeers’ own prices, which effectively established a duopoly in the market when both players divided the market share and managed to keep the diamond prices largely intact.

However, market conditions do have an impact on the price of metal used for the ring setting. Gold, platinum, and palladium all cost money. The amount of metal used in a ring setting is a factor in the diamond ring price overall. Often an increase in ring size, for some sellers, will include an additional cost to cover the extra bit of needed metal.

To estimate the value of the setting’s metal, find out its exact weight, and then look up the current market price for that particular metal. If you don’t know the exact metal type, look inside the ring band for a stamp describing the setting’s metal. A stamp such as “10 K,” “14K,” “18K,” “585,” “750,” “900,” “950,” “PT,” and “Plat” describe the metal used.