Are you interested in buying investment diamonds to diversify your portfolio? Perhaps you already invested in them a few years ago and are now wondering how much your gemstones are worth? Perhaps you would like to resell them? In any case, you’ll undoubtedly have some questions, such as: “How can I buy diamonds at the best possible price?” Or: “What’s the best way to sell them to a reliable party?” The answer is simple: you can count on BNT Diamonds’ support. How can a specialist support you from the initial purchase to a subsequent sale? We asked Stephanie Hesters, Head of Diamond Buying.
- You can ask practical and logistical questions via the chatbox on our website or WeChat when choosing investment diamonds.
- You can talk to specialists in the showroom, either by telephone or via email, for more complex matters like investment advice.
- Incredibly well-thought-out purchases: we’re always looking for the best possible price for the desired quality or the best quality for the requested price.
- You can complete the entire purchase process online — from choosing the investment diamond to the payment — and even within a single app: WeChat.
- You’ll receive support after your purchase with newsletters and information on request regarding, for example, the current price of your purchased diamonds.
- The organisation of a smooth resale with another price analysis and support during your search for a reliable buyer.
Quick answers to practical questions during the selection process
If you’ve been following our blog posts for some time, we don’t need to explain why buying diamonds in 2021 is a good idea. Once you’ve made that initial decision, you can get started via our four investment options. You can find our complete range of top quality certified diamonds in our online store.
“You can ask any practical or logistical questions instantly via the chatbox on every page”, explains Stephanie. “The chat box is perfect for getting advice on a specific investment diamond and its price, making an appointment for collecting diamonds, scheduling their delivery to your home, or arranging to come and see them in the showroom. In China, we also communicate via WeChat for this purpose.”
More detailed guidance via other channels
BNT Diamonds can personally answer more complex questions in the showroom, by telephone, or through email. “For example, when someone wants more in-depth advice on the best diamonds to buy, we’ll start by talking to the potential customer to find out what they’re already investing in, what their profile is, etc. We’ll advise them to invest a third of their assets in various investment diamonds and then come up with a proposal. We may recommend someone invests in fancy diamonds if they have a great deal of capital to invest. These are expensive, but popular too and will therefore lead to good returns. For those interested in steady investments, we would recommend investing in diamonds that will result in lower returns, but which also require less financial effort.”
After you make your choice, an incredibly well-thought-out purchase takes place
Have you decided how much you want to invest or what you want to invest in? Then the BNT Diamonds team is ready to step in and help again. Stephanie Hesters explains: “If the customer asks for diamonds of a certain quality, we’ll look for the best possible price for which those gemstones can be bought at that time. This can differ significantly, as one stone will be much easier to mine and cut than another. Does the customer want to optimally invest a fixed amount, with no preference for a specific quality? In that case, we’ll search for the best diamonds we can find within the available budget. The quality selection may seem random, but it’ll be the best way to spend the available budget at that moment in time.”
“It’s worth noting that we can still enlist the online help of the global BNT Diamonds network of renowned diamond producers. This allows us to map out the prices per quality ourselves. We also do this for diamonds with fancy colours and cuts, but we’ll base our decisions on auction prices, for example. We’ll also constantly take historical price evolutions per quality into account. After all, a price may seem reasonable at first, but not necessarily when you take its history into account.”
Therefore, the price we eventually use will always be competitive, thanks to our smart buy approach and our limited profit margin.
Buying diamonds over time, at a good quality
“We always advise our customers to spread a larger investment in one quality over time,” Stephanie says. “We’ll continue to purchase for as long as the price for that particular quality remains optimal. We’ll suspend the buying process as soon as it becomes less optimal. We’re very strict where this is concerned. After all, even though the diamond price can increase in the long term, it can also fluctuate in the short term. The price difference can be quite significant with certain types. We refer to this purchasing strategy as cherry-picking: we pick the desired investment diamonds at the best price, after which we allow the supply to grow again without picking any ‘sour’ fruits. Once we have found the right gemstones at the right price again, we’ll simply start buying again after consulting the customer.”
At BNT Diamonds, you can always count on a guaranteed minimum quality. “We always minimally go for the colour G — which is already an excellent white —, a purity of VS1 or higher — the stones are therefore already very pure — and good cut quality. We also only choose 100% natural diamonds, certified by the three top laboratories: GIA, IGI and HRD. We don’t believe diamonds that have an insufficient score in this respect are suitable for investment. At the same time, we consider our self-chosen quality requirements as minimums, not maximums. If we can obtain something better for the cost price that the customer and we were aiming for, then we will naturally opt for the best option.”
The BNT Diamonds team would never propose something undesirable. “We screen every diamond thoroughly ourselves too, regardless of its certificate — especially where its appearance is concerned. Does the light shine through optimally? Are there any visible flaws? Is it visually appealing? Either we inform the customer of any possible impurities, or we don’t present the diamond. This work is crucial: the customer is relying on us, as they’re making the purchase remotely.”
The entire purchasing process can be completed online, if necessary
Unless you would prefer to visit a showroom and place your order there or organise everything via telephone, you can complete all the steps associated with your purchase online. This includes making your choice via the online store, placing an order, requesting a personalised quote, asking our experts any questions via email, completing the sale, and paying for the purchased goods.
Stephanie Hesters explains: “It goes without saying that this is possible from any country via our online store and email. One additional advantage of WeChat is that you can go through the entire purchasing process in a single app. It will allow you to visit our online store, place your order, receive the email with our quote, hold further discussions, and make your payment.” The Chinese app has progressed much further than the Western version, particularly where the last aspect is concerned.
In any event, any order in any country can be paid for via the most common electronic payment methods. ‘We offer the five most common options for each market, via our new payment service provider. You will be offered these options dynamically if you order via our website.’
After-sales support included
You can continue relying on BNT Diamonds’ support once your purchase has been completed. “We send out a newsletter to new investors with more general information about buying and selling diamonds. For example, which gemstones and quality are particularly interesting for investments at that precise moment, as the market typically experiences a price dip of 18 to 24 months.”
One year following your purchase, you can receive information about the current price for your quality of diamonds, optimal resale moments, etc. “It’s important that we provide you with information upon request. One customer may have invested in diamonds with the intention of a possible resale after five or twenty years, whilst others may be investing for future generations and will therefore not be interested in a resale themselves.”
Organising a smooth resale
Let’s assume you eventually want to resell the investment diamonds. This will undoubtedly leave you with some questions, possibly about the ideal time to resale — which BNT Diamonds can help you with upon request. “However, it’s important to understand,” Stephanie emphasises, “that we can’t guarantee a return. Both ourselves and the American consulting firm Bain & Company, which analyses the diamond sector annually, see plenty of opportunities for a further price increase. The product is becoming scarcer, and demand is increasing. There’s currently a huge demand for coloured diamonds. But this preference can change, and we have no control over it. The ideal investment term is always going to be long term. Five years or more and the longer, the better.”
BNT Diamonds can once again provide effective support when the customer is ready to resell. “First, we can provide advice about the best price the investor will be able to get for their investment diamonds at that time. We look at our own (historical) price analyses per quality for this information. Next, we start looking for an interested buyer — which may be us, if we feel we can use the stones in our jewellery. We will subsequently develop a competitive proposal or look for an interested company in our network. This allows us to give a private seller access to a B2B environment that they wouldn’t normally benefit from.”
As a seller, you can certainly rest easy: “We will only present you with potential buyers with whom we’ve already developed good commercial relationships. In other words, parties with whom we have already built up extensive experience and who we know we can trust. So, we have already taken responsibility for the first risk. This trust also remains an important asset in the diamond world: no transaction can go wrong, as this will instantly lead to a damaged reputation, especially in our relatively small sector.”
Planning on buying or selling investment diamonds?
Discover our four investment options, browse through our collections, talk to one of our experts, or make an appointment to visit our showroom for an optimal purchase and sale, fully supported by BNT Diamonds.
