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Turning Crystal Clear Theory into Practice: Mercury Diamond Price List

The introduction of a transaction-based polished diamond price list is possible. The Mercury Diamond™ Price List which Ehud founded, provides wholesale polished diamond prices based on transaction prices in the wholesale market. 

​"In doing so, I aimed to highlight the potential benefits to the diamond industry that using price lists backed by actual diamond transactions can have. This is because these lists, such as that produced by Mercury Diamond, provide, in my opinion, a better reflection of market prices than benchmark lists, which are based on asking prices."

The key components of the price list are:

  • We developed a system that collects transaction prices from a wide range of manufacturers, traders, and retailers, all of which reflect wholesale polished diamond prices as they are bought and sold around the world.
  • These many monthly transactions are augmented by constant market research that backs, double-checks, verifies and completes the transaction data.
  • The system covers over 18,000 polished diamond categories across the 4Cs, covering polished diamonds weighing up to 30 carats with clarities ranging from Flawless to I3,  in colors from D to P  and in the various shapes.
  • The price list provides a price for a top stone without any irregularities.
  • A separate table lists all diamond irregularities and provides the discount or premium to be applied to the base price to find the exact current price of any polished diamond, regardless of its characteristics.  
  • The polished diamond pricing system was reviewed and validated by one of the Big 4 accounting firms.
  • Traders will not only find the current transaction price of each diamond, but by applying their manufacturing costs, they can also "reverse engineer" to calculate the cost of rough diamonds.
With this data in hand, Mercury Diamond™ also developed the Mercury Price Calculator™ (The MPC™), a tool that automatically calculates the price of a diamond based on the information contained in a diamond's certificate, computing every possible combination of 4Cs and irregularities.

Upon receipt of the certificate of a diamond, a person wants to know its wholesale price. Mercury Diamond™ automatically retrieves all its information, including the 4Cs and irregularities.

Once this information is retrieved, the MPC™:

  • Calculates the value of the diamond as a "top stone" (i.e. without comments or other irregularities) according to the 4Cs, based on the Mercury Diamond Price List™.
  • It then factors in discounts or premiums based on any comments or irregularities found on that particular stone.
  • In some cases, it may need to account for additional information on the physical characteristics of the diamond not found on the certificate (e.g. presence of a tinge).

Several factors ensure that the Mercury Diamond Price List™ can operate with precision:

First, it is based on real transaction prices and other hard market data. It thereby avoids the possible disconnect that can occur between asking prices and other information supplied by diamond players, and the actual prices at which diamonds are traded.

Second, the Mercury Diamond™ proprietary table of discounts and premiums for irregularities means that when it collects transaction data for individual stones, it can factor in the impact of irregularities and net it off the price of a top stone shown on the Mercury Diamond Price List.

Third, it can complement any lack of market data through a proprietary process of association, based on the established industry principle that price changes of certain diamonds are closely linked to price changes of similar stones.

The Mercury Diamond Price List™ is fully independent and has been validated by one of the Big Four accounting firms,  which is the pricing system for both rough and polished diamonds from which this list is derived and currently has a patent pending in the United States. 

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Crystal Clear – From Rough to Polish
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