Like most products, diamonds have made their way to the internet available to the masses and usually at much better prices than your local jewelry store. With thousands of online diamond stores, it can be difficult to know which ones to trust.
Diamond Inventory: To start off there is no website that actually owns 50,000 diamonds or more in their inventory. About 99% of websites have what is known as a virtual diamond inventory. This means that all the diamonds listed on their sites are not owned by them. They never carry it in house. True diamond wholesale suppliers carry anywhere from several hundred diamonds to 5,000 diamonds in their inventory. These suppliers give permission to websites to use the virtual diamond inventory as their own. It’s possible that these diamond websites use 20 or so Diamond Suppliers in order to reach a virtual inventory of 50,000.
Diamond Pictures: One way to check if a diamond website is trustworthy is by asking them to provide you with an actual picture of the diamond. If it really is their inventory, they should be able to take a picture of the diamond real quick and email it to you. Just about everyone owns a smartphone that’s more than capable of taking a picture of the diamond and even one that’s magnified so that you can see the inclusions (or flaws) in the diamond. If the sales person tells you they don’t have a camera that can take a picture of the diamond, tell them to take a loupe (a small microscope), that every Diamond Supplier has, and put it to the lens of the smartphone when they take a picture. This will enhance the zoom and magnify the diamond 10 times to see the inclusions in the diamond. If they can’t do something this simple they are not Diamond Suppliers, rather a website selling a virtual diamond inventory.
Diamond Availability: If you call a diamond website company and ask them about a diamond you saw on their website, they should be able to tell you if the diamond is available or not right away. If they need to call you back, then guess what: it’s not their diamond (virtual inventory). Even the websites with a virtual diamond inventory should have no problem quickly getting an answer for you while you wait on the phone. A true Diamond Supplier will quickly tell you if that diamond is available because they actually own it. Worst case scenario the diamond might be unavailable and working with another customer, but that information should be given to you the moment you call and ask.
Reviews: If the website does not sell their own inventory and can’t provide you with a picture, that doesn’t mean you can’t trust them. Check the reviews of the website by searching their company name in Google. If they’re trustworthy they will have a good amount of positive reviews online. Ask them for their company address. A trustworthy company would provide you with that information. Then look up the address online. Avoid any addresses that come up as a residential address. Most reputable diamond websites work from an office, not their home.
Paypal: Finally, when you do pick a diamond vendor online, make sure they accept Paypal. Paypal is most trustworthy payment method when it comes to purchasing diamonds online. They are also the only company I’m aware of that protects and insures both the buyer and the seller. As a buyer you can feel 100% comfortable with Paypal. They will not release the funds to the seller until confirmation of delivery and even then the funds will be on hold a couple days to make sure the buyer received what they expected. They will also protect the seller if the buyer ended up doing a fraudulent transaction and will still pay the seller in full after an investigation.