Rapaport Diamond Report Instructions

Rapaport Diamond Report: How should I use the Rapaport price sheet to figure out a diamond price?

Follow these steps to learn how diamond dealers use the Rapaport wholesale price list to know a good deal on a diamond.

Warning: It is not possible to use the Rapaport price list to assess diamond prices accurately — until you also consider and adjust for all 13 of the major details on a laboratory certificate.

This is where you ask a good dealer for a little help. There is no way to get ahold of a copy of the Rapaport price list except by asking a dealer. If you have not done so already, chose a good dealer from our best internet dealers or best local jewelers so you can continue.

We cover these details in our Five Easy Steps and make it easy for you. But you need a copy of the Rap sheet to follow along.

Even better than trying to access the Rapaport price charts, and adjusting for all these factors, is to follow our Diamond Pricing Tutorial, which gives a step-by-step lesson on how to use the huge online databases to find competitive prices. This is more accurate, faster, and easier, so please take advantage of it. It’s there, so please use it.

How to use the practice price chart below:

1 – Find the color you want, listed on the left.
2 – Follow until you are under the clarity you want.
3 – Multiply the number in the box (price in hundreds) times $100 to find the price per carat.
4 – Multiply the price per carat by the carat weight to get the total price for that diamond.

A diamond dealer then adds or subtracts for additional factors like Ideal Cuts, poor crown angles, excessive table percentages, excessive fluorescence in fine colors, etc. Our How to Read a Certificate report explains most of these details on any certificate and how they affect beauty and value of a diamond. More importantly, you can learn how to calculate a good price for any diamond very easily, if you take this step-by-step online Diamond Pricing Tutorial which makes it unnecessary to learn all of the discounts, exceptions, and quirks of the diamond pricing. The tutorial teaches you how to use the large online databases to find actual prices for actual diamonds listed for sale, no guessing.

Practice Price Chart
NOTE: These prices are not from the actual Rapaport price list. That list is copyrighted and cannot be shown here. However, these prices represent a good idea of the changes for each color and clarity grade, just like you would see in the actual report.

Round Brilliant Shape 1.00-1.49 carats (all prices in hundreds of dollars per carat)
	IF	VVS1	VVS2	VS1	VS2	SI1	SI2	SI3	I1
D	142	94	84	71	64	57	51	41	35
E	94	84	71	65	61	55	49	40	33
F	83	71	65	63	59	54	47	38	31
G	70	65	61	59	55	50	44	37	31
H	61	59	56	54	51	47	42	35	29
I	51	49	47	45	43	41	37	33	27
J	43	42	41	40	39	37	34	30	25
K	39	38	37	37	36	34	31	27	23
L	35	34	33	32	31	31	27	25	20
M	29	28	27	26	26	25	22	20	17

Test Yourself

We recommend using the chart above to practice and test your understanding of diamond pricing.

TEST QUESTION:
If you buy a round brilliant shape diamond weighing 1.01 carats, of F color and VS2 clarity, what is the approximate starting point for price negotiations among dealers?

ANSWER:
As of August 1999, dealers would start negotiations for a 1.01 carat, F/VS2 at about $5,959, which is $5,900 per carat. This is called the “Rap Price” for this diamond. Actual selling price would vary greatly, depending mostly on the total quality of the diamond after you adjust for 13 major factors such as fluorescence, Ideal Cut round, crown angles, table percentages, etc. Prices on the same exact diamond will also vary on the volume purchased, credit rating of the buyer, relationship between the buyer and seller, etc.

Consumer Prices

Since the first 6-10 major Internet sites began selling diamonds with less overhead and less markup to attract customers, many now sell to consumers at prices that are below the listed Rapaport price. This is good news for consumers.

But how much of a discount can you expect? That depends on the shape and its popularity, how well that stone is cut, and how well the dealer bought it — among other factors.

Better Than Rapaport

When you learn how to price any diamond you want – using current prices for stones that are available for sale right now — your pricing conclusions will be a lot more accurate than using Rapaport or any other pricing tool, because you are using live data, not making an educated guess using an algorithm. And this I say as someone who specialized in creating diamond pricing alogorthms a few years ago. The databases are the way to research pricing these days.

Here is my Diamond Pricing Tutorial for using them. Remember, the charts at Rapaport are one thing, but live prices are in a totally different world of accuracy. They go beyond considering all 13 factors. And without doing that, the Rap price is usually way off — sometimes by as much as 30% or more. Please use our tutorial and learn how to price diamonds with live data, instead of relying on limited knowledge and making a costly mistake.

And if you need to know more about the basics of color and clarity grades, visit our learning center. Our article on how to decide on the 4 Cs will help you make the important quality decisions in just minutes and save you days of research.