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To add to my comment a little, and this was touched up in the article. The vast majority of rough diamonds are sent to India for cutting/polishing, before being sold to the retail channels (Tiffany, Zales, Wal-Mart, etc). The profit margin for the miners is rather small, the profit margin for the cutters/polishers is razor thin, and the profit margin for the retailers is HUGE.

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I have some knowledge of retail side. It’s a huge gross margin, but a ton of costs make net margins slim. So basically same all round.

Is it at all possible to buy direct from the cutters and polishers?

Just speculating here, maybe if you fly to India and visit their cutting shops in Surat.

The fairest prices as I understand it are on BlueNile, which charges about 10-15% above cut price, which is much better than the 100+% you'll find in retail.

+1 for BlueNile, you can do better than them but they are a huge improvement over the mall stores.

Yes it's possible, but you need to do your research. Many of the big ones go to the Hong Kong Jewelry and Gem fair.

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