Diamond Buying 101 by Ex-Jewel Thief - How to Buy a Quality Diamond Engagement Ring | 180 |

when i was robbing jewelry stores i'd watch what they didn't do and then of course i'm really case in the store i'm looking where the cameras are where he might have a buzzer or a beeper and i'm thinking man i can't wait to rob this guy because this guy's a crook already [Music] as a man who stole between 15 and 18 million dollars in diamonds i got to learn a lot about diamonds i also went to the gia institute off the books not a as an actual participant in a real class so to speak but i did it because i wanted to learn a lot about diamonds so what did i do well the first thing you want to do is you don't want to get taken because sadly there are a lot of jewelers out there who aren't as as uh legitimate as you might think and i'm not really talking about the big boys i'm not talking about mayor's jewelers or cage ors you'll see a lot of that during holiday seasons and stuff like that i'm talking about your regular jewelry you're also going to get uh taken by the big boys because their prices are mocked up a lot more you know when i started robbing jewelry stores you know i ended up figuring out how they the jewelers were trying to rob from me and what do you mean by that they're not telling you everything uh about diamonds that you need to know if you're a consumer or if you're looking to buy a diamond or if you just want to know a lot about diamonds you know the first things i tell people is first of all the big box stores have a higher markup that's a fact that's you know you want to get a nice ring and i often tell people the first largest purchase most people make is a house the second largest purchase a person makes is a car but the third largest person purchase you'll make is a diamond usually a diamond engagement ring for your soon-to-be wife so you want to do your due diligence number one and what i mean by that is you want to know a little bit about diamonds and i'm here to teach you a little bit and you also want to research you know most people go to one jewel or this oh i got a great buy how do you know you got a great buy diamond prices are all over the place i've seen a two and a half carat diamond ring go for a hundred thousand dollars and i've seen a two and a half carat diamond ring go for eight thousand dollars seven thousand dollars so look at that disparity call it you know a ten time disparity on just what you need to know about a diamond and most people know about the four c's it's the carrot the cut the clarity and the color those are your four c's and those are the things that are to determine the value of a diamond that's number one now how do you grade them and what you do is a whole nother thing you have what the carrot the size the actual size and that's important because is it a round diamond is it a marquee diamond is it a pear-shaped diamond all of them have a different value obviously i tell people the best diamond you can buy somebody is a round diamond one because it's going to have the most resale value now when i say cut of a diamond i am not just talking about that i am taught that you have the carrot the diamond then the cut is the geo geometric cut of a diamond the part that reflects light see when you see a diamond and you're going to see it atop then the little sides of the diamond then it goes down now there's three types of diamonds if they're not cut the right way see how diamonds work is light goes in the top it reflects off the side and goes back up and that's all mathematics and that's when you're gonna get the brilliance when you look at a diamond but you don't look at that diamond under a light because you're gonna see you ain't gonna see anything you look at it you put it under the table and whatever little light is there it can reflect back now the best way to look at light in a diamond is when it's loose not in its mounting because in the mounting you might get the reflection off of the metal that's on the mounting the gold or silver that is the actual mounting so you want to try to look at a diamond when it's loose and you hold it in a pair of tweezers and that's the best way you're gonna check out a diamond and as i often say most jewelers don't show you that also if you walk into a jewelry place they should have a 10 powered microscope right on the on the countertop if they don't you ask for one because that's the best way to look for flaws inclusions and stuff that's that's not maybe a little chips or something like that in the diamond you can also look if it's what they call a lazar kaplan diamond they have a laser they're laser cut diamonds a lazar kaplan diamond and that diamond has a serial number in it so you know it's funny when i walked into a jewelry store i had a line i used to say hey listen i i bought my wife a three-quarter carat diamond when we first got married i'm on my 10th anniversary i want to upgrade her diamond show me some diamonds now one they think oh wow he has a three-quarter calories looking for a two carat diamond how i did it was to see how they acted what i did it for also is to see where they went and got the box of loose diamonds most jewelers have a box about that long about that wide and it's got envelopes in it and in those envelopes are loose diamonds they're folded pieces of paper and there are a couple of ways and then they'll open up and show you a loose diamond well it took me two pulls to know how much value that diamond box is here's what i mean i would ask them for a car and a half let me look for a car and a half diamond now if the box is this long and he took the carrot and a half over here and he pulled it out and he shows me the diamond and then i asked him for a two carat diamond if he goes this way then i know all of these diamonds are higher than two carat or uh how much is left and how many envelopes are higher in diamonds if if he pulls it here and it's the end of the box and he pulls the next one here i know he's got a lot of garbage in this part of the box or under a carrot uh and a half so depending on what i'm looking for i can almost tell you how much that box of diamonds is worth by getting some kind of feel on the quality and get some kind of feel on how many envelopes are in that box now that's what i would do how i would look at the diamond then there's a couple of ways one right off the bat if you have a diamond and you want to look to see if it's a fake diamond everybody asked me that hey larry look at this ring is it fake the first thing i do is i take that diamond and i breathe on it like a fog if it's glass or something like that or cubic zirconia or some garbage and if fog stays there it's a fake diamond a real diamond because of the the material of a diamond the actual diamond the surface and everything it won't hold that fog it's a couple other ways to look if it's a fake diamond if you take a it's called a loop it's this little round thing and they open it up and you'll see jewels go like this but you can really hone in on a diamond and it magnifies that diamond so in a loop if i'm looking at that thing and i don't see any inclusions i see perfect and everything else it's probably a fake most diamonds almost every diamond pretty much every diamond has some kind of floor in it now don't get me wrong they're all perfect diamonds out there but very rare and they're not going to just show you these perfect diamonds like they're nothing in a box that's a special piece for a jeweler so always remember that that's very important jewels are slick they will hide flaws and inclusions behind a setting you know you'll see prongs on a diamond usually if i see four prongs and it's a high-end diamond you don't see that usually you see six prongs on on a really nice diamond because they don't want to lose that diamond you know you could lose a diamond where you know one of those prongs break you lose a diamond but if you got six in them it's harder to lose it with just two one breaking so a really high-end diamond usually has six but they'll hide flaws they'll hide little see there could be carbon in that diamond little black specks or little cuts or a little a fogginess or something of that nature you know diamonds are very rarely perfect but also when you're looking for fake diamonds you can do something very easy a lot of people don't know take a glass of water just a glass of water and you drop a diamond in the water if that diamond doesn't sink to the bottom right away it's a fake a real diamonds wait it's just it this is just math this is just a size and mass and weight drop it in that water will go right to the bottom it's probably a real diamond because fake diamonds don't do that they might hover in the middle they could even float because the density of the water and the density of a diamond a diamond will go down and that's the end of that you can also use a black light i mean i do know about i've heard of black i've never seen it but i do know when i took the class the black light they show like a blue like a blue haze or a blue like tint i i mean i never seen that and didn't use it and i don't know who's got a black light so i never saw that but that's something you can do as well you know i used to go into a jewelry store and i had my line i'd say i'm looking for the diamond and i'd watch these jewelers [ __ ] me because i i didn't tell them i knew anything about a diamond so i'd watch them [ __ ] me and tell me this stuff and like i knew i didn't know anything i would just say oh i don't know anything about a diamond can you show me something very rarely will they bring out it they have a box so they could show you it's called a light box just to give you an idea of the shape and the cuts and everything of a diamond and how the light reflects now they'll show you some rings and settings and you ask them take that out of the ring if they want to sell you a ten thousand twenty thousand dollar diamond they're gonna take it out of that setting and they're gonna show it to you and put it on that microscope and educate you about what the flaws are and everything else or how good that diamond is you want that make sure you get that that's very important you know they can measure the top of that diamond and it's i think it's 56.1 57 i'm not exactly sure i don't remember but that round diamond with all the geometry is what makes it really really illuminate and it and it brings the light back the best you can so you can make a less brilliant diamond more brilliant because the lights going to come through it better than a one that's not cut right so always remember that obviously you know you want to look at your settings that's a preference do you want a gold setting do you want a silver setting you can have a platinum setting you can have any setting you want obviously but that's a preference and that you should buy on wheat all of that has a weight factor unless it's an elaborately made piece a specialty piece they shouldn't be charging you much over the weight of that gold or the weight of the silver and that's a straight when i used to sell my diamonds to the fence they would just weigh the gold and say okay this is this much gold this is what the price of gold is and they'll do it unless it's something really nice that's how they would do that as far as the actual diamonds you know i knew that my diamonds were taken out of the settings especially any kind of elaborate piece and the gold is melted or silver's melted and and the diamonds were either sent off now also there's a thing they call them the birth certificate of a diamond which i didn't take much credence in now obviously if you have a diamond and it's what they call a lazar kaplan diamond they were two people who broke off lazar and kaplan they're laser-cut diamonds now think of it this way what makes a diamond so great you ever take a piece of glass and you break it the right way and it's got that perfect perfect cut i mean it's like wow that's what they do when they make diamonds diamond cutters are amazing because they actually with a diamond with a chisel and everything that's how they cut diamonds these people are amazing so they actually the diamond cutters are are just amazing to me now laser-cut diamonds to the really really good eye not mine they're known you know the best diamonds aren't laser-cut diamonds but they actually put a serial number inside that diamond but again you know your best of your best don't have that and when you have a 10 power microscope you can look and really look look close and see if there's any fill if there's any kind of inclusions in that diamond that were fixed they now have stuff that can fix a diamond now you won't want that you want a diamond that's going to be perfect you want a diamond that's going to last forever you could put in a safe deposit box and it'll be worth money so there are a few things you should look for when buying a diamond one obviously is the person reputable is the dealership rebel i personally think you should go to new york city and you go downtown into little italy into chinatown and you go to those jewels they'll have 20 jewelers in a like a store a big store and they all have their own boots they're all individuals now they all a lot of them dealt with guys like me so they can give you the best deal on a diamond they're not going to get a free they bought it from me and 20 or 30 cents on a dollar so they could sell it at 50 percent a dollar which a real jeweler like a zales or a gays or some freedmen's or any of these big jewels mayors jewelers they can't do that tiffany's any of those they can't compete with the guys who go to africa the de beers people own in africa they have mines and they will actually go over to antwerp and they have places where these jewelers actually go buy bags of diamonds for millions of dollars if you're a buyer and you you're on the list that you can go to de beers and buy diamonds you can't just go to say i want this one piece of diamond this one piece of no they get bags of diamonds now this bag might be a million two million whatever the number is they'll put them in a room they'll show them the three bags and then the person has to pick that whole bag and buy that whole bag now those good jewelers that go over there they're realizing what can i make out of this bag well i can make a ring at this i can do this and i can get two million out of that bag and i'm buying it for a million so that's what they do but they'll take that bag and they'll bring it back to the states or in the in israel they have the best cutters in the world in antwerp and israel you'll see the best jewelry cutters and those guys will are just amazing and what they'll do is they'll come back to the united states now everybody thinks they're going to the diamond exchange in new york city that's called suckers lane is what we used to call it that was just suckers lane uh most of your diamonds used to come down to little italy and get them down there how can you get a better price than getting them from a guy like me you can't nobody can it's just a fact you can't do that so what would happen guys who bought them from guys like me would get these diamonds they're dispersed in a network of itself and then you can get really really good prices on diamonds obviously but the best thing you can do to buy a diamond is one to make sure the place is reputable and that means they've been there a while what happens if if you find something's wrong does the diamond have a birth certificate for insurance reasons it should and what is a birth certificate for a diamond you know they have all the particulars of the diamond the actual size the weight the color code and the exact geometric cut and everything on that diamond is it subjective to a degree maybe the color could be a little bit subjective but really everything's the science of that diamond and that's why they'll they can match a stolen diamond pretty hard to actually do that and match that diamond to one that was stolen so i mean did these diamonds have birth certificates because once you put it in a uh a ring or something else how are they gonna know nobody's gonna know what that diamond because they'll make another birth certificate with that diamond and alter it a hair and all of a sudden you know you got now your birth certificate and you can insure your diamond you got to make sure you do have that birth certificate it is from a reputable place so you can get insurance on that diamond you have a diamond that you're paying 10 12 15 20 000 you want to ensure that if it got stolen or lost or something of that nature you want to be able to get some money out of it because that that does happen a person gets a ring and they lose it you want insurance on that diamond well you can't get insurance if you buy the diamond from larry you could have a beautiful diamond but you couldn't get insurance on that you know it's funny because when i was robbing jewelry stores i'd watch what they didn't do and then of course i'm really case in the store i'm looking where the cameras are where he might have a buzzer or a beeper and i'm thinking man i can't wait to rob this guy because this guy's a crook already and he's just trying to rob me as a regular guy i used to say i was a builder in the area i had a few dollars now and now i want to uh buy my wife an upgraded ring so what is he doing he's already trying to con me this guy not showing me certain things only showing me the crap and telling me how much it's worth and i'm like man in the back of my head i'm saying i'ma rob this guy this guy's an [ __ ] this guy's really bad so you know the industry itself is not sometimes the most upstanding industry it just isn't listen if they won't buy that diamondback in a certain amount of time maybe a week or two without giving you a full refund don't go near the guy if the guy says sure i'll take it back in two weeks you don't like it two weeks your wife doesn't like it somebody doesn't like it bring it back i'll give you a full refund for that diamond then you know the guy is respecting his own price of course he wants to make a sale of course he's going to make 20 or whatever it is but you ever see in these stores they'll say 80 off how the [ __ ] can you give 80 off that means you're screwing people 100 80 percent more on a normal day that's [ __ ] this isn't you know buy three you know buy three diamonds you know get the fourth free this isn't that they wouldn't do that on a car would they you should have that in agreement say listen i'd like i'm going to spend good money in this place but i want to know if i go home or my wife doesn't like this diamond one can i get a refund two can i upgrade this at any time and get what i paid for it if they willing to do that up to a certain amount of time you got a guy who's more legit than the next guy so you want to know about the four c's you want to know if they're reputable you want to know if they uh are willing to give that refund and you want to know about the birth certificate of the diamond for insurance purposes and stuff of that nature now obviously once that's done don't just give cash you should put a charge like this on a credit card in case you take that diamond you go to another place to have it graded you want that diamond looked at and appraised by a different juror than the one you're buying it from you don't want to buy that diamond and have him do everything and that's the end of it you want to get that diamond appraised by another jeweler now when the jewel gives you a number it could be a little bit off but not much then you know you got a legitimate diamond and that's what you need and i wouldn't even take it to the store really right around there because a lot of them work together they'll they will actually work together and they know if he comes in he says where he bought it i wouldn't even tell the new place where you got the diamond i wouldn't do that i would go to a different area and i'd have it appraised and once you have that diamond appraised by someone who doesn't know where it come from you're going to get a more legit number all of these things are very important when buying a diamond make sure you know what you're doing go in there with information don't go in there and and and let him just tell you everything and buy from the first guy you see because would you do that if you bought a car what are you gonna do you're gonna go and research that car and know everything about that car before you go to a dealer and know what that car is worth i hope you do now with the diamond do the same thing if you can do that you're going to get a good buy and then you might even want to play a little stupid just to see how much he's trying to con you and if he is run don't walk away that's why you see a diamond right here anyway everybody i hope you enjoyed it have a great day uh this christmas season if you're getting somebody a diamond listen to what i just said watch this video share this video please the people especially christmas time tell them this is what a giant diamond thief is telling you to do this is a guy who stole 15 18 million in diamonds telling you how to do it and do it right don't make the choices i made everybody make good choices please this is what this is about you know that i'm here to educate you thanks for being a fan thanks for watching please share please like please put this video in your playlist check out podcast out too these things are on a podcast as well we love the podcast i'm doing more and more interviews so we're gonna have a lot of fun with that as well so please pass the word about the channel and thanks for your support make good choices everybody have a great day stay safe [Music] you

Channel: Larry Lawton

Views: 192,837

Keywords: buy diamonds online, diamond buying 101, information on diamonds, buy diamonds, diamond expert, diamond buying advice, diamond advice, where to buy a diamond engagement ring, buy enagement ring, engagement ring, 4cs, how to buy diamond engagement ring, how to buy a diamond, diamond buying tips, diamond shopping, diamond buying, buy diamond, buy diamond ring, gia, engagement ring shopping, diamond quality, gia report, how to buy a diamond ring, how to buy an engagement ring

Id: D6_XaOnhWWA

Length: 23min 39sec (1419 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 17 2020