I am looking for an index or benchmark that tracks the price of
diamonds. I am interested in analyzing the prices of diamonds, by
year, for the the last 25 years. Any thoughts or suggestions?

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Request for Question Clarification by mathtalk-ga on 16 Mar 2005 16:16 PST

Hi, infopros-ga:

There are "free" federal statistics that track the commodity prices
for industrial diamonds.  Naturally the pricing of gem-quality
diamonds is more complicated to track because cut, size, and clarity
will enter the picture, as well as retail vs. wholesale markets.

Before I get too carried away with researching this, can you explain a
bit of what characteristics are needed for the index/benchmark?

regards, mathtalk-ga

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Clarification of Question by infopros-ga on 17 Mar 2005 04:16 PST

Thanks for asking.  I should have clarified in my question. I am only
interested in gem quality diamonds.  I am interested in knowing, in
general, how much the price of these diamonds, however most sensibly
defined with all the problems of using averages being well thought
out, have gone up or down each year so that I can then analyze those
movements.
Either the price of one investment grade diamond with certain
desirable qualities or a basket of different grades would work for
this analysis as long as the same source is used and is relatively
reliable.

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Request for Question Clarification by pafalafa-ga on 17 Mar 2005 04:28 PST

infopros-ga,

There's a trendline of diamond (and other gemstone) prices going back
to 1975 at this site:


http://www.preciousgemstones.com/gfspring04.html#trends


What happened in 1980, I wonder...?


Please let me know if this meets your needs...and if not, what other
sort of information you're after?

Thanks,

pafalafa-ga

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Clarification of Question by infopros-ga on 17 Mar 2005 06:26 PST

I think you nailed it.  Thanks.  1980 may have been explained by
speculative hard asset boom when diamonds were touted as great
investments.
BTW, do the google answers researchers no longer share their search
methodolgies with the customers?  Or have I forgotten where to look
for it?

infopros-ga,

Glad to hear that the graph I provided hit the nail on the head...or
perhaps I should swithc cliches, and call it the proverbial diamond in
the rough!

Anyway, here's the link again, just to make it official:

-----
There's a trendline of diamond (and other gemstone) prices going back
to 1975 at this site:


http://www.preciousgemstones.com/gfspring04.html#trends
-----


As for my search strategy, I made use of my professional bag of
tricks, and in addition to a regular Google search (which didn't turn
up well-targeted results), I ran a search on Google Images, as this
can be very helpful in finding graphs and charts and the like.  The
search was:  [ (diamond OR gemstone) price trends ]

In case you're not familiar with it, Google Images is here:


http://images.google.com


Before rating this answer, please let me know if there's anything else
I can do for you.

Cheers,


pafalafa-ga

exactly what I needed.

It was also 1980 that Gold hit $880 per ounce....

Thanks so much for your generosity  I was glad to be able to assist
you on this one.

paf