FAQ

At Icecap, we only want you to invest in diamonds if it’s a good fit, and makes sense for your specific needs and portfolio. For many people it likely isn’t a good fit. Please read our blog post on this topic to help you determine whether diamond investment could make sense in your case.

Visit our Get Started page for some helpful tips to get started. When you’re ready, visit the marketplace to browse available diamonds, and complete a buy order form.

Alternatively, you can contact Icecap’s sales agent, Cloud Hard Assets at (800) 247-2812. They will be your guide and handle all aspects of the transaction. Cloud Hard Assets has been selling gold and silver to investors for over forty years, and has one of the best reputations in the hard asset industry.

Please note that there is also an on-boarding process that must be completed before you may begin buying diamonds for your portfolio. This involves standard KYC/AML checks, and recording of signature and other details to ensure security of your portfolio going forward. These steps are primarily for your own safety.

Icecap sells diamonds to hard asset investors at extremely low markup levels.  Among other things this means that many of the services available to jewelry buyers are not available via Icecap, including any returns or exchanges.  All sales are final and are deemed delivered upon receipt by buyer, or buyer’s agent. Note that Icecap does provide a two-way marketplace, and invites Icecap customers to use it if they ever wish to sell their diamonds. Learn more at www.icecap.diamonds/sell.

Good news, no prior diamond expertise is required. Icecap provides you its “Value Index”, a tool that estimates how “good of a deal” every diamond is, at a given price point.

Icecap determines a “par value” for every combination of color, clarity and carat weight. This is basically what a diamond would cost on the wholesale market, with mathematical adjustments to show how it would be priced on the Icecap marketplace. That number is “par.” Then every diamond is ranked by its asking price as a relationship to that par value. This allows a buyer not familiar with diamonds to know which diamond to buy: the one that ranks the best on the Value Index. Therefore no knowledge of diamonds is needed. The investor should typically buy the best priced diamond, and the value index shows which one that is. If more budget is available, then buy the next one, and so forth, until the budget is met.

Icecap’s Diamond Value Index™ is a patent-pending mechanism that brings what we call “virtual fungibility” to diamond trading. Unlike gold, which is fungible between units (every ounce is equal to every other ounce), diamonds have hundreds of permutations of color, clarity, carat weight and so forth. Even within Icecap’s narrow program standards, there are over 500 possible combinations.

Unlike jewelry buyers, who will have strong opinions on what kind of diamond they want, investors don’t really care if a diamond is, say, a one carat or a two carat. The difference is already discounted by the price. The investor cares that they are buying the diamond at the best possible “value,” meaning closest proximity to wholesale price.

That increases the likelihood of a favorable outcome when it is time to sell. Icecap delivers this information on every one of its marketplace diamonds, by comparing the offer price to what it considers “par,” which is a percentage relationship to a defined target value above wholesale.

An offer price lower than that number is—or can be presumed to be all other factors equal—a better “deal” or “value” than a diamond above that number. The lower the ratio the better. (Example: if there are three diamonds with value index rankings of -3.2%, -1.7%, and +2.2%, the -3.2% is presumably a better value.)

This lets the diamond investor essentially ignore the gemological characteristics such as VVS1 vs. VVS2 and focus instead on what the investor cares about: proximity to wholesale. In the same way, when it is time to sell, the seller knows what price they will need to offer, to appear at the top or near the top of the value index.

By thus converting hundreds of possible diamond quality and price combinations into a single metric (value) virtual fungibility is achieved.

The Diamond Value Index is one of the primary innovations Icecap has developed, which opens the diamond market up to investors by creating an efficient bid/ask marketplace.

If you’re ready to place an order go first to Icecap Marketplace to see the available diamonds. Remember to check the 2^nd tab “Full Inventory” to view the maximum selection. When you’ve chosen which diamonds you’d like to buy, write down the GIA certificate number and the Icecap List Price for each of them. Then click on the Buy Diamonds link which will take you to the order form. Please follow the instructions from there.

Still have questions? Feel free to contact Icecap at any time.

When placing an order, you will decide if you wish to take delivery of the diamond immediately—you can always do so later—or have the diamond vaulted. (See below, for details on the storage process.) In either case, here is what you now own, after placing an order. An asterisk shows which of these goes in the vault, if you choose that option. Otherwise, all these are shipped, or provided online as an ongoing service:

1. Certificate of Diamond Purchase. This is a bill of sale showing precisely what you own, and with links built-in, giving you access to resources about your diamond(s), including the online versions of the two certificates.
2. The best cut grade. All Icecap diamonds have earned the coveted “Triple Ex” designation from the Gemological Institute of America. (Excellent Cut, Excellent Symmetry, Excellent Polish.)
3. *The Diamond itself, contained in industry-standard diamond paper, inserted into a plastic sleeve, and with the original GIA and GCAL certificates, included. Icecap diamonds are graded twice, first by GIA, and then a full audit and secondary grading is issued by GCAL—the only grading lab in the world that actually guarantees its grading, and backs it up with an insurance policy.
4. A diamond “fingerprint.” Icecap diamonds receive a “Gemprint™”, which is a technology that uses reflected laser beams to record the exact identity of that diamond. This insures your diamond’s identity can always be confirmed. This Gemprint is embedded into the GCAL certificate.
5. Insurance and storage-confirmation certificate. If you choose to leave your diamond vaulted, you will receive proof of its status and the insurance coverage that protects you.
6. 360 degree video. Your diamond is photographed using a 3-D video technology. You can access this file, and control your diamond while you inspect it visually from anywhere in the world, via the Ownership Certificate. Example here.
7. Online Portfolio Dashboard. You will receive a link to your diamond portfolio. Every diamond you’ve purchased will be listed, along with the details of its GIA and GCAL numbers, gemological details, purchase price, date of purchase, recommended asking price if offered for sale today, and percent appreciation/depreciation since purchase—just like a stock portfolio.
8. Right To Re-Vault. If you take delivery of your diamond, you have the right to later re-vault for a $100 fee, plus shipping/insurance. This means you can enjoy having custody of your diamond as long as you want, but can then (assuming no damage) put it back on the market for sale if/when you ever wish to.

Icecap was envisioned as an NFT-based diamond marketplace. During launch, we found a better technology for the immediate needs of our customers. For now, we are making Icecap diamonds “NFT compatible” so the value of that technology can be re-introduced whenever desirable. For more details, please read our blog post on the topic.

The industry’s largest B2B trading platforms for diamonds routinely publish asking-price averages. Icecap uses these numbers as a baseline indicator for wholesale prices, and then makes the following adjustments to create “PAR” on its own platform.  (Note: PAR is the price at which a given diamond would have a 0% or “neutral” value index.)

• “Apples to Apples Comparison.” First, Icecap increases the baseline prices 10%, as a very rough way to account for the fact that the diamonds sold on Icecap are far better—within the same 4C’s ratings—as those sold on the B2B trading platforms. For example, Icecap’s diamonds are double graded, with both GIA and GCAL labs having to agree on color/clarity, and GCAL is a far tougher lab. Also, Icecap screens out any diamonds that violate its program standards, such as those with strong fluorescence, open feathers, graining, etc. Very few diamonds listed on the B2B trading platforms would pass this screening and double-grading. Thus a 10% price factor is included so as to achieve an approximate apples-to-apples comparison.
  
  
• Additional Ten Percent Markup to Icecap Price Levels. Secondly, newly issued diamonds being sold on the Icecap trading platform are marked up ten percent above wholesale cost. Broadly speaking, this means the Icecap price level is—other factors equal—ten percent above wholesale. This compares to traditional retail markups running between twenty and 100 percent markup. Icecap calls this an “investor” price level.

To be clear, this means that PAR on Icecap is roughly twenty percent above the numbers taken from the B2B platforms. The first ten percent is for an apples-to-apples conversion, and the second ten percent is to reflect the fact that newly issued diamonds on Icecap are sold at roughly ten percent above wholesale cost—thus establishing a normal Icecap price level.

And in fact, most diamonds—at least to date—sold on Icecap have been sold at or around this par number, derived as explained above. When Icecap shows “Equivalent Price Today,” on its portfolio sheets, it uses that PAR number. The portfolio sheets are updated roughly once a month or more with the changes based on B2B platform data, using the methodology explained above.

In times of normal liquidity in the diamond industry, the “equivalent price today” is the comparison number for approximately what the diamond might sell for today, between a willing buyer and willing seller. It bases this calculation on the value index that the diamond was originally sold for. In other words, the methodology is consistent.

However, the diamond market also fluctuates in terms of liquidity, not just price. At times, there are far more buyers than sellers, and at other times far more sellers than buyers. Various market forces contribute to this, but the point is that changes in liquidity have a multiplier effect on changes in price.

Generally speaking, if prices are going down, liquidity goes down as well. And vice versa. That means when prices are going up and liquidity is strong, actual transactions may occur at prices significantly above “PAR.” And when prices are going down, and liquidity is tight, actual transactions may occur at prices significantly below “PAR.”

Other markets exhibit this liquidity phenomena as well, for example when a hot housing market produces “premiums” that are offered even above the asking price for a home. Or when—in a weak market—sellers of homes accept an offer far below the asking price.

Thus no one using Icecap should assume that the specific “Equivalent Price Today” number is the price at which they could sell that diamond, or buy that diamond. It is nothing more than a guide based on a consistent methodology with respect to published wholesale prices, as adjusted. It’s main utility is in seeing the industry’s underlying price movement for comparable diamonds, since the date of purchase.

—SPECIAL NOTE PERTAINING TO THE MARKET IN 2024—
As has been widely reported in both the trade and general press, diamond prices have fallen precipitously since mid 2022—at a rate never before seen in modern times. Most of this drop has come from the unexpected impact on the diamond industry from synthetic (AKA: lab-grown) diamonds, and growing consumer acceptance of this less expensive product.

Many experts believe this is a short term phenomenon. Synthetic prices are falling so quickly, they will likely soon be available to consumers at price levels around $50/carat. At that point, many believe, the synthetic product will no longer be perceived as rare or endowed with meaningful value. Natural diamonds, by contrast, are limited in supply. As happened with the synthetic ruby and emerald markets, it’s expected that when synthetic diamonds fall low enough in price, the price of natural will climb again.

But at the present time (2024) the industry is largely in a “wait and see” mode, and trading volume in natural diamonds is at historic lows. This means anyone seeking to sell a diamond into today’s market will likely need to price it at a very low liquidation level, because most “willing buyers” are waiting until prices move upwards again. This means the “Equivalent Price Today” column that Icecap includes on portfolio sheets, while still based on a consistent and open methodology, is likely of limited value in terms of what a liquidation price would be, given the current lack of liquidity in the market.