Editorial body
The phrase price discovery sounds reassuring.
One imagines price hiding beneath a table while economists gently coax it into daylight.
In gemstones, the process can be more adventurous.
There may be no public exchange.
No live ticker.
No universally accepted reference price.
No identical commodity unit.
One stone differs from another.
Private transactions dominate.
Comparables may be proprietary.
So two people enter a negotiation with very different information.
One knows what similar stones recently achieved.
The other knows the stone is green.
The first person offers a number.
The second person asks whether that is the market.
The first person says yes.
We congratulate ourselves on successful price discovery.
The real commercial challenge for source is therefore not merely obtaining a valuation.
It is developing price intelligence.
What does similar material achieve:
at source?
after cutting?
at wholesale?
in Asia?
in Europe?
in jewellery?
in calibrated sets?
in matched suites?
in larger centre stones?
under recurring contracts?
The more questions source can answer independently, the less mystical price becomes.
Eventually, price ceases hiding beneath the table.
It was never shy.
It was simply privately informed.