Talk to us.

The confirmation page after you send a message says you will hear back within a couple of days, and that is the honest target: a couple of business days for most questions. Valuation questions take a little longer when photos and a certificate are attached, because the answer depends on reading the 4 Cs properly instead of guessing at them.

If there is a deadline on your end — a sale closing this week, a press piece going live tomorrow — put it in the first line of the message. Anything with a stated deadline gets answered first.

Valuation questions: carat, colour, clarity and cut, the lab that issued the certificate (GIA, IGI, EGL, AGS, or none), natural or lab-grown, and two photos — one top-down on a white background, one side profile. The certificate number helps if you have it. If you do not know the grades, write "unknown" and describe the stone instead: a rough answer with its uncertainty stated is worth more to you than a confident answer built on guesses.

Corrections: the URL and one sentence about what is wrong. This site publishes specific numbers — retail samples, lab pricing, offer bands — and a stale number is worse than no number. If you have a source that supersedes one, send the link with it.

Jeweler listings: business name, city, and a way to verify the shop. Listings are free, but only verifiable shops get added — the directory is only worth something if the entries are real.

Press and partnerships: the outlet or company, what you need, and your deadline. Short and specific beats long and vague.

The site is run by Israel Joffe — born and raised in New York City, a former firefighter with the Lawrence-Cedarhurst Fire Department who now works from a home office in Boca Raton, Florida. He built diamonds.forsale as a counter to how the jewelry industry sells: the 200% markup, the discount calendar where every week is a closeout, and the trade-in policy that only makes sense from behind the counter.

The guides on this site — the 4 Cs, the certificate comparison, the calculator, the breakdowns of what pawn shops and jewelers actually pay — are written to hand a seller or buyer the same numbers a dealer would use, without the sales floor attached. There is a longer version of the story, with background and press, on the Israel Joffe page.

We can explain how the 4 Cs translate into price, how to read a grading report, which labs grade tightly and which run loose, why an offer lands where it does, and which guide on the site answers your question better than a reply would. We will also fix anything here that turns out to be wrong.

We cannot issue an appraisal — every figure on this site is an estimate, not a formal appraisal — and we do not buy diamonds, so there is no offer waiting at the end of an email. For a binding number you need two things: a grading report from an independent lab, and a written offer from a buyer who has the stone in hand.