Lab Grown Diamond Buyback in India: How It Actually Works

Buyback is a retailer scheme in which the jeweller who sold you a piece agrees to purchase it back at a stated percentage of the prevailing diamond and gold value. It is not the same as resale on the open market, where lab grown diamonds fetch very little. Ivana Jewels pays 80% of the prevailing diamond value and 100% of the prevailing gold value at the time of buyback, with making charges, discounts and GST deducted.

Buyback and exchange are not the same thing

These two words are used loosely in Indian jewellery retail and the difference is worth several thousand rupees.

• Buyback means the jeweller purchases the piece back and pays you. You walk out with money.
• Exchange means the value of your old piece is applied against a new purchase. You walk out with different jewellery.

Exchange rates are almost always better than buyback rates, because the retailer keeps the sale. At Ivana Jewels, exchange returns 100% of the current market rate for diamonds and gold, while buyback returns 80% on the diamond component. That 20 percentage point gap is the price of taking cash instead of jewellery.

What a buyback actually pays

Three things determine the figure, and only the first is usually explained at the counter.

1. The rate applied to each component

A finished piece is diamond plus gold, and they are valued separately. At Ivana Jewels:

• Diamond: 80% of the prevailing diamond value at the time of buyback
• Gold: 100% of the prevailing gold value at the time of buyback

2. What gets deducted

Making charges, discounts and GST are non-refundable and come off the total. This is standard across the industry and is the part that surprises people most, because making charges on an intricate piece can be substantial.

Any damage, missing stones or alterations may lead to further deductions after inspection.

3. The rate on the day

Both gold and diamond values move. Buyback is calculated at the prevailing rate on the day you sell, not the rate on the day you bought. Gold has generally moved upward over time, which works in your favour on the gold component.

A worked example of exchange

Exchange has one wrinkle that catches people out. If you exchange into a piece with a lower diamond value than your original, the remainder is not paid to you in cash at the exchange rate. It is treated as buyback.

Ivana Jewels publishes this example:

Old diamond value is 50,000 and new diamond value is 30,000, so the remaining 20,000 diamond value is counted as buyback, that is a 20% deduction on the remaining value, so the final buyback value is 16,000.

The practical lesson: exchange works best when you are trading up. Trading down converts the difference into a buyback, at the lower rate.

Do lab grown diamonds hold their value?

Honestly, no, and any jeweller who tells you otherwise is selling rather than advising.

Lab grown diamonds have limited resale value on the open second-hand market. This is partly true of all jewellery once retail margin is stripped out, mined diamonds included, but the gap is wider for lab grown stones because supply is not geologically constrained.

What this means practically: a retailer buyback scheme is the realistic route to recovering value, not a private sale. The scheme is worth more than the open market, which is precisely why the terms of the scheme matter so much at the point of purchase.

If value retention is your primary objective, gold is the better instrument. If you want the largest, cleanest stone your budget allows and intend to wear it, a lab grown diamond is the better one. Both are legitimate; they are just different purchases.

What is excluded

Worth knowing before you assume a piece is covered.

• Polki cannot be exchanged against faceted diamonds, or the reverse. The two are valued on different bases.
• Loose diamonds and loose Polki are not bought back or exchanged. The value sits in the finished piece.
• Promotional or discounted purchases may carry different terms, which should be specified at the time of purchase.
• Pieces bought elsewhere. Buyback applies to jewellery purchased through official Ivana Jewels stores and channels.

Keep your certificate

A lost certificate has a direct cost at buyback. Ivana Jewels charges ₹2,000 per carat for IGI and ₹1,000 per carat for SGL to replace one. On a 2 carat stone that is ₹4,000.

Photograph the certificate when you buy the piece and keep the image somewhere you will actually find it in ten years.

Six questions to ask any jeweller before buying

Ask these before payment, not after. A retailer confident in their scheme will answer all six without hesitation.

1. What percentage do you pay on the diamond component, and on gold?
2. Is that buyback or exchange? What is the other one?
3. What is deducted — making charges, GST, discounts?
4. Is the rate calculated on the day of purchase or the day of buyback?
5. What voids it — damage, resizing elsewhere, a missing certificate?
6. Can I have those terms in writing?

If a jeweller advertises “lifetime buyback” but cannot answer question three, the headline number is not the number.

Frequently asked questions

Is 80% a good buyback rate?

It is at the upper end of what is published in the Indian lab grown market, where stated cash buyback rates commonly sit between 70% and 80%. What matters as much as the headline rate is what is deducted from it, which varies more than the percentage does.

Can I sell my lab grown diamond to another jeweller?

You can try, but expect a poor offer. Most jewellers will value it as loose stone weight at best. This is why the buyback terms of the retailer you originally bought from matter so much.

Does buyback apply to the gold as well?

At Ivana Jewels, yes: 100% of the prevailing gold value. Gold is the more reliably value-retaining component of any piece of jewellery, which is worth bearing in mind when choosing between a heavy setting and a larger stone.

How long does buyback take?

The piece is inspected first, since damage or missing stones affect the figure. Visit any showroom with the piece and its certificate, and the valuation is explained before you commit to anything.

Is there a time limit?

No. The Ivana Jewels buyback and exchange are lifetime policies on eligible pieces purchased from us. Separately, there is a 7 day return window from delivery for store-picked and Ready to Ship items, which is a different thing entirely.

Full terms are on our All Policies page and our Buyback and Exchange Policy. To discuss a specific piece, visit any of our eleven showrooms in Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Surat, Pune, Thane, Nagpur, Noida, Hyderabad and Mohali, open 10:30am to 9pm every day.