Melissa Lee sits high up over the New York stock exchange. Her studio is a stage hanging over the trading hall. She is networked into the world of stocks and wired to all economic issues. Originally from Great Neck, New York, Melissa is a small Chinese Lady with a gigantic worldwide audience.

Leibish & Melissa Lee on the set of CNBC

Leibish & Melissa Lee on the set of CNBC

During my interview with Melissa back in the beginning of 2013, I pulled out our Prosperity Pink Diamond ring, a 1.68 carat, fancy vivid pink, Argyle Tender diamond, and put it on her finger. “It fits perfectly,” she laughed. “Can I keep it?” She was referring to the ring, but it was the fun factor that she was toying with.

We were asking for that stone, three years ago, one million dollars, total, including the ring. It sounded, at the time, a bit high. But then again, the price worked for the Pink Prosperity Diamond. In a short three year period since then, an Argyle pink diamond of a similar size and quality will cost a minimum of $1.5 million dollars. In fact, I just recently offered nearly two million dollars on a 2.00 carat, fancy vivid pink diamond, and my offer was very quickly rejected.

The Prosperity Pink diamond ring

Australians are the biggest collectors of Argyle pink diamonds. The stones are mined and polished in Western Australia. Many come halfway around the world to my offices in Israel, Hong Kong, or New York, and end up going right back to where they came from. I used to make a joke, that Argyle must have inserted a microchip in each stone they produced enabling the diamond to navigate its way back home.

What is actually going on? How is it, that while the prices of white diamonds have dropped so substantially, blue and pink diamond prices continue to skyrocket?

One of the reasons pink diamond prices have appreciated so much up against many of the other commodities in the market is because the quantity of fine pinks is getting smaller and smaller. They are hardly any goods over a carat, and only a handful or two of stones over two carats. A two carat, round, Argyle vivid pink diamond will easily retail today for $2.5 million per carat. Meaning, it would be a total of five million dollars for the stone.

Large pink diamonds have their own legends.

Like we saw with the Princie Pink Diamond, which was once the property of The Nizam.

The world largest Golconda diamond ever offered on auction was a 24+ carat, fancy intense pink. It was bought by Graff, sent back to the polishing wheel, and eventually perfected into a vivid pink stone. Diamonds like these, over twenty carats, with a vivid pink color are absolutely priceless.

Every woman dreams of owning a beautiful piece of pink diamond jewelry, and we, at LEIBISH, are working diligently to help fulfill their dreams.

Leibish Polnauer