THIS IS RAP (NOT HIP-HOP!)

A Pawnbroker’s Guide to the Rapaport Price List

WHAT IS THE “RAP SHEET”?

The first Rapaport Price List (or “Rap Sheet”) was published in 1978 by Martin Rapaport, then a wholesale diamond broker in New York City. Today, the Rap Sheet is the industry standard used to establish diamond prices all over the world, and Martin Rapaport serves as CEO of the Rapaport Group.

The Rapaport Group has a huge presence in the diamond industry worldwide. They employ “over 220 team members in offices in New York, Las Vegas, Ramat Gan, Jerusalem, Antwerp, Mumbai, Surat and Hong Kong, serving more than 20,000 clients in 120 countries.” In addition to the Rapaport Price List, they manage RapNet (the world’s largest diamond and jewelry trading platform), RapLab (a diamond grading laboratory), and Rapaport Fair Trade, which works towards creating “a freer and fairer diamond industry”.

Understanding the Rap Sheet is essential for anyone buying and selling diamonds- whether you’re pricing items for sale in your retail store, figuring out a fair wholesale price for a colleague, or making sense of an offer from a dealer.

HOW DO I ACCESS THE RAP SHEET?

You’ll need a paid subscription to Rapaport, which has several different levels of membership available depending on your needs. The minimum required to access the Rap sheet is a subscription to Rapaport Magazine ($210.00/year). This includes access to the RapNet price calculator and TradeScreen, which are both handy for pricing research. If you want access to resources such as diamond price analysis tools, access to chat/trade groups, and the ability to list diamonds and jewelry for sale, additional levels of membership are available.

HOW DO I READ THE RAP SHEET?

The Rap Sheet is organized into tables. At the top of the table, there is a weight range, date, and shape--either “ROUND” or “PEAR”. Round is for round brilliant shapes. Pear refers to all the others (pear, baguette, princess, etc). Each table contains prices for a range of sizes that use the same number as the per carat price. The size groups Rapaport uses are below.

Let’s say we have a 1.03 ct. RBC diamond. It’s an SI2-G. Find the chart with the appropriate size range (1.00 - 1.50 ct.) and cut (ROUND) at the top.

In the black border around the chart, you’ll see letters in a column down both sides. These represent diamond color grades, D-M. At the top of the chart, you’ll find a row of diamond clarity grades, IF- I3.

The numbers you see in the table are per-carat prices, expressed as 1/100 of the number they represent. This saves space and makes the table easier to read.

Find the color (G) in the column at the left-hand side of the table. Find the clarity grade (SI2) in the top row.. The number you find where the column and row meet is the number we’ll input into the formula below to get the Rappaport price for our stone.

NUMBER FROM RAP SHEET x 100 x CARAT WEIGHT = HIGH CASH ASKING PRICE

For example: $44 x 100 x 1.03 = $4,532.00

In the below image, you can see how increasing or decreasing the carat weight affects the value of of our stone, all other factors being equal:

HOW DO I USE THE RAP SHEET?

Remember: the Rap Sheet is not a price list. It is intended to be used as a benchmark, or point of reference.

It’s important to note that the prices in the Rapaport list are based on Rapaport Diamond Specification “A3”. For a breakdown of Rapaport specifications, click here. If your stone has specifications that fall outside of the requirements for an “A3” stone, you should start discounting from the price indicated on the Rap sheet.

Most retailers and wholesalers price their items “back” of Rap, or at a discount from the amount on the Rap Sheet. For example, if a dealer offers to sell you a stone for “40 back of Rap,” they are referring to a price that is 40% less of the current Rapaport value for a stone of the same size and quality.

Rapaport does not include lab-grown stones in the price list, but you might approximate the wholesale value of a lab grown diamond by calculating 95-98% of the Rapaport value for a natural diamond with the same specifications.