The Art of Building An Argyle Collection...
How to Win an Argyle Stone
Every year for the Argyle diamond tender, a private invitation was sent out to 150 diamond ateliers around the world to go to one of the 2-3 exclusive locations around the world, where the tender stones were viewed. Then, they are given an hour each to examine the pink, red, violet, blue and grey stones and put to in a closed bid. (In 2020, due to the pandemic, the bids moved online for the first time.) For the final tender in 2021, Argyle increased the number of invites to 200 invites.
But just because you have a seat at table, it doesn't mean you win your bid, and Argyle does not disclose who does win the bids, so an Argyle diamond collector or consultant relies on who and what they know to find out who won certain tender stones when they are putting together a collection.
This is such an exclusive process that, in the diamond world, winning any bid at the Argyle tender is like winning the lottery. Well if that’s true, how was it possible to put together a collection of the only 1.15ct Fancy Pure Pink oval diamond, the only .55ct Fancy Red/Purplish Red VS, and the highest rated BL3+ Violet Heart shaped Argyle diamonds in the world?
Shouldn’t that be called winning the Powerball Jackpot & not the Trifecta?
Whether you call it the Powerball or Trifecta the odds are about the same.The first thing you’re going to need to do is believe you can do it. Listen to the naysayers and you’ve lost. Every great journey begins with one step.
How to Win an Argyle Trifecta
The Argyle Trifecta wasn't won at one single Argyle Tender lottery year, making it even more complicated to trace the stones and convince the owners to sell.
These diamonds were won by various parties at different tenders, and if you want to be the next owner, you’re going to have to pick up the telephone and start calling people to figure out where they are. There are going to be a lot of dead ends, a lot of changing provenance, and a lot of broken promises, but you’ve got to find the people who have a seat at the table or find someone who knows someone at the table. When you make enough calls (six degrees of separation) and you finally get the owner, you then have to convince them to be a seller and to make an offer that they will want to accept. If lucky, you’ll then own one of the three winning tickets. Then, you get a goodnight sleep after a 1000 bad ones, and you'll then wake up again tomorrow and do it all over again until you have the three rarest color diamonds from the Argyle diamond mine.
But if you love Argyle Diamonds like I do and like many collectors do, the next day after you finish your collection, you're back on the scent hunting for more.
George Herbert Leigh Mallory was once asked why he wanted to climb Mount Everest? His reply, “Because it’s there.”
And now, the Argyle Trifecta™, is here.
Fred Cuellar is one of the top diamond experts in the world, CEO of Diamond Cutters International, and author of the bestselling book "How to Buy a Diamond". He is available to assist in your own Argyle Diamond collection acquisition.