diamond hunting questions

[thorndor]

Hi All, if its not too much of an impostition, I have some diamond questions for y’all.

For the first time in my life, I am looking to buy a diamond (for an engagement ring, woohoo!). I must say that it seems very overwhelming. I know that she likes ovals of decent buy not huge size (1.4 to 1.6 carat). I, also, know that she likes sparkly bits on the side.

I have managed to locate online a setting which I think will be perfect. http://www.coastdiamond.com/collection.asp?SectionID=114&CatID=118 I want to use this setting or something very close and set a slightly larger center stone in it. I went to a local B&M where they we very friendly and accommodating and agreed to quote me a price for both the setting and a center stone. They called me the other day with a quote of about $5500 for the setting in platinum which I am in no real position to evaluate but sounded in the ballpark that I had heard from some other retailers.

The quotes that they offered for center stones, however, really set me back. They quoted me a 1.5 carat oval, SI1, F, for around $13,000. I had looked at Pricescope and saw many with similar descriptors going for $8,000 to $10,000 which is, to me anyway, significantly less. I realize that I have not mentioned what seems to be the most important factor, cut, but therein lies most of my confusion.

I have I guess several questions. Firstly, is cut (particularly for an oval) simply something that can be determined empirically via some set of measurements or diagnostic test? If not, what should I be looking for? Second, for those of you who have had experience with online dealers, how does one choose sight unseen? (What I think I would like to do is have a whole bunch of diamonds in front of me and just pick one, but maybe I just thinking wishfully that that would be simple). Along the same lines, at least on of the B&M I have talked with argued that the GIA and similar certs were woefully bad in that they varied wildly.

I have dug through much of the information available on this site and others, but any help or direction will be appreciated. Thank you.

-Richard

 

[YoungPapa]

thorndor,

There are no hard and fast rules for choosing an oval, but if you start out by limiting your depth and table ranges to what you might find in a ideal or premium round stone that will help. You might also decide early on what length/width ratio you like best. Do you like the short fat ovals, something a bit longer (and maybe bigger looking for the carat weight) or something in the middle? That''s a really important part.

Assuming you buy from an e-vendor the first thing you''ll do is either give them some item numbers you like or give them a quality/price range and let them do the research. You''ll quickly find your list dwindles down to a few stones. While most of the vendors don''t have the ovals in stock, that doesn''t mean they aren''t asking THEIR suppliers the same questions you''re asking them. Is this diamond eye-clean? How would you describe the overall brilliance? How is the bow-tie? Is there any windowing at the tips, etc...

From there you can either make the plunge on the best diamond your vendor has found or ask them to bring in the diamond for personal inspection prior to finalizing the sale. We do that all the time.

Are you ever going to get ten diamonds in a row to examine? Probably not. Is your e-vendor going to bring in ten diamonds and view them for you? Probably not unless you''re going to pick-up a big part of the shipping. Does this mean you can''t find the most beautiful and perfect oval - not at all. It just takes a little time and a good bit of effort.

Best of luck,

 

[Sashabella]

Perhaps you could go into some B&M stores just to look, get GIA certificates and get a sence of the cut, measurements etc... in the stones you like. That might give you more confidence working with an internet dealer. I was actually able to find an excellent stone in a store that was cheaper than on-line.

 

[thorndor]

Hi,

Thanks for the responses.

It seems, then, that at least part of this can be done via measurements. (i.e. stones with the same measurements should perform similarly?). So, if I head into some B&M''s and find diamonds that I like and then go online and ask a bunch of questions, I should be ok?

-Richard