"Handicapping" EGL Certed Stones...

[Defender]

I know the dubious feelings about the overseas EGL labs, but I cannot imagine that this means all EGL stones are bad diamonds. So, if a consumer is going to consider looking at an EGL stone and adjusts the grades, isn''t there a good chance that a fine diamond can be found even though it has an EGL cert?

So, i I consider an H color and VS1 quality in an EGL, shouldn''t this be as good or better than a J color VS2 GIA grade....?? I know that there are variances and there is no absolute rule, but I am seeing some decent stats on EGL certed stones on PriceScope and I wonder if these are worthy of consideration if I adjust the grades accordingly.

Also, since EGL certs have the crown and pavilion information can a consumer assume that these measurements are relatively accurate

 

[chrono]

I think that as long as the stone stats matches the EGL cert stats, it's all right. An appraiser comes in handy to verify this. I have heard that EGL tends to be more lenient when it comes to grading diamond colour and clarity but I like the fact that their certs give more information, like the crown% and pavilon% which GIA doesn't. I also hear that EGL USA is more consistant with their grading. I don't know too much about this certification business but I am sure others will chime in.

This doesn't mean that all EGL diamonds are dogs (no offense to dog owners

). I have a beautiful EGL graded emerald cut diamond. Since my local jeweler has no Sarin machine, I chose to go with a EGL certified stone to get detailed information that GIA doesn't provide. It turned out the colour and clarity grading was accurate, and I also managed to get a Class 1B cut EC. It only missed the Class 1A mark because the depth of the EC was 66%.

 

[valeria101]

Why not. You must have seen that little survey done between AGS, GIA and EGL-US, linked on the first page of this forum.

Looking for whatever ''other'' certs, I''d match prices and then question the grades. Perhaps 1-2 grades ''slack'' for the US lab and more like 3-4 for the others. I leave it to you to ''distribute'' these between color and clarity. But it may be that fancy shapes get a bit more variation than rounds. I don''t think you can guess precisely what is ''equivalent'' grading for each case. Besides, none of these labs pretend to be 100% consistent down to a grade. This is not a precise exercise - diamond grading.

As a rule of thumb, I''d consider everything non GIA above VS1 to be no more than VS1, and SI2 to be no better than I1. Then, look at the price, and if lower clarity - what those inclusions are. Same logic gets to compare every ''colorless'' with GIA AGS prices for F color. Not quite sure what to say about the lower end of the near-colorless: your guess if ''I'' is more like ''K''. Would probably think twice before considering something graded lower than ''I'' by EGL-X. If looking for colorlessness...

You asked about EGL, but things like in-store grading or totally obscure paper with no track record. I wouldn''t give a second thought to those grades. As if they weren''t there.

Which doesn''t mean I''d shy away from a charming cape color /SI without any lab report. Things gets allot clearer once the diamond is in your hand rather than a virtual list

My 2c

I don''t think this is the ''right'' way to do it. Just don''t know any better.

 

[Jensia]

My stone is EGL europe . It says H vs1. I had it looked at here and was told that it is a low H, or a High I. That Gia would have graded it an I. The clarity was correct. The cert was done in January of this year. I do not know however which european lab it
came from. At the same time, I have seen stones that I looked at that were EGL europe and were noticeably a few color grades off. Its one of those things you have to really see the stone.