So Terribly Confused!!! Need your held bfore hubby kills me!

[devientdrow]

Well I guess it''s a good thing I posted to learn about diamonds not give a crap about whose flaming message boards. If Strm offended the other guy, well he took it well and explained himself. The fact that you felt the need to jump in and defend him and just start more issues is what annoyed it. It wasn''t neccesary. I started this thread to talk about MY issues....not so people could argue with each other.

 

[valeria101]

Date: 12/7/2005 11:41:45 AM
Author: devientdrow
Also I have no idea why i''m getting hung up on this 1ct thing. I''m not even all that particular about it being 1ct exactly........I would of taken a .90 and been just as happy.

Only you know when the search is over

IMO, few can tell exactly what is the weight/size of diamonds set in rings. With loose diamonds it takes a wee bit of experience. So... .9cts will look like your preferred benchmark whether you think of it as such or not. So will 1.1 cts, most likely.

 

[perry]

So lets try to get back to the original concern:

Smyth has a diamond on layaway and a payment plan that can be handled. While it may not be a "prefect" diamond - it seem to pass muster with some of the number cruchers here.

Whiteflash has a great diamond that is cheaper (and others as well); but has a different layaway plan that may not be easily handled (and carries some risk).


Devientdrow is obviously not going to purchase on credit.

There are advantages to using local B&M''s; and price is not everthing. You will also probably get great service in the future as well. In this case, a better payment plan may be your best fit. The price is not that far out of line either.

So, Devientdrow. This is really your choice depending on what you can handle. I have no objection to your buying from a local B&M. I have no objection to their price. Personally, I would use an idealscope on the diamond to ensure that it has great light return ($25.00 + shipping gets you an idealscope; I am sure that Dave Atlas''s company would take a Money Order if you can get it to him (Dave Atlas : AKA Old Miner is the US shipper of the Idealscope).

Best of luck with this.

Perry

 

[devientdrow]

Perry,
That sounds like a very good idea. I plugged in the numbers onto some tool on this site which was supposed to tell me, according to the numbers, how light return and scinntillation ect....and everything came back as excellent, except for Spread which came back as Very Good. These scopes do you know if they ever have them in stores? When we looked at the diamond we sat down in this booth thing with the lady and she had a scope on the desk and over on the other side was this contraption that had three glass panes and the front was open. There was some sort of special light inside. Do you know what that could of been? So far Smyth has been very decent about helping me out. They were very adamant about having me look under the scope and telling me what to look for (both the good and the bad), they made a photocopy of the AGS report for me....I''m wondering if they have one and would let me use it?

 

[devientdrow]

OOh Perry also I wouldn''t of minded purchasing on credit. Before I really got educated and learned about the Jared diamond I applied for credit and got approved for $1400.00 this is what frustrates me and makes me wish they carried better diamonds. Not only would that of upped my budget but with being approved for a card thier special was I would put 20% down then get 12 months same as cash. Excellent deal but not excellent enough to make me purchase a crap diamond (The only reason I even second guessed them was seeing the engagement ring of a co worker and seeing how gorgeous hers looks, and learning it was from Jared)

WF contacted me about thier financing........and Smyth of course has the layaway. Should I of had a credit card of my own or the hubby had one I wouldn''t of been opposed to using it to help out a little.

 

[aljdewey]

Date: 12/7/2005 11:57:46 AM
Author: devientdrow
Well I guess it's a good thing I posted to learn about diamonds not give a crap about whose flaming message boards. If Strm offended the other guy, well he took it well and explained himself. The fact that you felt the need to jump in and defend him and just start more issues is what annoyed it. It wasn't neccesary. I started this thread to talk about MY issues....not so people could argue with each other.

Devient,.....with all due respect, this is a public message board. Any thread started may spin off discussions, and while we try to stay on track, it happens from time to time. Yes, you posted to learn about diamonds, but having information potentially misrepresented can be detrimental to your goal to learn, and it can affect everyone else who reads the thread.

When any poster asks a question, there is something to be learned by all that read it/participate in it. So yes, while the topic at hand may relate to *your* issues, you aren't the sole participant here and not the only one who can glean helpful information from the thread you start.

Either way, we're all here to LEARN.

As for the diamonds you selected, both look like nice candidates. Only you can determine if you're okay with a .7x stone or if you won't be happy unless you hit close to the 1 ct. mark. Something to really think hard about...one of the women here thought she'd be okay going with a .55....then upped to a .72....then realized what she really wanted all along was a 1 ct.

If the 1 ct. matters to you, that's reason enough to at least factor that element into the equation. Buying a diamond is as much about satisfying your mental requirements as well as number-crunching.

I don't think there is a huge visual difference between .75 and 1 ct.....but then again, it all depends on what looks good on your hand. I know that I wanted at least 6mm (which is .75), but I really felt the 6.5mm fit my hand better.

There don't seem to be any glaring issues with the diamonds themselves, so look at other things like upgrade/trade-up policies, how important it is (or isn't) for you to work locally, how you felt each of the vendors treated you responded to you. Oftentimes the purchase is about more than just the diamond itself.

 

[devientdrow]

Al.....understood all your points. I have just seen certain threads on here completly turn from the original issue and end up being an argument, maybe I didn''t take the niceest more tactful route but I was scared of that happening...despite that thank you for the advice.

What i''m having a difficult time with is how much of this is me being me or me being a slave to my, as my hubby would call it, dragoness. Yes folks, I am a loot whore. I LOVE jewelry. Even after we got engaged I would always look in the wndows of jewelry stores and point out cool rings. At first he got all indignant thinking I was COVETING the other rings but after a while he realized I was just appreciating them and now he''ll often point stuff out to me that he knows I would find interesting. I''m a women of course I''ll always sort of love the larger diamonds but does that mean I really NEED one. I''ve been wearing less then a half carat center stone for over 2 years now and i''ve not been horrified by it! In fact what bothers me more than the size is the lack of quality in it. The other thing was the diamonds I looked at i''ve never really gotten to see on my hand. They did the thing where the held the diamond over my ring so I could sort of picture it in my ring but I never got to see it on my hands. My setting is quite wide...not a thin little band and I am married already and I have a wedding band on my finger as well. However my fingers aren''t huge or anything but they aren''t what you would call petite. I''m a little over a size 7 in a ring....big knuckles.

What size ring did you end up getting? Have any photos?

 

[aljdewey]

What size ring did I end up getting? Heh....much more than I thought I would.

When I went to the malls, I specifically didn''t browse by *carat* weight, much to the consternation of the jewelry store clerks. Trying to shop by weight in chain stores is meaningless because the diameters can vary so much with the make.

I wanted to know how each *size* looked on me, not how much they weighed! So, I went to the "certified" stones cases. They have IGI reports that list the diameters of the stones, so I picked stones that had various DIAMETERS.

I wanted to know what a 6mm stone looked like, what a 6.5mm looked like, what a 6.6 stone looked like, etc. on my hand (size 6.5). I tried on a stone that was about 7mm for kicks, but wasn''t planning to go that big at all even though it knocked my socks off.

I discovered that I really didn''t want to go smaller than 6mm.....which looked average, but not notable. I really wanted to be as close to 6.5mm as possible, so that meant a well-cut 1 ct.

When I began shopping online for a fine-make stone, I ended up with a beautiful 1.24 stone - 7mm-- because I found a totally eye-clean SI2, which let me get more stone.

Here''s what it looked like on the hand as a solitaire.....https://www.pricescope.com/forum/steam-room/finally-my-new-ring-t11146-30.html

Here''s what it''s like now that it''s reset into a 3-stone: https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/my-custom-rings-from-whiteflash-woo-hoo.16838/=

Personally, I wouldn''t sacrifice performance for size. Sounds like you''re leaning that way too. But, if you can squeeze a .90 stone into your budget, it will actually likely measure larger than 1-ct stones people around you are wearing.

 

[Mara]

shrinkage sets in fast....i would say, as a confessed size whore, go as big as you can with your budget without compromising on CUT. for me i compromise on color and clarity but it''s not a big deal for me because i don''t have hawk eyes.

have you considered dropping color or clarity to get a larger size? i''m not sure what your budget is, but WF has an amazing .94 K SI1 that looks stunning from images for something like $2700 so that is a great size if it faces up white and having a larger J stone i feel like a great lower colored stone is made even whiter with cut. i am so dying for that K stone for a pendant.

matatora has a .75c K VS that she got for a pendant a few weeks ago and it looks super white in her pictures...for me i would not hesitate to get a K stone if i wanted more size. but that''s just me...aka size nut!