Thanks to all who offered feedback and direction! This forum is soo interesting and educational!
Thought you''d find my experience with local jewelers amusing, so here goes. For the last two days I''ve been going to every private jeweler around my small city (pop. 125,000) and it''s amazing how little the salespeople know, what I was told and in what tone. There were no ideals to be found and two of the four stores were adamant that there was no such thing as ideal cut and acted offended when telling me that they only carried the finest cuts. Once they asked the owners (arrogantly) whether they''d heard of ideal cut, they then tried to persuade me that this was a cut that was blown way out of proportion and very overpriced. Then they''d try to get me to "understand" that color was very important and that I should never go below G, VS1. When I stated that I''d heard that you could go lower because the ideal cut offset the color they were adamant that this could not be so and produced diamonds in G, H and I to show me they were "right." (Never mind that these were not ideal cuts) I found it easy to stay grounded and not argue but am so surprised at their lack of knowledge about diamonds.
By the way, one jewelery store owner called to price an ideal and gave me a price of $11,057 unmounted! Although he is clear that I''m not willing to purchase this stone, he wants to show me that there isn''t much difference between ideal and a well cut stone.
When I go to view these stones what do I look for?
Thanks again,