How well can you buy a diamond without having seen it first...Framing the Great Internet Debate (sho

[Regular Guy]

At the recent GIA convention, attendees had the option of going to a forum on "something about" the internet and jewelery. They won''t tell us what the session was about. Who cares. This (see below) is what those who are concerned about have got to have on their minds. Not sure if Leonid will allow it, but I think this deserves a quick and dirty (short form) and also, a long form, where the details can be spelled out a bit. The intention: post the short form here in Hang-out, and long form in Rocky Talky. If you''re so inclined...you be the judge...

 

[kcoursolle]

I think the key is information. If the diamond is well-documented with a cert, sarin, picture, IS, etc., I think it''s easy to make a choice if you are knowledgeable about diamonds, even easier than in a store with deceiving lights. However, if the diamond is not well-documented I think it''s much harder to buy a stone on the internet.

 

[widget]

I have trouble with the term "buy". To me, a stone isn''t officially purchased until I''ve seen it IRL and decided to keep it.

I suppose, if I lived in Outer Mongolia, and needed to commit to a diamond sight unseen, I could by an RB over the net given enough information. A fancy cut? Much less likely!

widget

 

[Regular Guy]

Date: 9/8/2006 5:58:09 PM
Author: widget
I have trouble with the term 'buy'. To me, a stone isn't officially purchased until I've seen it IRL and decided to keep it.

I suppose, if I lived in Outer Mongolia, and needed to commit to a diamond sight unseen, I could by an RB over the net given enough information. A fancy cut? Much less likely!

widget

Widget, probably my choice of language was neither ideal nor excellent, and may have been clarified a bit in the Rocky Talky Bayesian inference well enough to be sure that's influenced what I wrote, but I think it did. Basically, yes, you're right, absolutely, it's understood that even if you do choose to use the internet, no commitment will BE made until AFTER it is seen. But, if that commitment will have been made, based on...
1) first having selected the diamond to look at, before you ever saw it....like we all do with these listed diamonds on the internet...
2) and, if the diamond you end up buying will have been that first one you ordered up from a vendor to look at, an evidence based approach should declare, with respect to the poll question, that
3) shopping via the internet works very well.

Crystal clear?