Thoughts on cut... would anyone here recommend

[arnotke]

purchasing a "Very Good" or "Premium" rated cut versus an "Ideal". I'm looking at round stones in the 1.2 to 1.25 CT weight. What are some of the potential pitfalls of P/VG vs. I?

Thanks in advance.

 

[denverappraiser]

arnotke,

Yikes! What an open ended question.

Ideal stones are usually prettier. VG stones are usually cheaper. The devil is in the details. How much prettier? How much cheaper? It also depends somewhat on the definitions of Ideal and Very Good. Not every seller uses the same standards.

Check out the cut adviser and the tutorial. There are link to both of these at the top of the page.

Neil Beaty, GG,
www.gemlab.us

 

[headlight]

I have a very good/premium cut and not an Ideal. By sacraficing on that, as well as a little lower on clarity and color than I would've thought I would do, I was able to get myself the size of "rock" I so desired. It is in a gorgeous custom three-stone setting and no one is the wiser! But that is what worked for me and I know that the majority of subscribers on this forum have a different mind-set than I.

 

[MelanieC]

Actually, when I was purchasing my stone (1.085 H/VS2 Ideal) I was offered a stone that was an H/VS1 Premium and it was only about $400 less. When both stones were run in the ISee2 machine, my stone got a 9.4 and the other premium stone got a score in the 7's. Also the picture it showed when it scanned the stone for symmetry was not as nice. You could see arrows in mine, while the premium stone looked more uneven and there were no bold arrows present.

I guess your pitfalls would be less light return, less symmetry. Advantages might be saving some money, but too me I would rather go down a little in color/clarity and get the best cut.

 

[oldminer]

When my daughter got engaged she wanted a pretty big diamond, but did not want to go crazy on the total cost for her fiance'. She wanted an old cut diamond, so really "ideal Cut" was not even an issue. She was willing to take a diamond that looked good in its old platinum filigree setting although I told her the one she selected was about O/P color and SI1 range in clarity.

You know, she is really pleased with this ring. She has worn it over 3 years now and gets her share of compliments. Every diamond has someone waiting to own it. We have seen people with terrible diamonds that loved them completely. We have also seen people with E-VS1 stones and ideal cut who were very upset about the diamond not being D color or VVS in clarity. It takes all kinds.

We give you the tools here to learn and shop intelligently. You can compromise a little or a lot on CUT, if you wish to. It makes sense when sticking to a budget to compromise in smart ways. With diamonds there are many choices that deserve analysis. Don't be led by the peer pressure you may feel, but rather be led by your own knowledge and commoin sense. Its a better way to make a big decision.

 

[alexah]

Very well said, Dave!

 

[MelanieC]

Great post Dave!

I love that there are so many thought provoking ideas taught here. I guess there is never one answer or one kind of diamond for everyone. I really like the thought that every diamond has someone waiting to own it.

 

[headlight]

----------------
On 8/3/2004 2:10:28 PM MelanieC wrote:

Actually, when I was purchasing my stone (1.085 H/VS2 Ideal) I was offered a stone that was an H/VS1 Premium and it was only about $400 less.---------

Unfortunately, for the consumer, when you get into larger stones, the difference in cost goes up considerably from $400.

My stone is 3.29 ct. I've had smaller sized stones that were D color, etc. But I REALLY wanted the rock and made the compromises where I had to to keep it within what I wanted to shell out in dollars.

 

[arnotke]

In the immortal words of David Letterman...

You have crystallized my thoughts eloquently.

Thank you (all) so much for your advice.

Ken