Biggest Bang for My Buck

[AZ_Desert_Flower]

Hello everyone -

I found this site last week and I have been spending almost all my free time reading and educating myself on diamonds.

In your personal opinion, when purchasing a 1 carat H&A diamond, is it better to sacrifice color for clarity or sacrifice clarity for color? As much as I would love to purchase a G-H, VS1-2, it''s not going to fit into our budget unless I go down to a .70-.80 size range.

So, I thought I''d throw the question out to all of you.

Thanks so much for your responses.

 

[belle]

i love a good g/si2

don''t pay for what you can''t see.

 

[aphisiglovessae]

My fiance went down to a .75 rather than a 1 carat because he would rather get me the best quality. I have a F/SI1 and it looks perfect to me. I''m glad he went for quality rather than quantity/size.

 

[belle]

yes, also you can save big $$$ by staying just under 1ct. there is a primo premium once you hit that 1ct. mark.

 

[Kaleigh]

I agree why pay for what you can't see. Color I can see, but with clarity I would go for an eye clean SI1, or VS2. belle is right if you stay just under a carat you can save big time and you won't see a big difference.

 

[aljdewey]

My feeling is: as long as it''s eyeclean, that''s fine....so I''m happy to go as low as I can on clarity providing it stays eyeclean. I''ve been fortunate to find a few eyeclean SI2 stones, and that''s my preference.

I''d rather sacrifice on clarity than on color....UNLESS sacrificing on clarity means no longer eyeclean. Then I''d nudge on color a bit, or I''d settle for a smaller stone.

 

[Giangi]

I think the biggest bang for your buck is represented by I-J/SI2 stones. A well cut IJ does face up very white and can easily be set in platinum or white gold. They usually range from $4k to $4.5k per ct in H&A cutting. If you are a color-sensitive kind of person, you may want to look at similar clarity G-H stones, which should run roughly up to $5k per ct.

 

[Mara]

I hugely ditto Al and Giangi...I love a good H SI2 or similar as my sweet spot. If you are not color-sensitive and don''t see diamond body color easily, then go to an I or J color, especially if you want more size.

I hate the term ''sacrifice'' when describing decisions on diamonds because it''s a luxury purchase so any type of diamond, as long as it sparkles, shouldn''t be any sort of horrible sacrifice!

 

[anika]

Hi there,
I think a good SI2 is a great buy- I wouldn''t venture into I1 territory myself.
By going lower on clarity I can buy a F-G stone which I personally love. However colour is a very personal thing so it pays to have a look at a range of stones in a store. (My jeweller is good and lets me take them out to natural light to have a look). If you find stones lower than H appearling then maybe you could go even lower on the colour too and get the biggest, sparkly stone for your buget. If its a well cut stone its going to be a stunner anyways.

Anika

 

[AZ_Desert_Flower]

Thank you all for your advice. I really appreciate your help. I have thought of going for a .90 to .99 stone, but there aren''t too many out there right now.

 

[Giangi]

Date: 8/29/2005 11:18:22 PM
Author: AZ_Desert_Flower
Thank you all for your advice. I really appreciate your help. I have thought of going for a .90 to .99 stone, but there aren''t too many out there right now.

This is actually very true. Lately, the thought of going with a 0.9x stone has become more of a legend. There is a huge shortage in that range. The pickings are very, very slim. The only close stone I could find was a 0.90 VS1 I at GOG. There are several HIJ SI2s available, though.

 

[Daniela]

I own a one carat round hearts and arrows H and love it. I would go up in size before I would go up in colour.

As for clarity, the problem is that it depends on two facors. The first is the individual stone. I owned an SI-1 that was supposed to be so-called "eye-clean" and wasn''t. It drove me crazy, so I upgraded it. I don''t doubt that there are good SI-1''s out there, but mine was not one of them, and it was a pain in the butt to return it since it was an international transaction. However, if you are located in the US, then you have the advantage of being able to buy the stone and then if you don''t like it, it''s very easy to send it back.

Garry Halloway has often commented on how "eye-clean" will also depend to a great extent on the viewer as well. If you''ve got a good eye, you''re more likely to see things in an SI stone.

People around here often say that you have to trust your vendor''s eyes regarding inclusions and the "eye-clean" factor. Since this did not work for me, I can''t recommend this method universally, although during my time on Pricescope I have developed certain theories about which vendors are better than others for having a good eye for inclusions.

Buying an SI-1 stone would maximize size for your budget, and this would be the ideal option as long as the stone really were eye-clean. I would say try to find an eye-clean SI-1, see if you like it, and then decide.