Post by dignon1112 » February 2nd, 2012, 11:16 am
Greetings everyone. I bought a beautiful diamond in April 2010 for my finance at the time which you were all helpful enough to provide advice to me on some questions I was having (see link and cut and past below). As expected everyone was super helpful. Sadly, I have a bit of a diamond dilemma and could use some advice again as I am spinning my wheels,

The issue:
We broke off the engagement and I got the diamond ring back. I am now very serious with someone else and we are happy as a clam and much wiser and open about our future together. I see myself proposing in the next 6-9 months but wanted to get the ball moving here on the whole ring thing given my penchant for scrutinzation as I evidenced last time (after learning some tricks of the trade from this forum--I ended up getting pretty deep for a first time buyer in all the cut analysis).

I thought I would get a new diamond by either (i) letting my local jewler who made the ring consign my old one, or (ii) leverage the upgrade policy from the place I purchased it at. In my head I figured... spend another $6k or so get closer to a 2 carat ..like even a 1.8 or something with a similar cut. It would be a new diamond but I didn't lose everything on your old one. Seemed feasible to me, I am pretty sure back in April 2010 an additional $5-6k would have gotten me into the 1.8-2.0 space with a similar cut, clarity and color as mine.

Apparently things HAVE changed quite a bit. My jewlers view and mine as well based on my searches on here and the top diamond sites seem to suggest that another $5-$6k will get me...well....about the same size.cut..color..clarity diamond as I already have. Have I really lost that much buying power because the diamond market has skyrocketed for a round brilliant or something? Or maybe I just got a great deal on this thing at $13,900 in April 2010 and thats what it comes down to.

If that is true, everything points to me keeping this same one and putting it in a new ring? Seems a bit odd I guess and possibly not the right way to start my life off with someone but I am not rich enough to drop another $5k to get...the same thing? Yes, sadly, I am a penny pinching CPA/finance type and that doesn't make sense to me..ha ha.

Breaking it down, if my assertions/understanding about the diamond market and value of the diamond I own are correct. maybe my question is really only this...is it common for failed engagements/divorces to re-use the diamond? Not sure why I feel bad about doing it...but umm...$5k for the same thing doesn't seem smart. Maybe I can have it blessed or something to clear my head that it was given to someone else?

Sorry about the run-on story, hope everyone is still awake :-) I would love to hear any comments, thoughts or recommendations that anyone could share. Thanks in advance.


My post from April 2010:
http://www.pricescope.com/forum/post2550134.html#p2550134

Well, my diamond search may have officially ended yesterday as I purchased a stone online at one of the pricescope recommended vendors. A 3 month search which included multiple meetings in my very limited free time at 3+ local Jewelers. I wanted to buy from a local dealer but frankly after reviewing your website/forum, I realized these jewelers were not up to speed on some of the cut/proportional guidance and often became really flustered with me when I tried to discuss it (HCA, Idealscope, etc.) But I am a science/match guy and this stuff makes sense to me, the angles, the light..the brilliance...I get it I think.

Well despite being afraid of internet purchases of this magnitude, I gave up on local jewlers, leveraged the knowledge gained from this website and set up focusing on Pricescope preferred vendors.

Picked this one up yesterday,can''t wait for it to arrive, let me know your thoughts:

Shape: Round Brilliant
Carat weight: 1.66
Cut: Ideal
Color: G
Clarity: VS2
Certificate: GIA

Depth: 62.0%
Table: 56.0%
Crown Angle: 35.0
Pav. Angle: 40.8
Polish: Excellent
Symmetry: Excellent
Girdle: Medium - Slightly thick, faceted (3.5%)
Culet: None
Fluorescence: None
Measurements: 7.55 x 7.61 x 4.70

HCA: 1.6 (E,E,E,VG)
Price: $13,900
Vendor verbally said it was labeled as an H&A stone but that really didn''t impact my purchase as even after reviewing multiple PS threads on the subject and idealscope pictures I am not sure I understand or ever see the Hearts and Arrows. But then again I never was very good at staring at those pictures in the mall that you supposedly see a ship in either :-)

My questions are as follows if anyone would like to chime in I would very much appreciate it:

1) Even though i spotted this on the website I ended up calling to speak and purchase via phone cause I was scared about pushing buttons to make a purchase that big (but figured I could have if I wanted to - meaning I figured I could have hit ''add to cart'' and bought this thing). So when I talked to the salesperson he/she said it was at the store and she was staring at it (nice person by the way) and that it was beautiful. So after some discussion I decided to take it and she said it would come off their internet website...which it did. Ok..I promise I am getting somewhere :-) So last night I went on various websites to search for similar stones and hopefully prove I got a decent deal right..not that surprising. Well I found out that I apparently got a decent deal ($2,000 cheaper); however, to this minute someone can still buy my stone from another vendor for $15,900. This is my stone...Why is it up for sale on Diamond.com. Thats my grading certification and everything. I am actually quite perplexed right now on how my stone can still be for sale. Any advise to calm me down would be greatly appreciated cause right now I feel like I am getting the old ''bait and switch''. I can''t seem to put a link in here but if you search diamond.com for the parameters described above it should pop up. I wonder what happens if I add to cart and try to buy this thing, again?


2) Along the lines above, should I get an independent appraisal when this thing gets here. I searched the forum and found a PS recommended guy about 2 miles from my house. Whats a reasonably range for those services? Do I dare ask him if this thing is really hearts and arrows or just forget about it? I say that because of the response I got from many jewelers around here when I mentioned HCA''s, idealscopes, H&A''s etc. etc.

3) Lastly, what do you think of the stone based on the limited information that I have provided? I do not have idealscope, etc. etc.