Post by Here4theRock » October 29th, 2008, 7:13 am
It's getting about time to buy a ring for the girl. After spending a few weeks on diamond merchant sites and Pricescope, I think it's to pull the trigger. Before I do, I want to get some opinions from the community on how they prioritize diamond attributes when choosing a solitaire.

So far I've gathered that the most important C is cut so I am choosing an ideal cut. Next, a majority of people seem willing to sacrifice clarity for color so long as the diamond is eye-clean. Originally I was looking at VVS2 / G, but now I'm tending more towards VS1 / F. And lastly, size is a matter of preference. I like 1.3 carets.

The remaining diamond attributes are less clear to me in terms of what is important: symmetry, polish, cutlet, and florescence. It's easy to search for diamonds that have all the best ratings of each, but it really limits my choices when only looking for excellent / excellent / no cutlet / no florescence. How much visual difference would there be if I stepped down to very good / very good / no cutlet / faint florescence? Would this be more or less equivalent to stepping down to a very good cut from ideal in terms of brilliance?

After some shopping around, I'm down to these two diamonds, but am tending towards the James Allen. Please let me know your thoughts.

http://www.exceldiamonds.com/diamond/221886.html
http://www.jamesallen.com/diamonds/F-VS1-Ideal-Cut-Princess-Diamond-1184155.asp

Thanks!