Received ring today need to make decision on stone quickly - Gary your opinion as always would be id

[confuzed]

I received a ring today and plan to give it to my girlfriend this Saturday. I know she will be very happy with it however I was under the understanding that the GIA cut grade was excellent and it is actually "good" with excellent polish/sym.

It looks good and scores well on the HCA but I do not know if it would make much difference to return the stone for a different one with a curt grade of "Excellent" or not. I had one around the same price that was cut grade excellent with vg polish/sym that rated better on light return.

Could you please tell me if I am being too picky. Here are the details of what I have:

GIA Cert
Weight: 1.00 carat
Round Brilliant
dim: 6.47x6.51x3.86mm
Cut: good
Color: E
Clarity: SI1 (eye clean)
Polish excellent
Sym: excellent
Depth: 59.5%
Table: 60%
Crown Angle: 36.0 degree
Crown Height: 14.5%
Pavil Angle: 40.0 degree
Pavil Depth: 41.5%
Star Length 55%
Lower Half: 80%
Girdle: med to slightly thick
Faceted 3.1%
Flour: none

The HCA shows the following:
Light Return: Very Good
Fire: excellent
scintillation: excellent
spread: excellent

What do you think? Should I get another stone or not worry about it? The stone was $4,950. Could I do better in this price range? Would I see a difference? <--- my main concern is if I would see enough difference to warrant changing it.

Thanks in advance!!!

 

[confuzed]

I forgot this part of the HCA:

Total Visual Performance 1.4 - Excellent
within FIC range

 

[Ellen]

I'm not Gary, but I thought I'd give you a bump so maybe he'll see this.


And just my .02, with that crown and pavillion combo, I would return it. I know you can do better.

 

[confuzed]

Thanks for the bump!! 200 views and only one post? Man this is a tough room

 

[swingirl]

It''s hard to say too much without pictures. It might be perfect for you. Many here on PC would say an E is overkill on the color and would pick lower color but an Ideal cut. (GOG has one in your price range with ideal for cut, polish and symmetry. But it all depends on what you want. Of course, if you''ve already bought it and love the look of it then that''s all that matters. However, if you were told it was one grade and it turned out to be something else, that''s not fair.

 

[Ellen]

Date: 12/12/2007 11:45:15 PM
Author: confuzed
Thanks for the bump!! 200 views and only one post? Man this is a tough room

lol Don't take it personally, there could be a few reasons why no one is commenting from the peanut gallery.

I guess Gary didn't see this??

At any rate, I'll take a weak stab at trying to explain what you have here. I didn't go into much detail, as I was waiting for Gary.

This is really a different stone, as to me, it falls under two different categories, and conflicting ones at that.

First, with your table and depth measurements, it falls under what we would call a 60/60, or BIC (Brilliant Ideal Cut). Do a search on here for that, and you'll find many threads. The jist of them are, they tend to be geared toward more white light return, and less fire. Some people love them, some want more balance.

However, the crown and pavillion angles are making it actually fall under FIC category, Firey Ideal Cut. Those are geared towards a bit more fire, and a bit less white light return. Again, some people love and seek them, others want a balance. BUT, they usually have much smaller tables, say 52-54 ish range. Smaller tables/high crown make for nice fire. And from the ones I've seen posted on here, the PA would be a bit more. I've never seen one with an angle that shallow.

So, it's only a good cut, because of everything going on here.


How this diamond would play out in real life, I couldn't begin to guess. Although I think it's safe to say it won't perform near as well as an ideal cut. A really well cut stone will perform greatly across the board, in all lighting situations.

What were you wanting? If it's a well balanced diamond, that gives equal amounts of fire and white light, and is well cut, this one isn't it. It's up to you whether you want to keep looking, or take your chances on this one.

HTH!


ETA Don't just go by numbers on the HCA, also, look where the x falls on the chart. If you want to find a great prospect in Ideal range, get the x to fall in the overlap area of both labs, or close to.

 

[confuzed]

bump

 

[mrssalvo]

i''m with ellen and her excellent advice and would probably trade it if it were me. however, you''ve got the stone..do you love it? is it beautiful to your eyes? we say many times on here you''re buying the stone not the paper. like ellen said many folks like 60/60 stones etc. go with what you feel is right.

 

[confuzed]

It is nice and clean but it does not "jump" out at me like other stones I have seen in this price range. If I give it to my girlfriend she will never know the difference but I will know it could look better. I am just concerned about ruining the whole thing by later telling her I want to get the stone replaced (sometime in January) then asking to send the ring back.

I am trying to see if I can get the jeweler to send me another stone that I could have set locally which would reduce the time she would be without the ring.

oh bother...this is sooo confusing.

 

[risingsun]

It seems to me that you know that this diamond is not a very good performer...it doesn''t look right to your eyes. Better to replace the stone now, than later IMO.

 

[aljdewey]

Date: 12/13/2007 12:25:39 PM
Author: confuzed

It is nice and clean but it does not ''jump'' out at me like other stones I have seen in this price range. If I give it to my girlfriend she will never know the difference but I will know it could look better. I am just concerned about ruining the whole thing by later telling her I want to get the stone replaced (sometime in January) then asking to send the ring back.

Confuzed....sounds like you know what the right answer for you is.

Get another stone. Overnight it to them if you have to and get a different stone. Is it possible to delay the proposal a few days to make a change?

 

[Ellen]

Date: 12/13/2007 12:44:16 PM
Author: aljdewey

Date: 12/13/2007 12:25:39 PM
Author: confuzed

It is nice and clean but it does not ''jump'' out at me like other stones I have seen in this price range. If I give it to my girlfriend she will never know the difference but I will know it could look better. I am just concerned about ruining the whole thing by later telling her I want to get the stone replaced (sometime in January) then asking to send the ring back.

Confuzed....sounds like you know what the right answer for you is.

Get another stone. Overnight it to them if you have to and get a different stone. Is it possible to delay the proposal a few days to make a change?

Ditto.

This is a really important purchase, and she may look at this stone for the rest of her life. As much as it might put a damper on your plans, you will only do this once. Let''s get it right.

And trust me, the look on her face, when looking at a truly beautiful diamond, will make it totally worthwhile.

 

[kennyg]

Confuzed - I had a very similar issue to you. Here was my initial diamond purchase:

2007 GIA Report:

Round Brilliant
Measurements: 7.50 - 7.54 x 4.39mm
Weight: 1.52
Color: H
Clarity: VS2
Cut Grade: Good

Depth: 58.4%
Table: 59%
Crown Angle: 32.5 deg
Crown Height: 13%
Pavilion Angle: 40.2 deg
Pavilion Depth: 42%
Star length: 50%
Lower Half: 80%
Girdle: Med - Sl. Thick, Faceted
Culet: None

Polish: VG
Symmetry: VG
Fluor: None


The HCA was 1.9, within Towolsky (TIC) range, and g/ex/ex/ex. So I decided to purchase. In the store I could have sworn it was a dark looking stone, but the sales guy pulled out other larger stones with higher color to show me it was similar. It WAS similar to those stones, but in hindsight none of them were ideal cut I bet. So I bought it. Then that night I came to Pricescope to ask if I it was good. Most people didn''t like it. In the end I ended up doing the following:

1. Returned the stone. Store had a 30 day money-back guarantee. Now it wasn''t very comfortable to return it because you lose that "euphoria" that a sales person helps you build when buying it. The sales person in my case tried to give me a different stone and came out with one in higher color, but the cut was still bad. It took about 1 week to finally get the money back, but I''m glad I did it.

2. Found another B&M to establish a relationship with. Essentially I bought the setting from the B&M and the stone from the Internet. This way the B&M will set it and clean it etc. and I got a good deal shopping from PS vendors.

3. Learned that nothing is a substitute for your gut and a visual look at the stone, HCA included. One caveat is that if your HCA score is less than 2 AND the x is in the GIA/AGS ideal range, it is generally a safe bet that the stone is one of the best cut since it passes all 3 criteria. But if the stone doesn''t jump out at you, go with your gut. Also some of those HCA graphs have more "red" in it, and yours and my stone above had HCA graphs that had very little "red" areas. I''m thinking that makes a difference too, i.e. you want proportions on the HCA that score in the 1-2 range for HCA plus GIA and AGS ideal, plus you want a good table size around 56-57% where there will be a lot of "red" on the graph. Excuse my unscientific explanation about the "red", but it is something I can''t quite put into words but seems to matter to me. . .

4. A consequence of returning the stone is I had to delay my proposal and come up with alternative plans. And because I already asked her parents permission the word spread to her family. So it may seem that some of the romanticism is taken out, but it is now up to me to be creative to still surprise her knowing that we are "engaged to be engaged". And she was real sweet about it, she said she didn''t care about the ring and just wanted to tell people we were engaged. Needless to say, the ring is coming and I''m planning a surprise for her, and at parties I just look sheepish when people hear we are "engaged" and there is no ring. I crack a few jokes about how I didn''t know that was needed, they crack a few jokes about how she shouldn''t let me get away with no ring, and we move on. But the ring is coming, and it will be beautiful

Hope my story helps.

 

[Ellen]

Date: 12/13/2007 1:44:44 PM
Author: kennyg


But the ring is coming, and it will be beautiful

Hope my story helps.

Yes. And probably so much so, that people will be raving for a long time about it.

Thanks for telling your story kenny.

 

[diamondseeker2006]

I may have missed this detail, but did a jeweler lead you to believe that the stone had excellent cut and then you received it and saw "good" on the cert? if so, I''d be returning the ring immediately and definitely deal with someone who is honest about cut quality. I don''t think you should give her the ring and then take it back, though.

 

[Ellen]

Date: 12/13/2007 6:06:20 PM
Author: diamondseeker2006
I may have missed this detail, but did a jeweler lead you to believe that the stone had excellent cut and then you received it and saw ''good'' on the cert? if so, I''d be returning the ring immediately and definitely deal with someone who is honest about cut quality. I don''t think you should give her the ring and then take it back, though.

Ya know, I wondered this and totally forgot, amidst all my posting, to ask. But I absolutely agree, if you were mislead, return and find someone else.