WF grades of diamonds?

[katiedid]

Whiteflash has their ACA, Expert Selection, and "other diamonds". Obviously, ACA is the highest quality, expert selection are those that didn''t quite meet the ACA guidelines. What about the "others"? Are they worth considering?

 

[Jenn5504]

YES YES YES! I personaly believe they are worth considering. It''s how I found mine.

WF will review the stone, run the reports, images, etc. and will only recommend the stone to you if it''s a good one. I found my AGS000 in their "other diamonds" and at that time it was only given 2 stars I think. I found out that the low star rating can mean one of two things: 1) the stone is a dud, 2) they just don''t have enough info on the stone to make a determination. In my case it was that they didn''t have the actual cert. So, all they had was size, color, clarity, depth and table. My salesperson at WF told me that if/when I upgrade my stone it will go into their Expert Selection!

It''s a beauty, if I do say so myself. I found a few stones in the size/price I was looking for and made sure that the info we did have (table and depth) were at least going to be a good chance of a good stone. They were able to have copies of the certs to me THAT DAY and got the stone we decided to pull in-house overnighted to WF. It went very smoothly and I am so glad I went through WF.

.........so, we thinkin'' of a little upgrade girlie???

 

[Regular Guy]

Date: 6/28/2007 4:30:12 PM
Author:katiedid
What about the ''others''? Are they worth considering?

I recommend it, and call it "strategy B:"

A strategy you may consider to optimize your search would be to find a vendor who will help you to review diamonds from both (a) and (b)...both the "search by cut" and also, the "e-vendor" databases, so that you can choose the best fit between quality and value.

 

[katiedid]

I feel like I can''t even call it an "upgrade" since I really haven''t had my ring as it was but for a week or two! And it may very well end up coming back to me just as it went (except for a size 4 3/4 instead of a 4 1/2!). I told Lesley I got a refund check from a credit card overpayment and the first thing I thought of was "well, while WF has my ring to resize, I''ll see if they have gotten anything in that''s any better than the one I bought a couple of weeks ago!" I told Lesley if I was going to do it, NOW was the time. I have no desire to go through the upgrade process/hunt a year or two from now if I can just do it now and be done.

So, I''m thinking of adding that little bit of money to get a slightly bigger stone, but I''ll have to go from an ACA to a non-ACA (I wouldn''t get much bigger in an ACA for the money I''m talking about putting towards it.) I decided that if I could find a stone that met the following criteria, I''d probably do it:

I''d want a G in color most likely (mine now is an H and I don''t want to drop from an ACA H color to a non-ACA H color since I''m pretty color-sensitive)
I''d want it to be at least .90 ct. Mine now is .806 so it wouldn''t be worth it to dump more money into something minimally bigger that I wouldn''t even notice the size difference in.
I''d want an eye clean SI2 or better. Mine now is SI2 and it''s very clear and I''m fine with that.
I would be open to slight fluor. even though mine now doesn''t have any.
And it would need to meet all the measurement requirements that I''m trusting Lesley to apply for me. I''m sending her a few links to look at (they didn''t have tons in stock at WF, so I''m sending her others as well.)

So if any of you feel like hunting for me--send ''em on!

 

[katiedid]

Oh I forgot to add--I''d be looking to spend no more than $3700-3800 on the stone.

 

[snlee]

Date: 6/28/2007 7:20:11 PM
Author: katiedid

I''d want a G in color most likely (mine now is an H and I don''t want to drop from an ACA H color to a non-ACA H color since I''m pretty color-sensitive)
I''d want it to be at least .90 ct. Mine now is .806 so it wouldn''t be worth it to dump more money into something minimally bigger that I wouldn''t even notice the size difference in.
I''d want an eye clean SI2 or better. Mine now is SI2 and it''s very clear and I''m fine with that.
I would be open to slight fluor. even though mine now doesn''t have any.
And it would need to meet all the measurement requirements that I''m trusting Lesley to apply for me. I''m sending her a few links to look at (they didn''t have tons in stock at WF, so I''m sending her others as well.)

So if any of you feel like hunting for me--send ''em on!

You have a .80 ACA right now? Keep what you have! It''s beautiful! It''s not worth upgrading to a non ACA in the .90 range. You won''t be able to notice a difference between a .80 and .90. Also, I just ran a quick search on WF and it looks like they don''t have any ACA or ES in their inventory that matches what you are looking for.

 

[angeline]

Just for your interest... My post about deciding between 2 for my upgrade are both stones I found on the Price Comparison tool and had WF call in and do IS etc on. It takes a lot of work to search through all of them but you can find some good ones.

a

 

[Gothgrrl]

Oh please keep that beautiful stone. There won''t be much of a visual difference between .80 and .90

 

[katiedid]

Yeah, that''s what I told Lesley--I wouldn''t do it unless there was a much better stone for the money. I love the one I have!

 

[Gothgrrl]

Yay!

 

[katiedid]

What if I could go to something like this--a G SI2 that was 1 carat? http://www.whiteflash.com/round/Round-cut-diamond-233459.htm

 

[katiedid]

Or an H SI1 .98 ct like this: http://www.whiteflash.com/round/Round-cut-diamond-293307.htm

 

[iheartscience]

Okay, I know I''m going to sound like a bad enabler, but...maybe you should just keep the check, save up a bit more, and spring for a 1 carat ACA! It would just be hard for me to go from an ACA to a non ACA!

However, the two stones you linked to seem promising for sure! They both have the 4 star rating from Whiteflash. And they''re both a pretty big size jump from your .80!

I do love your ring, though...I don''t know what to tell you! I know I wasn''t helpful at all! Sorry!

 

[snlee]

Going from a .80 ACA to 1 carat non-ACA wouldn''t be very noticeable. I would keep your beautiful ACA and keep saving for an upgrade in the future.

 

[katiedid]

Thanks for the feedback ladies! As you all know, I love my .806 ACA. And this was just a case of good timing--my ring was at WF and I got some extra money that I hadn''t had when I ordered my current stone. I certainly don''t have to spend it--although as I said before, for fiinancial (and other) reasons, I think if I''m going to do any type of swap, it would be best to do it now. But again--I''ll be perfectly happy to keep my current stone! I see this as a win-win for me!

That being said... my current .806 ACA measures 6.00 x 6.03 x 3.66.
The 2 stones I posted here last night measure significantly bigger -- one was 6.36 x 6.41 x 4 and the other was 6.23 x 6.27 x 3.94. It''s hard to imagine they wouldn''t appear bigger just because they''re non-ACA. But I don''t know everything there is to know, so that may be the case!

I don''t want anyone here to think I''m not happy with my current stone--this is just an opportunity I was able to explore. WF will have my ring there for the next week or so while they make my eternity band. So I figured I''d take advantage of the time to shop around a little and see what else was out there.

 

[Jenn5504]

As we all know, the ACA grading is sooooooooooooooo strict. And has to be cut by WF''s people, right? I''m just saying that there are certainly beautiful diamonds out there that aren''t actually ACA. ACA are about THE most amazing out there IMO, but I think it''s worth doing some research to see if you can''t find a BEAUTIFULLY cut larger diamond. I think going from.8 to 1ct would be noticable to you.

But I LOVE that you don''t HAVE to upgrade, that you have an AmAzInGlY gorgeous stone that can certainly remain if this doesn''t work out. It sure IS a win-win for you! And WF is so honest and helpful, they''ll tell you if it''s a good cut or not.

 

[katiedid]

You''re so right Jenn. I know the ACAs are gorgeous, but that''s a WF thing--there have to be other equally gorgeous stones out there that aren''t branded ACA. Here is a comparison of several in WF''s "other" category:
http://www.whiteflash.com/diamonds/Compare_Diamonds.aspx?idnos=233459,311005,303052,173753,310464

 

[Regular Guy]

Date: 6/29/2007 10:17:23 AM
Author: katiedid
there have to be other equally gorgeous stones out there that aren''t branded ACA....

not sure about equally or not...but to help check yourself...consider using also the Price Stats resource here, also above, under Prices.

There''s several to check out, also offered by WF, priced similar to the ones you''ve found, for example, with same color, clarity, and classified: 1A, including this one.