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 » RockyTalky
»  » Just Bought! My Buying Experience and Advice
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Just Bought! My Buying Experience and Advice |
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| P: 8/19/2004 9:38:34 AM | |
ajnorm Rough Rock Total Posts: 1 Last Post: 8/19/2004 Member Since: 8/18/2004 |
While this is my first post, I have read so many posts on this board I lost count a long time ago. I just thought I would share my experience with those looking to buy since I found topics like this extremely informative when I was “reading up” on the process. I just bought a Marquise 1.10 Ct, F, VVS2, 1.73 LTW, 59.5 Depth, 61 Table – really nice cut. I got it from dirtcheapdiamonds.com for 6K and I am extremely excited and think I got a great deal! First off I must say online retailers are definitely the way to go. I started shopping at local jewelers after I decided on a budget and doing some basic research into the 4 C’s to see what I could get for the money. I went to a few well-respected and established jewelers in the area. Many of them didn’t have anything close to the quality I wanted in stock and had to order. When I asked about prices for a 1.1 Ct, D-F, VVS2 or above stone with a nice cut they said 9500-10000 plus! I knew I could get a better deal on the net but didn’t know how good until I found pricescope and asked around a bit about which retailers to use. I realized that there was so much more to fancy cut diamonds than the 4 C’s. Length to Width Ratio is an important factor depending on the size of the hand you are buying for. Its easy to get a good deal on a stone that is too long or too short but it won’t look right. I also found how hard it is too find a good “cut.” Dave Atlas (who posts on these boards) has a great resource on his website (http://www.gemappraisers.com - link to AGA cut grade chart and rules) that tells you his grading scales for determining the best “Cut” for different style stones (i.e. Crown Height, Table, Depth, etc.) I started doing advanced searches (most web sites have them) based on my own definition of a quality cut to find exactly what I was looking for. It was extremely important to me to see the stones before I purchase. I wasn’t going to lay down 6-7K without making sure it was great looking to me. Even with 30 return policies I wanted to have a couple to choose from before having to pay. With fancy cuts, it is important to view the stone yourself as the numbers do not always tell the whole story – this was advice I got from multiple sources. Surprisingly only a couple retailers were willing to send stones out to a fully independent appraiser (they won’t send to appraisers who sell their own stones for obvious reasons). Most online retailers will only have one stone shipped but if you are willing to pick up the bill for shipping (depends on value of stone but between $30-50 each way) on a second stone they will probably accommodate. Both dirtcheapdiamonds and whiteflash were willing to ship two stones for me to view with an independent appraiser in the area. I spent a couple hours looking them over with the appraiser and determining what stone was the best for the money. While I was hesitant to trust an online retailer that even had GIA certified stones this experience proved that to be totally wrong. The people at dirtcheapdiamonds were great during the whole process – from my initial interest, to shipping them to an independent appraiser, to follow up questions and the final purchase. Not only were they extremely helpful and informative they were the cheapest retailer I found. If you use the pricescope diamond search function you will see that often 2-4 retailers are selling the same stone. This is because the use mostly the same wholesellers/suppliers. Dirtcheapdiamonds always had the lowest prices but there was no sacrifice in customer service at all like I thought there might be for the lower price. I HIGHLY recommend them if you are looking for a stone. So I am now waiting for it to be set – of course I’ll post a pic once I have it. Online buying is definitely the way to go! If anyone else has begun the process and has some questions I would be happy to help. |
| Posted: 8/19/2004 9:38:34 AM | |
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There are 1 replies to this message. There are 1 replies on this page. |
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| P: 8/19/2004 9:48:47 AM | |
wonka27 Ideal Rock Total Posts: 628 Last Post: 9/13/2007 Member Since: 6/22/2004 |
Congrats and thank you for sharing your experience! It will be helpful to those to come!
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| Posted: 8/19/2004 9:48:47 AM | |
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