After doing much research here, I “officially” started my search yesterday by visiting a large B&M store in my area. The main purpose of this visit was to compare color in diamonds, side-by-side, to see what could be an acceptable color. I told the sales person that I was looking for a round brilliant in the 2 carat range. And that I wanted to see some diamonds in the lower color range of I-J. I was a little disappointed in the selection/inventory that they had. She showed me three diamonds. The last one she brought out was a 2.2 carat, K color, SI1 with an AGA cut grade of 1B. It looked nice but I did see a little yellow color next to an I colored RB and also when I looked at it by itself in natural lighting. Their bottom line price is $13,000 for the 2.2 stone. Just for price comparison sake, I did a quick search on Pricescope for comparable diamonds and the B&M store price appears very high. After this experience, it looks like I will be seriously considering making a purchase from one of the on-line vendors here at Pricescope. Well, at least I kind of got an idea on color now. I might even change my mind about the 2 carat diamond and drop down to a 1.75 to 2.0 carat so that I could get a better colored stone (G to H). In my eyes, there wasn’t that great a visual size difference between a 1.8 or a 2.0 to 2.2 carat diamond that the sales person showed me.
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