Advice on diamond purchase

[Lambert91]

Hi,

I am looking to buy the diamond below, what are peoples honest opinions?

I have a £4000 budget for a diamond, would ideally like to buy from bluenile. Looking for a 0.7 - 0.85crt round diamond, ideally colour F or better. Feel free to link if you can suggest better, thanks.

0.73-Carat Round Cut Diamond | Blue Nile UK

www.bluenile.com

 

[OoohShiny]

Using $5500 as the price (because it's roughly correct for £4k at current exchange rates), you've got 117 AGS 000 stones with HCA scores of 'Excellent' in the PS Search tool that might be of interest:

Diamond Search Results | Real-time Information on 1,000,000+ Diamonds | PriceScope

PriceScope's Diamond Search is the best place to find the best diamond prices. Search and compare over a million natural, lab and fancy color diamonds.

www.pricescope.com

and 2889(!) GIA XXX options:

Diamond Search Results | Real-time Information on 1,000,000+ Diamonds | PriceScope

PriceScope's Diamond Search is the best place to find the best diamond prices. Search and compare over a million natural, lab and fancy color diamonds.

www.pricescope.com

I've looked at SI1 upwards and G upwards - you can juggle the sliders to rule out options / narrow the list down.

The angles and measurements include 60/60 stones (60% height / 60% depth) which favour white light return over coloured fire, as well as what Pricescope members might call 'ideal' and 'superideal' stones with smaller tables and a bit more depth, that should balance white light and coloured fire to a greater degree.

The HCA scores being 'Excellent' (i.e. under 2 on the HCA tool) indicates their angles work well together so they should all perform well - ASETscope images will enable more detailed assessment of cutting accuracy and any leakage.

 

[Lambert91]

Is the general consensus that I can find better then? I need to order from blue nile really. Thanks

 

[mission1]

I think it looks nice in the video. The crown angle of 35.5 is at the upper limit of what would usually be paired with the 40.6 pavilion angle, but it has potential and the 55 table is quite desirable. Unfortunately you can’t get more detailed analysis from BN (other than asking if it’s eyeclean but that just isn’t going to be an issue with what you’ve selected). It really depends how you want to balance the other factors....you could probably drop the clarity down to VS2 and never spot the difference, which would open additional options in your budget. You could perhaps drop colour to G but based on your initial priorities I wouldn’t go any further.

It’s a difficult process as there’s no single right answer!

 

[flyingpig]

No noticeable leakage. I like it alot.

 

[lovedogs]

Is the general consensus that I can find better then? I need to order from blue nile really. Thanks

I think it looks nice in the video! You could easily drop in clarity to open up more options, but there's nothing wrong with this stone IMHO

 

[Lambert91]

What is everyones thoughts on the diamond below in comparison to the diamond in the OP from blue nile?
It is £2000 more expensive and right at the end if not slightly more than I was hoping to pay. Is whiteflash good? Is AGS better than the GIA certificate on the bluenile?

I cant help but look at the video and see more bursts of colour coming off the diamond? No real colour comes off the bluenile diamond in the video...

Thanks

Diamond | 0.803 ct D VVS1 A CUT ABOVE® Hearts and Arrows Super Ideal Round Cut Loose Diamond AGS Certified | 4189504

This Whiteflash A CUT ABOVE® super ideal cut hearts and arrows 0.803 carat D color VVS1 clarity loose diamond is graded by the American Gem Society (AGS) Laboratories. | 4189504

www.whiteflash.com

 

[foxinsox]

Whiteflash ACAs are objectively better cut than a generic GIA XXX - they are a proprietary cut with ideal parameters and tight standards. I suspect what you’re seeing in the video is more to do with the video set up even tho I would expect the ACA to be the better stone.
Do you need D/VVS1? What is most important to your intended? Size or colour?

 

[mission1]

The Whiteflash one is nice, but you can't compare the videos to the BN ones - the Whiteflash one is specifically set up to create the effect you see. The Whiteflash stated price of £4927 is the estimate allowing for exchange rate, but not UK taxes - so the actual price will be £5900, which is approximately twice your BN option. The Whiteflash one has got lovely proportions, and you might be able to spot the difference if they were side by side, but you're paying a premium for the branding, colour and clarity.

Whiteflash does have a better upgrade programme, but this is obviously only a benefit if you think you might want a different diamond in the future. For UK buyers it's also less straightforward than US buyers, given you will've paid around £1000 VAT and wouldn't be able to reclaim that if you upgraded.

 

[mission1]

p.s. I'm UK based and bought a diamond for an engagement ring from Blue Nile a few months ago Returns are easy if you don't like the diamond (though return will cost around £60 incl insurance). The problem I found was that in the absence of anything to compare to, it's hard to objectively assess the diamond.....but the same applies for any online purchase. With Blue Nile you don't get the same level of info/detail as you do with Whiteflash etc - though this is reflected in the generally lower pricing.

 

[OoohShiny]

Is the general consensus that I can find better then? I need to order from blue nile really. Thanks

Apologies if it came across that I was judging your stone negatively - I was just making sure you were aware of all the options out there, so you could work out what options might suit you best and how the current stone(s) meet those choices/requirements.