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Advice Request - Diamond Pendant for Birthday Present

T

theoafster

Rough_Rock
Joined
Sep 24, 2014
Messages
11
Hi everyone

I've been lurking for a little while and trying to learn from the experts :angel:

I live in the UK and am looking for a diamond pendant for my wife's birthday. I'm not too tied to a particular budget/size/quality but am open to advice as to what I "need" to spend in order to get something nice! (I don't really mean "need" but hope you get my meaning...!)

I've had a look at a few online retailers and noticed this diamond:
http://www.bluenile.com/diamond-details/LD04599223?internal=1&keyword_search_value=LD04599223

What are your thoughts on it please? I notice it's a "Signature" diamond but wasn't particularly desperate to buy one in that range (it just came up during a search and seemed to have good specs). Should you know of better/as good alternatives for less then I'd be pleased to hear from you!

I'm somewhat drawn to BlueNile as it looks like they ship from within the EU (Ireland?) which might reduce issues with customs/shipping times etc and they've been quite responsive so far. Their prices seem OK, but as I say I am keen to hear what others think! We have to add 20% VAT to all prices in the UK unfortunately... I've bought diamonds in the Birmingham Jewellery Quarter previously but prices do seem slightly better online.

I was planning on having the diamond made into a platinum pendant (16" length as my wife is very petite) but that is about as far as I have got.

Thanks very much for reading :-)
 
Re: BN Signature Diamond - Worthwhile or Better Alternatives

No takers? :boohoo:
Was I too wordy or not very clear (or just too boring?!)

Nobody has any opinions to share? Apologies if I'm being impatient... :)
 
It's still early over here, give everyone a chance to wake up :)
 
Yep I'll have to be more patient! I'm particularly interested in alternatives and feedback on the size given its use.

Thanks all.
 
I'm a newbie, but dealt with WhiteFlash recently and they were amazing. Here's one of many I found from them...

http://www.whiteflash.com/loose-diamonds/round-cut-loose-diamond-3172010.htm

The diamond you gave us a link to is unavailable. Did you place a hold on it?


What size diamond are you looking to purchase? My favorite diamond for the money is an eye-clean I Si1.

Take a look at WhiteFlash's A-Cut-Above and Expert Selection diamonds. I just bought a beautiful Expert Selection .91ct I VS2 diamond for an engagement ring and couldn't be happier with the performance and price.
 
Hi Jeremy

Thanks for your reply. I know people here rate WF highly. They seem to have less of an EU presence (though whether that really matters...?) which was why I felt slightly less keen on them - and are they a little more expensive?

Re size I was thinking approx 1.3 or so, I don't want it to get lost but don't want it too blingy either!

Would it be fair to say I could relax the specs a little and still have a very nice looking pendant (i.e. if it were for a ring it would be worth being pickier?)

BN put a hold on the diamond in the link when I asked about it. It is reserved for me, for now...!

Thanks again :-)
 
One reason BN is recommended less than some other PS sponsors is that BN doesn't generally offer ASET images, which allow you to check for light leakage and generally check for overall performance... which is probably a good idea when you're shopping for a larger stone.
 
In my opinion, the more facts I have when buying a diamond online, the better. As vrbeauty said, WF gives you the ASET images, and that makes me feel a whole lot better about performance. This is especially true when not judging performance hands on in different diamonds side-by-side.

By all means look at diamonds from a variety of retailers. As a consumer, that is just good business at your end. When I bought mine, I searched high and low. As I did this, I wanted to know exactly what I was getting before I purchased. I also didn't want to deal with the hassle/cost/extra time of having to send a diamond back if I didn't have to.



But enough of my rambling....

If i was buying for a pendant, I'd spend my money based on eye-cleanliness (yes or no), cut, and size. Here's another I would ask the experts here about, though the girdle varies a good bit.

http://www.whiteflash.com/loose-diamonds/round-cut-loose-diamond-3157625.htm
 
Hi everyone

Thanks for your replies. I've tried to read up on GCAL vs ASET - is the consensus that ASET is the most meaningful/useful? I get that it is for the labs to convince me, etc (though I need to fully understand what I am seeing to know how convinced I should be!) 8) I appreciate also that without either (most of BN's stuff) you're less informed and having to rely on just the GIA cert (at least for most of the EU stones).

I'd be interested on feedback on the diamond in the first post with respect to both reports (if not to pick THAT particular diamond then to give a sense of whether I'm in the right ballpark).

Maybe it's me but WF do seem to be slightly more expensive than BN(?) and when I look for similar stones to the original one in the first post (at a number of retailers) re overal spec/size/clarity it seems competitive for price anyway and scores decently on HCA. I'm not at all tied to that particular diamond, was just wanting to benchmark it/others I guess.

I hope I've been clear :? and thanks very much indeed for reading my ramblings :)

Thanks again

theoafster

PS Re the previous post: how much does the girdle variability matter?
 
theoafster, I am following this with interest, as I am looking for an earring pendant set for myself.

Just wondering, I clicked on the link, and what came up was a diamond from the U.S. Site, in US Dollars. Do you know is it a search of their whole stock, I am living in Ireland, so I was looking at Blue Nile for similar reasons to,you. But in looking up stones, I have never been offered the GCAL images in the Irish site. So would I be better off looking on the U.S. one???
 
Hi DB

I think they only offer the extra info on certain ("Signature") stones - I don't know whether there is a premium price on such stones either, I would have been happy to get "signature specs" without the signature branding (and pricing?!) but it was one of the results returned from my search and seemed promising to my untrained eye!

I believe the link is priced in dollars because it was sent to me from their (I assume US-based) email helpline when they put the hold on it... I originally found the stone myself though via the UK side of the site (where it was priced in GBP and the VAT is added at checkout). Most of the posters here seem to be in the US so I left it that way to make the comparison easier for them.

I'm still not really that sure how useful the GCAL images are but hopefully someone will be able to chime in soon :)

I've tried a couple of other e-tailers today and am struggling to get anything better (from a simple cert spec and HCA score perspective) than my original post (for the price...) Whether the original one is any good in the first place I'm still not 100% sure on (fairly sure, but...!)

Good luck with your search DBaby! :) One plus I've found out for BN is that Quidco (not sure if it's available in Ireland) offer 5% off as an affiliate (to the first 6000 GBP). That said I'm still very happy to consider others though...!

Cheers

theoafster
 
That stone you linked *should* be a nice stone. The angles play well together. A 1.3 would be an excellent size for a pendant.

Edit - you might want to stick with one of their in-house stones so they can evaluate it for you.
 
Hey tyty333

Thanks for your feedback, it is very useful.

I'm probably being really stupid but how do I ID one of their inhouse stones from the others? I don't think I see it as an option in the filters?

Any thoughts on the GCAL info? Looks good/bad/isn't worth looking at anyway, etc?

Best wishes

theoafster
 
Doh, that one you picked is a Signature Ideal.

You would move the "Cut" slider from "Good" up to "Signature Ideal" to get only the signature ideal stones.

Email BlueNile and see if they can send you a picture of the stone. I think it should be in house.

Did you read about the Signature Ideal Stones?

http://www.bluenile.com/signature-ideal-round-diamonds?track=NavEduSigRound
 
The one you picked looks fine. The only thing is the quality is quite fine for a pendant, you could drop a few color/clarity grades if you are want to save a little bit. Otherwise, great choice.
 
Thanks for the feedback everyone. I think I'll go with this stone then... will place the order later today (UK time).

Cheers!

theoafster
 
Hi everyone

The pendant arrived a few days ago! Here is my attempt at a little video, shot on my phone in my kitchen so not ideal conditions but I hope it gives an idea of how it looks. Apologies for the out of focus/wobbly filming :doh:

Diamond Pendant

I've tried to embed the video in my posting (code below) but it doesn't seem to work :errrr: I don't know if a mod can do something clever? :) Otherwise please just click the link above (you may have to wait a little while for it to get going).

Thanks to everyone who helped in the purchase. I think it looks rather good (even nicer in person than the clip, diamonds are hard to film well!) and hope that my wife likes it when I give it to her :D

Code: 
<object width="410" height="341" id="veohFlashPlayer" name="veohFlashPlayer"><param name="movie" value="http://www.veoh.com/swf/webplayer/WebPlayer.swf?version=AFrontend.5.7.0.1464&permalinkId=v78743578zNdPzTCt&player=videodetailsembedded&videoAutoPlay=0&id=anonymous"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.veoh.com/swf/webplayer/WebPlayer.swf?version=AFrontend.5.7.0.1464&permalinkId=v78743578zNdPzTCt&player=videodetailsembedded&videoAutoPlay=0&id=anonymous" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="410" height="341" id="veohFlashPlayerEmbed" name="veohFlashPlayerEmbed"></embed></object><br /><font size="1">Watch <a href="http://www.veoh.com/watch/v78743578zNdPzTCt">Diamond Pendant</a></font>
 
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