AGS, GIA and EGL Certified Diamonds

[squarepants]

i have been viewing diamonds on-line and noticed that EGL certified diamonds seem to be less costly than AGS and GIA certified diamonds. Do AGS and GIA have more strict standards than EGL? A diamond certified by AGS and GIA a better stone?

 

[Amys Bling]

i have been viewing diamonds on-line and noticed that EGL certified diamonds seem to be less costly than AGS and GIA certified diamonds. Do AGS and GIA have more strict standards than EGL? A diamond certified by AGS and GIA a better stone?

Yes. EGLl grading is less strict/ that is why two stones with the same grading, but one is AGS or GIA and the other EGL- EGL will costless and likely to be deemed lower in grading if sent to another lab like GIA or AGS

 

[clarediamond]

To help make sense out of diamond certificates you can refer to the Diamond Certificate Glossary: a list of terms that are commonly found on diamond certificates illustrated by an online, interactive EGL International Diamond Certificate..
http://eglinternational.org/diamond-certificate-glossary.html
Let me know what you think.
Yours,
Clare

 

[ame]

EGL generally is a lower "cost" stone, as they are a less strict lab, cheaper to get a report from. However, EGL-USA is not the same as EGL so don't totally rule them out. I have owned several EGL-USA stones and my appraisers have all felt they were in some cases overly harsh, esp on clarity, and in others on-par with GIA and AGS. EGL-USA has done a great job at tightening up the gap, unlike regular EGL International. They're a cheaper lab to get a grading report from, and generally faster from my experience. I did an experiment once with a stone I was considering and sent it to GIA to see how "far apart" they were from the EGL USA report. GIA graded the clarity higher by two grades, color lower by one.

 

[stone-cold11]

Ask yourself this question.

If the stone is really the grade as stated by EGL, why didn't the jeweler owning the stone send it to AGS/GIA, for a grading fee of about 200USD, turn around time of at most 1 month, for a significant increase in sale price? There is nothing to stop them from doing that. And making a smaller profit is not good for any business.

A jeweler did an experiment here.
https://www.pricescope.com/communit...-international-which-is-the-best-deal.162154/

 

[denverappraiser]

EGL is cheaper in terms of fees, they're faster, and they're overall a very pleasant company to do business with. GIA is a PIA. That said,they simply aren't offering the same service and they aren't convertable from one to the other. Fees, speed and general attitude aren't the issues. It's about grading reliability. EVERYTHING else is minutia. If you see a difference in the price of similarly described stones in the same marketplace, it's about the grading. Period. There are lovely stones with EGL, EGLUSA, IGI and totally unheard of paperwork and it's not the lab that made them lovely. That's a collaboration between God and the cutter. What the lab grading does is provide a basis for setting the price and if you want to compare two stones in a rational sort of way you are relying heavily on the lab to provide consistent results. If you're going to buy 'blind' online, you've got nothing else to rely on so choose your lab carefuly. Theres quite a bit of money on the table.