I'm new to buying diamonds (I've never had any before), so for the past couple of weeks, I've been obsessively researching them so I can choose my e-ring. After choosing what I thought was a good stone & setting (which I haven't bought yet, but was planning to tomorrow), I thought it would be a good idea to visit a local jewelry store, just to get a real life feel for the actual size/colour/clarity of the diamond I had been planning to get.
I went to three different run of the mill mall jewelry stores, not intending to buy anything or find good deals (hah!), but just to see the things I listed above.
First of all, I was shocked by how SMALL the diamonds were. They looked incredibly puny compared to my conception of what various diamond sizes look like, via online charts and pictures I've seen. I found that the diamonds were especially shallow compared to what I had expected. I mean, I guess they looked nice, but I can't imagine people paying THOUSANDS of dollars for them? The smallest size that looked remotely significant to me were the 1ct stones, and well... I can't afford to spend $5k+ on this ring. Is it possible that poor cut (or anything else) could be responsible for that, or are diamonds just honestly that small? They seemed so small they couldn't even properly be called "stones" - more like chips.
The stone on the 0.75ct ring I was shown (I asked to see one since that's the size I'd been looking at online) probably didn't even take up 1/4 of my finger width, and I wear a size 7, which isn't small but not enormous either. Is this normal and my expectations are just skewed?
Secondly, I asked to see a J colour diamond (which is the colour of stone I had been planning to get - with ideal cut and strong blue fluorescence, I thought it would be fine). They didn't have any - the lowest they had was H. So I looked at it, and it definitely seemed visibly yellow to me, and remember, I'm not intimately familiar with diamonds. I asked if it was a bad cut, and the salesperson said that no, it was an ideal cut.
Do you think there was something wrong with that stone, or am I just really sensitive to colour?
The last thing I asked was to see a 2mm band - I know how big 2mm is on a ruler, but I wanted to see that size on an actual ring. I was surprised by how small that was too? I guess I was expecting it to seem slight, but still fairly substantial... I felt like it was so small I'd crush it just by normal wear... I don't know, I was pretty disheartened.
Am I freaking out over nothing, and my online purchase will be better than this experience? Or are diamonds just not for me?
I went to three different run of the mill mall jewelry stores, not intending to buy anything or find good deals (hah!), but just to see the things I listed above.
First of all, I was shocked by how SMALL the diamonds were. They looked incredibly puny compared to my conception of what various diamond sizes look like, via online charts and pictures I've seen. I found that the diamonds were especially shallow compared to what I had expected. I mean, I guess they looked nice, but I can't imagine people paying THOUSANDS of dollars for them? The smallest size that looked remotely significant to me were the 1ct stones, and well... I can't afford to spend $5k+ on this ring. Is it possible that poor cut (or anything else) could be responsible for that, or are diamonds just honestly that small? They seemed so small they couldn't even properly be called "stones" - more like chips.

Secondly, I asked to see a J colour diamond (which is the colour of stone I had been planning to get - with ideal cut and strong blue fluorescence, I thought it would be fine). They didn't have any - the lowest they had was H. So I looked at it, and it definitely seemed visibly yellow to me, and remember, I'm not intimately familiar with diamonds. I asked if it was a bad cut, and the salesperson said that no, it was an ideal cut.

The last thing I asked was to see a 2mm band - I know how big 2mm is on a ruler, but I wanted to see that size on an actual ring. I was surprised by how small that was too? I guess I was expecting it to seem slight, but still fairly substantial... I felt like it was so small I'd crush it just by normal wear... I don't know, I was pretty disheartened.
Am I freaking out over nothing, and my online purchase will be better than this experience? Or are diamonds just not for me?
