Anyone have any experience from BlueNile.com?

[mthorn88]

Hi there...new to the site, but glad i found it. I have been researching diamonds and found bluenile.com. Has anyone had any experience with them? Also, here is a diamond I found...what do you think of the properties vs. price? Thanks for your cooperation

Carat weight: 1.06
Cut: Ideal
Color: G
Clarity: VS2
Depth %: 61.5%
Table %: 55%
Symmetry: Good
Polish: Very good
Girdle: Thin to medium, faceted
Culet: None
Fluorescence: Strong blue
Measurements: 6.60x6.50x4.03 mm
Price = $5,800

 

[niceice]

Blue Nile is reputable. But where's the proof that the diamond is "Ideal"? For instance, the crown angle and pavilion angle measurements... It kind of burns us up that they are referring to a diamond with Good Symmetry as Ideal, but that's a personal peeve of ours, they're not necessarily doing anything wrong.

 

[mthorn88]

Thanks for your quick reply. I looked at their online GIA report...but no further detail regarding the idealness or their cut. Is this when I request a sarin report?

Thanks again.

 

[mthorn88]

I found the thread on bluenile with opinions. Should have searched prior to posting. Thanks for your quick reply though!

Thanks again

 

[canadiangrrl]

I'd cross that stone off of my list based solely on the fact that the diameter of the stone, if you've copied it correctly, is verging into out-of-round territory...

 

[barry]

6.60-6.50 is not even close to being out of round. Where did you pick up that information?

Barry
www.superbcert.com

 

[canadiangrrl]

Hi Barry,

My understanding is that a diamond is verging on being out of round when the difference in diameter exceeds 10/100's of a millimeter.

I learned this information from a post made by NiceIce on October 30th, 2003, in response to a question on a specific stone from a forum member. NiceIce's response stated, in part - "The diamond is not "out of round" until the difference between the minimum and maximum outside diameters is more than 10/100's of a millimeter and this one is only 8/100's."

If this is wrong, then what is your definition of out of round?

 

[DEVO]

Actually I started at bluenile... ended up at goodoldgold... why spend all that money when you can get so much better.

 

[Mikesgirl]

There are deals to be had at Blue Nile, too. They have a large selection and a 30 day return policy

but sadly, no tradeup

. That's ok with me - I wouldn't give up my little beauty for the world.

 

[derekinla]

Bluenile probably has the LARGEST collection of AGS000 RB stones of any vendor on the net in their Signature Collection. If you look at the per carat cost, you will see that BN's prices are VERY competitive. Good Luck!

 

[aljdewey]

I'll tell you what I think candidly. I've been actively looking for a diamond, and over the last two days, I have asked BN for information on a few stones that weren't in the "signature" series (largely because they aren't balanced the way I'd prefer with color/clarity......I don't want to pay for a VS1 on an H stone and have to sacrifice diameter).




Anyway, asked for some information on a few of their stones. What I got: grading reports that didn't include plot inclusions, and I was told that they cannot provide any pictures of the stones, no idealscopes.....nothing. All I could get was the Sarin label and the grading report ( which didn't show the inclusions)




When I told the woman at BN (who was personally very helpful) of my feeling that it was like pulling teeth to get any data, she advised that they 1) don't have the equipment to do photos, and 2) even if they could, photos sometimes don't represent the stone properly. This just rips me, considering that damn near every small vendor here can manage to get GREAT pics. Dammit, even the Bubbas of the world know they need a picture to sell their stuff on ebay for cripes sake!




In my opinion, they aren't looking to grow the cut-geek side of their business.....and they never will until they get it together and produce a measly picture or two.

 

[canadiangrrl]

If the vendor owns the stone, and has it in inventory, I don't see a valid reason why they shouldn't be able to provide a picture, if asked. That's not to say that they need to list pictures of every single stone in their inventory on their site, but they should be able to supply a photo image upon request. My thought is that if you're paying the markup, you should be able to get the service.

 

[Mara]

I agree quite obviously.




If you carry the stone, take a picture.

Don't have the photography equipment? How hard is it to get a digital camera? I'm a random novice & I take pictures of my own stone; they can't hire someone to take pictures of theirs? Ahhhh..don't get me started. Not going to take over the rest of the market like this....

 

[DEVO]

I agree with aljdewey.

See... if you buy at bluenile make sure not to read any more info on diamonds on any site on the net. That way you will feel good about your purchase.

In my case, my eyes were opened after reading several sites like this one. After reading, I felt that I was paying too much for the stone on bluenile and found much better elsewhere... In my case I went to goodoldgold. They don't have the flashy website that bluenile does but their content can not be beat.

 

[barry]

GIA does not practically define "out of round" nor does it indicate "out of round" on it's Reports as it does with Crown Angles or other Comments.
Theoretically, according to GIA, a difference of .01 is considered "out of round". From a practical standpoint, GIA Graders 10X-visual detection of "out of round" depends on carat size, and the interaction of Table, Crown, Girdle, and Pavillion. For example, a table slightly tipped to one side, combined with steep crown/pavillions and a girdle with 'naturals' or
close to surface imperfections may appear "out of round" even though the mm
differential may be only .05. Conversly, a beautifully cut round stone may have a differential exceeding .10mm between minimumm to maximum and still
be able to garner GIA VG on Symmetry and "out of round" not visually discernable.

Barry
www.superbcert.com

 

[caratgirl]

Thanks, Barry, nice to hear from an expert on this.

 

[knowverylittle]

Blue Nile is a 'real business' that exists only to make money, probably ran by an MBA or two. With their volume it is not worth spending 30 minutes plus per stone to take photos, do Sarins etc. This is because probably only 2% of their customers would even bother to look at them. Can you imagine training their (probably lowly paid) staff to make those reports - that will not happen for minimum wage!

Blue Nile has put their money into a good website and marketing. I used to build dot com websites and people like me charged $120-160/hour (Most of us worked 60-100 hour weeks too

- so those dot coms spent a lot of up front cash). Blue Nile has that large investment to repay, hence need high-volume sales from the mass-market.

Conversely nice people like Barry have smaller operations and do not have to do sell such volumes to repay a Blue Nile style massive initial investment. At a guess he does most of the work himself and can make a living from selling fewer specialized stones. Correct me if I wrong Barry. Obviously Blue Nile 'makes' more money but they have bigger overheads. This is the same reason Mall based Jewelers appear to be a rip-off.

The Internet is wonderful as it allows very specialist operations to exist.

 

[aljdewey]

----------------
On 11/26/2003 12:52:23 PM knowverylittle wrote:





With their volume (Blue Nile) it is not worth spending 30 minutes plus per stone to take photos, do Sarins etc. This is because probably only 2% of their customers would even bother to look at them. ----------------

I actually made this exact same assertion a month or so ago, and it is one I still stand by.....I don't think they should post a pic or do sarins on every stone because 90-98% of the market won't even look at the extra work.

HOWEVER, they should absolutely be prepared to provide more detailed information to the consumers who *do* want to see it, and their inability and unwillingness to do so *upon request* is just not acceptable to me.

To compound that by offering the lame excuse of "photos don't always represent the diamond properly".......that's just a poor attemption at objection handling. If it matters to *me* as a consumer, then it *does* matter. If Mara, Josh and others can take a fairly decent photo with a $300 digital camera, then I'd think BN should be able to manage the same.

Incidentally, consumers who are intelligent enough to be asking for supplementary information in the first place are probably also smart enough to know that the picture isn't a substitute for seeing a diamond in person....or to realize that there's only so much a two-dimensional picture can capture.

 

[knowverylittle]

At a guess they don't have anyone who knows much about Diamonds on the 'front' lines. Training someone to take photos etc would mean hiring a graduate and paying at least $40K for someone they could trust to get it right. Hence they probably took the line to just not bother with complicated requests and have flash-card readers manning the phones.

Annoying, but I liken it to asking about products at Walmart - they just read the blurb on the box to you.

Big business sucks. We can buy more if we buy the same product as everyone else! Thank goodness for WF etc who are in for the love of the business as much as the bottom line itself.

Happy Thanksgiving y'all, I am off to sit in I-40 traffic for the next six hours