Asking Advice on Ring Purchase

[Drewmey]

I am looking for some feedback from people who know much more about diamond grading than I do I am hoping to buy an engagement ring that is of fairly high quality as that matters to my significant other more than size. We want to buy from a small local store but the selection isn't huge. This is one of their higher graded diamonds and looks good after my research but wasn't too sure if there is something I am missing. The price was several grand lower than big box stores.

GIA certified and inscribed, .92 carat, G color, SI1, Excellent cut, polish and symmetry, crystal/cloud clarity characteristic, 34 deg crown, 41.2 deg Pavilion, 56% table and 61.8% depth. $5,000 for stone only.

From what I understand, the crown and Pavilion are fairly good (Pavillion maybe a little high but at least crown is lower) which is what I've read to check if it is triple excellent to see if it would have been more ideal in ags.

Basically, does anything stand out to you?

 

[diamondseeker2006]

If you use the HCA tool, the stone gets a 2.9 and we generally recommend stones score around 2 or less. It does not fall in the AGS Ideal territory because of that pavilion angle being over 41.0. Light Return, Fire, Scintillation, and Spread all scored very good, and we like to see excellent on the first three of those, usually. So if it was for me, I would rule it out because if I am paying that much, I want a stone that is at the top of the GIA excellent cut range. That is not to say it is a bad stone by any means.

https://www.pricescope.com/tools/hca

As far as price goes, it sounds like a reasonable price. This is as close as I could find, but being VS2, it is a few hundred higher, but beautifully cut.

http://www.whiteflash.com/loose-diamonds/round-cut-loose-diamond-3403880.htm?source=pricescope

 

[Drewmey]

Thank you. You have really helped me determine two things. Price and quality.

I would not be getting ripped off at least. Now I must just determine if the quality meets my standards. It is also good to know that it is not up to par with the ideal cut ags diamonds I have seen elsewhere. I will continue looking a little and see if I can find something with a slightly better grading and sacrifice a tenth of a carat or so.

 

[diamondseeker2006]

You shouldn't have to sacrifice size. As you can see from the stone I linked, you should be able to find a .90 G SI1 that is well cut since that one I linked is better cut and G VS2 for $700 more (actually it would be less than $700 if you don't live in TX as they do not charge sales tax for out-of-state purchases).

 

[Drewmey]

You were right, I did not have to sacrifice size. I ended up finding a diamond that scored just above a 2. It also had E color but remained SI1. To me, I would rather have the color improvement than the clarity (I could actually see that difference). So I went that route. It still isn't AGS Ideal but I feel like I ended up finding a much better stone for my needs. They let me look at an AGS Ideal under a scope to compare which was nice, it definitely is more consistent but I would have had to drop to .711 ct and H color to stay at the same price. Thanks!