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Blue Nile thoughts?

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For the double reason of:

a) when working with a dealer for whom you think is working from an effectively virtual list, not preinspected, as with BN, and
b) when working with princesses, where numbers are difficult to describe quality

checking for only AGS certed options is just a lot easier, and more sensical, for the reasons described...i.e. someone has checked for some kind of light performance.

This one isn't worlds away from what you're looking for. Also, Excel/SuperbCert frequently seems to have price sensitive quality options.
 
thank you for your quick response. I think i get what you mean but if it is not preinspected and you dont get the quality the represented on the site then how do they stay in buisness???
 
Date: 10/11/2006 1:54:42 PM
Author: AEK
thank you for your quick response. I think i get what you mean but if it is not preinspected and you dont get the quality the represented on the site then how do they stay in buisness???
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A few factors, all in Blue Nile's favor:

1) The model they follow of working off "lists" of diamonds, rather than having pre-examined them, is not inconsistent with industry standards. If you work with a local jeweler, they typically won't have much of a stock, but they'll have a big list, and will call them in. To your benefit, BN brings you directly their list...similar (and sometimes overlapping with) to the list you can read on this board, so you can pick directly the qualities you want yourself. But, neither you, your local Jeweler, nor BN will have prescreened it, unlike some of the typically more valued vendors (also) advertising on this board, who do pre-screen.

2) Most of what is purchased are rounds, and many to most of them are pretty good vis-a-vis light performance, i.e. many of the kinks are worked out on how to make a good one. Anyway, that's what Paul Slegers, one of the craftsman on this board says (and by the way, I don't see that he has any Princess cuts available today near what you're looking for...but otherwise, Infinity has reputedly some very nice ones).

3) Read carefully on this site, and you'll see cut is the thing, amongst the 4 Cs. This being the case, even using whatever markers for cut quality BN uses, even they, for your selected stone, only describe your choice above this way:

"This Good-cut, F-color, and SI2-clarity"

Only PGS (a small diamond lab) and breakfast cereal makers are worse, perhaps (making excellent the bottom of a list of superlatives they describe options by). Good is well below either VG and excellent, let alone ideal, and I think BN sometimes otherwise uses all of those superlatives to describe their options. Meaning, even according to BN, they are themselves describing the particular choice you landed on as a pretty non-optimized choice.

If & when you go shopping in stores, keep an eye on cut. I think it's where a diamond's value comes out, and many here will agree.

Regards,
 
Hi AEK,

I''m pretty new to all of this too but just ordered from Blue Nile and here''s some thoughts:

1. I agree with everyone above about CUT being key. I''ve looked at a bunch of diamonds and I''d gladly move down in color and clarity (within limits) to move up in cut. The diamond you chose only has a GOOD cut as mentioned by others so I''d probably keep looking.

2. Blue Nile were great in terms of service and the stone I just bought from them is absolutely fantastic (I just got it this morning).

So basically, I trust Blue Nile very much (seem to be a very professional outfit) but I''d probably keep looking for a better diamond choice. I''m sure some of the PS dealers (and/or WF) can point out options and in the meantime keep looking at the BN site as well as things change in what they have available. I watched things for about 3 or 4 weeks till the perfect (for me) diamond showed up. Got a great diamond this way vs. some of the other options I had looked at earlier in the process.

Cheers!

FF
 
Oh one other thing I learned this past month... be careful of diamonds right on the border of the next carat... for instance 2.01 like this case... often they get into that next size by sacrificing on cut so that they can get more weight out of the rough diamond... a 1.99 excellent cut will look A LOT better than a 2.01 badly cut diamond...
 
Yes, since BlueNile grades princess cuts as Signature Ideal, then Very Good, then Good, I wouldn''t be too jazzed about it being the third cut grade. What about a signature ideal cut like this? Or a very good (1B cut) like this? Or this 2.04 H SI2 from James Allen?
 
Date: 10/11/2006 5:30:50 PM
Author: phoenixgirl
Yes, since BlueNile grades princess cuts as Signature Ideal, then Very Good, then Good, I wouldn''t be too jazzed about it being the third cut grade. What about a signature ideal cut like this? Or a very good (1B cut) like this? Or this 2.04 H SI2 from James Allen?
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Note, Phonexgirl''s second option seems to be from AGS, but is not done with a cert that is designed to show light performance. This one (and several others) are other options you might want to consider from Excel, but the color is higher than you were looking for, to hit that price point.
 
I''ve purchased 5 items from Blue Nile, one being my engagement ring (well, DH bought it) and it''s gorgeous! We did have it appraised to make sure that it was the correct diamond and that the diamond was a quality one (it was). You can''t beat Blue Nile''s return policy and their CS reps are great.
 
Excellent return policy and a generous 30 day inspection period. I''ve returned 3 different orders and they''ve refunded me fully each time. Some dealers do charge a restocking or a retroactive shipping fee when an item is returned.

Also, it''s hit or miss. One of diamonds was a BN signature and was a bit dark and didn''t sparkle as an ideal cut should. I did get a couple of .5 cts that were beautiful, bright, with lots of fire and scintillation and at an excellent price. Alas, I found out that my future to be didn''t want a 3 stone ring so back they went. Was kinda sad about returning such an excellent find, but I digress.
 
I just came back from having my BN princess cut ring appraised and the wholesale appraisal (not for insurance purposes, which is much higher) was about 15% more than I paid. He was very impressed with the ring and said if I paid any less than the wholesale number he gave me I did very very well. He said it was a beautifully cut stone and very clean. It was a 1.61 carat, H VVS2. I am a very happy owner of a BN diamond solitaire. Their refund policy and customer service is nothing to sneeze at either. They were wonderful answering all my questions.

Hope this helps.
 
Evelyn, congrats. I reminded myself of your previous post, and search for an appraiser. Who did you use? Sounds like you''re happy, or at least satisfied, with their work.
 
I have never bought a diamond from BN, but I have purchased jewelry from them...all very nice purchases, and hassle free returns. They sell quality items in my opinion.
 
I bought my diamond from there and proceeded to sped the next 30 days going to stores all over town and taking it out and putng my most skeptical face on and saying to thesales people, "I bought this and I don''think I want to keep it - can you show me something btter?hahaha... no one did. There was a tiffany stone that was a close second.... but since it was *literally* over 4x what I paid, fergetit.
 
Just an echo of a few earlier posts - by now I imagine you have moved on from the original diamond that you posted since its cut grade is not so great. When I was looking for a princess cut, I ended up deciding that the best "security blanket" of cut quality I could find would be the AGS-0 rating. Unless you really want to delve into all the angles that make up a great princess cut (both crowns and at least one of the pavilions, as mentioned in posts that have been linked so far in this thread) then just going for an AGS certed stone is a safe bet, at least in my mind.

As far as price or value, one vote in favor of Excel is as follows: I ended up buying
this AGS-0 princess that my local ring designer called in via Polygon. I paid $7,900 for it, which as you can see is slightly higher than Excel would have charged. Add in the fact that, had I gotten it online, I would have saved the 5% Virginia state sales tax that I had to pay because I bought locally. All in all, I "overpaid" by around $900 or so (my local price plus sales tax versus the wire transfer price at Excel) but since my ring designer cut me a great deal on the rings for buying the stone through him, I didn''t mind quite as much.

Follow up: I just got the rock appraised today at a highly respected independent appraiser here in the Washington DC area for ... (drum roll, please) $9,900. That''s $2,500 more than what I would have paid buying from Excel, which is a pretty good endorsement of their prices, I think.

As for Blue Nile, I know two people who have bought stones for e-rings from there and my friends have had no complaints.
 
Date: 10/13/2006 3:41:46 PM
Author: Cehrabehra
I bought my diamond from there and proceeded to sped the next 30 days going to stores all over town and taking it out and putng my most skeptical face on and saying to thesales people, ''I bought this and I don''think I want to keep it - can you show me something btter?hahaha... no one did. There was a tiffany stone that was a close second.... but since it was *literally* over 4x what I paid, fergetit.
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Using this strategy, and in consideration of their being a well established company and I''d say good reputation, BN has a lot going for it. Alternately, in consideration of Criadilla''s mention above, as well as my own bias, I just checked BN''s inventory for Princesses that are AGS certed. They show about 5000 options rated as very good, and only 500 as Blue Nile Signature. Zero of those signature options are from AGS. All are GIA.

Not sure why they don''t choose to, or have a supply of AGS 0 Princesses. Knowing this, however, just simplifies your search process, if you know that''s what you''re looking for, and you might have chosen Blue Nile to look for it. To the good, if you search on Pricescope''s Quick Search, you do include Blue Nile''s options (hopefully all of them?), and get others in, too. Probably it''s good to do. And, you can even constrain for AGS only, if you like.
 
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