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Buying e-ring this weekend...any advice?

J

justdeb__

Rough_Rock
Premium
Joined
Feb 6, 2018
Messages
66
Hello PSers,

With the help of this forum, we have selected our stone and setting and will be purchasing from JA this weekend :mrgreen2: We've placed the following on hold:

https://www.jamesallen.com/loose-di...color-vs1-clarity-true-hearts-cut-sku-4389084
https://www.jamesallen.com/engageme...e-and-pave-gallery-engagement-ring-item-53176

Before pulling the trigger, are there any specific questions we need to ask or confirm with JA? Is there a specific way the stone should be mounted to a halo setting to maximize its beauty? Any comments or suggestions greatly appreciated! :kiss2:
 
Hi OP, I was in a similar situation just a week back. It was down to JA True Hearts and another two diamonds. It was not until I noticed overnight, JA increased the price of most of their True Hearts by $1500-$2000 dollar for Valentines Day. I understand they have to make money but when they take advantage of the situation like this, it seen immoral to me. And it just showed me their true colors as a company.

After their price height, I saw that their True Hearts came out to be equal in price compared to the super-ideal cut sellers. (At least the spec I was looking at)

For the SAME price it was a no brainer to go with one of these vendors. They only offer the very best cuts (many stating better than JA's True Hearts). Their upgrade policy just needs to be at least $1 more vs JA you have to spend 2x more. HPD also offers a lifetime buy back for 80% of the value.

If you can wait OP I highly suggest you wait until after Valentine and let the price drop back down but if you have to get one now at the inflated price take a look at the super ideal vendors. Also JA will sell you their setting without a diamond purchase if it is the setting you like.

High Performance Diamonds (HPD)
https://www.hpdiamonds.com/

White Flash
https://www.whiteflash.com
 
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I was quoted $5040 for the True Hearts with the following specs:

0.92ct, I, VS1, True Hearts - $5040

Would this price be considered inflated?
 
Coconutpalm said:
Also JA will sell you their setting without a diamond purchase if it is the setting you like.
Click to expand...

I also considered purchasing just the setting from JA and the diamond elsewhere if we found one within our budget and expectations. If I went this route, would I need to ship my diamond to JA for mounting or take it to a local jeweler? Who is ultimately responsible for the finished product?
 
I can't speak for your diamond b/c it wasn't the spec range I was browsing in.

The diamond below was just one of the diamonds I bookmarked. It was $10,500 a week ago. $12,090 now. https://www.jamesallen.com/loose-di...color-si1-clarity-true-hearts-cut-sku-4043040

Just a quick search on whiteflash they do have similar spec diamonds within your price range, I would search HPD diamonds too.
https://www.whiteflash.com/loose-diamonds/compare.aspx?idnos=3929373,3950142,3955165,3929362,3936450
-Also I don't know if you know this but don't compare the carat weight instead look at the measurements. Some of these will have a lower carat weight but the measurement is how big of a diamond you will see. These are all similar in measurement as yours.

My experience with JA setting is that my vendor that I purchased the diamond from can ship my diamond directly to JA. I live in NYC where JA has a physical store, so JA also gave me a choice to drop it off at their Manhattan location. They also charge a extra $100 for setting your stone if you don't buy your diamond from them.

However, I did neither of those. I used a local jeweler my sister had used and loves, they gave me a price better than JA's sale price so I went with them. If you live in NYC I can give you their information.

Again, I'm not a expert. I'm just someone who was in a similar situation as you just a few weeks back. I have learned a lot from experts on here and hope to pass on some knowledge so new guys on here don't get ripped off. Good luck.
 
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I actually noticed the same thing as @Coconutpalm. I purchased earlier in January, but I've been looking through their inventory every few days while trying to help others on here. Seems that the prices for a few of their diamonds in their True Hearts line went up by $1000-2000 around Jan 28th. Not sure if it was for all of the True Hearts line, but definitely some of them went up in price. Interesting, because it seems like the other diamonds in their inventory didn't change. I guess they figure that people will buy a "True Hearts" diamond for Valentines day no matter what the price...

The price they have for the one you selected seems fair though, and it looks good overall. JA's True Hearts line can probably be best compared to the Expert Selection or Premium Select lines from Whiteflash, and it looks like the one you selected from JA is on par (or a bit cheaper) than the prices in the Premium Select and Expert Selection lines.
 
TreeScientist said:
I actually noticed the same thing as @Coconutpalm. I purchased earlier in January, but I've been looking through their inventory every few days while trying to help others on here. Seems that the prices for a few of their diamonds in their True Hearts line went up by $1000-2000 around Jan 28th. Not sure if it was for all of the True Hearts line, but definitely some of them went up in price. Interesting, because it seems like the other diamonds in their inventory didn't change. I guess they figure that people will buy a "True Hearts" diamond for Valentines day no matter what the price...

The price they have for the one you selected seems fair though, and it looks good overall. JA's True Hearts line can probably be best compared to the Expert Selection or Premium Select lines from Whiteflash, and it looks like the one you selected from JA is on par (or a bit cheaper) than the prices in the Premium Select and Expert Selection lines.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the input -- puts my mind at ease knowing the stone we've selected isn't overly inflated due to V-day. We have a two week trip planned to Hawaii next week and was one of the reasons we were in more of a rush to select an e-ring. We are willing to wait, but the 25% off settings at JA was enticing and the stone we selected seemed like a good choice.
 
I read from a very old post, that JA offers some kind of "Advantage" discount around 4.25% off + 1.5% off wire discount. Most people said you just have to ask. I was gonna try to use it but end up not getting that diamond. Maybe it could be of use to you.
 
justdeb__ said:
Thanks for the input -- puts my mind at ease knowing the stone we've selected isn't overly inflated due to V-day. We have a two week trip planned to Hawaii next week and was one of the reasons we were in more of a rush to select an e-ring. We are willing to wait, but the 25% off settings at JA was enticing and the stone we selected seemed like a good choice.
Click to expand...

Just to give you an option that is not a "True Hearts" but still an excellent stone:
https://www.jamesallen.com/loose-di...-color-vvs1-clarity-excellent-cut-sku-2600770

The advantage discount cannot be applied with other offers (meaning the 25% off of a setting). You should check and see which would give you the higher discount, the discount on the setting or the advantage discount on the diamond.
 
Coconutpalm said:
I read from a very old post, that JA offers some kind of "Advantage" discount around 4.25% off. Most people said you just have to ask. I was gonna try to use it but end up not getting that diamond. Maybe it could be of use to you.
Click to expand...

I asked for a Pricescope discount and it was offered. It was about 2.2% off the price of the diamond, but the 25% off the setting was a larger discount and couldn't be combined so we went with the larger discount instead. We plan to pay by wire which will save us an additional 1.5% so we were happy :whistle:
 
A fair price for a well cut 0.9 I VS2 from JA is about 4k. JA often charges 20~25% premium for JA TH stones. So $5040 is completely reasonable for the 0.92 I VS1 True Hearts. Try Whiteflash. You will pay additional $800 or $5879, although Whiteflash ACA is better cut.

The stone is fine.

The stone is new inventory, and recently graded on Jan 31. You really got lucky to find a well cut 0.9 I VS around this time, right before Valentines.
 
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The 1.0c J VS1 is alright, but over-priced.
VVS is an overkill and you pay unnecessary premium.
Currently, JA is full of these mediocre and/or over priced stones. All good ones at a reasonable price are gone.

For 5k, I normally recommend a non-True Hearts well cut 1.0 I VS2. But, around this time, that's near impossible. Still, and again, you got lucky.
 
flyingpig said:
The 1.0c J VS1 is alright, but over-priced.
VVS is an overkill and you pay unnecessary premium.
Currently, JA is full of these mediocre and/or over priced stones. All good ones at a reasonable price are gone.

For 5k, I normally recommend a non-True Hearts well cut 1.0 I VS2. But, around this time, that's near impossible. Still, and again, you got lucky.
Click to expand...

Thank you!

In terms of mounting an RB to a cushion halo setting, is there anything I need to be concerned with? I don't want to see too much space between the stone and the setting, but do I need to specify that during the purchase?
 
justdeb__ said:
Thank you!

In terms of mounting an RB to a cushion halo setting, is there anything I need to be concerned with? I don't want to see too much space between the stone and the setting, but do I need to specify that during the purchase?
Click to expand...

Look at the ones they've already made. You can show them links of ones you want yours like and links of ones you dont like. They will do there best to
do what you want but a lot can depend on the stone/setting.

Make sure they give you claw prongs. That looks like the default for this setting but the .80 they have made at the bottom of the picture does not have
claw prongs.
 
Pardon my ignorance but why claw prongs and what other options are there?
 
I was debating between the falling edge setting and the one I picked. Ultimately decided on the latter since I preferred the undergallery of that one :kiss2:
 
Thanks @ichibanichiban! I’m going to have to agree with @flyingpig and say that I got rather lucky with this find. It fell within our budget given the timing. I wasn’t able to find sku 4389084 on the price tracker so I’m more inclined to believe this stone really was newly listed. I had saved the listing to my wishlist prior to placing on hold at $5040. Now when I go back to my wishlist, this same stone is listed at $5790 but unavailable (because it’s on hold for me, I assume) :eek2:

Anyone seen this happen before or want to take a gander as to why this might be the case?

448D0BA3-65AA-4D2A-9A3E-3AB146CDCA94.jpeg
 
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Well, this happened to me, but in the opposite direction (I got lucky, mine actually dropped by $60 right before purchase :) ). The thing you must understand about James Allen is that they run a modified drop-ship business model, which means they don't actually own the diamonds listed on their website. The prices listed on their website are actually the current wholesale market prices for the diamonds, plus the 20-25% over wholesale which is their cut. The wholesale prices from their distributors can changes at any time, which means that the price on their website can change at any time as well. The price is not set until you actually pay for the diamond and JA transfers the payment to the wholesaler to acquire the stone.
 
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