buying engagement ring online --- help please

[Bcow]

Well after going to a local jeweler that I wont name and leaving frustrated by sales guys trying to push diamonds on me that didn''t have certs or paper work and were way over priced I decided I''m going to buy online. I''m a rookie so information is greatly appreciated.

1st the vendor. I''ve narrowed it down to bluenile, whiteflash, or Brian Gavin.

Who would you pick and why? Which vendors high end line is going to have the closest to the Hearts on Fire?

2n the budget= $2000 for the center stone. I know I want to buy a very high cut grade becasue my fiance'' loved the hearts on fire line (which was WAY over priced). I''ve figured out I can get a .6c SI1-VS2 with a great color grade or jump up to a .7c SI1-VS2 with a lower color grade with any of the vendors. The setting will be a reall dainty solitare in white gold.

Will I notice the color difference between a G and an I? What would you do on my budget?

 

[Lestat]

Regarding vendor choice, personally I''d go with either Whiteflash or BGD over Blue Nile any day of the week. Blue Nile doesn''t provide images of their diamonds, and most of the diamonds they never see before they ship to you. I believe their signature series is in-store, but they still won''t give you pictures, so you don''t really have any solid proof that the H&A diamond you''re buying is actually a true H&A or the quality of the cut. With Whiteflash and BGD they will provide you with all of the info you need to post on here and get opinions from very experienced non-biased consumers on the quality of cut and that will make your purchase a whole lot easier. They may cost a little more, but that''s because they''re providing you with the service you need to make an informed choice.

As for comparing the two vendors, the Whiteflash ACA cut was actually designed by Brian Gavin I believe, so their top end stones should be very similar.

I''ll let someone more knowledgeable comment on the choice of diamond.

 

[Bcow]

One other question. The reason we went to the jeweler we did today is becasue my fiance' has a ring from a previous relationship that was purchased from them and they have a trade in policy. The ring is a .98 carat SI1 F (AGS 1/1/5) and they will give us 3500 in trade. The problem is they are so over priced on what they are offering us that I'd be better off just buying online and keeping the ring.

Anways if I can get the deal I want I will deal with them so I sent the sales guy this email. Please tell me if I'm out of line. I dont feel I am especially since when I told him that I had been looking online and he told me that what they offer that online companies dont is service. So far I'm not seeing the service.



Hello Chuck thanks for the time you spent with Sara and I. I wanted to let you know exactly what I am looking for in this process in picking a diamond. 1st of all I don't even care to look at the stones until we have looked at paper work and price. I'm a mortgage guy not a gemologist so I don't know what I'm looking at unless it's on paper. Once we've seen a few stones on paper and the price tag attached to them then we can narrow it down, and then we can break out the microscope.

Can you please come up with 4-5 stones in the .75c range either GIA EX across the board or AGS ideal (0) across the board. The stones should be SI1-VS2 in grade and no worse then H in color. I don't expect to pay more then $4,000 for a stone like this as I can find them all day long on the internet sites like bluenile, whiteflash, Brian Gavin, etc... with premier cuts that rival the Hearts on Fire line for under $3,000. I'd like to do business with you but in order for us to trade in the ring it has to be worth our while. Shoot me an email and let me know what you can do. If you could just email or fax me the GIA/ASG reports or even the serial # so I can go online at GIA or AGS and see what the stone is that would probably be the least time consuming for everyone.

 

[Kaleigh]

Hands down Brian Gavin. Why?? I have bought from him several times. I have the utmost respect for him, and trust his eyes.... He''s true blue, and is a great person to deal with.

 

[Bcow]

Kaleigh will I notice any difference between the BG signiture series and the BG select series in a GIA EX cut. Obviously my bufget isn''t huge and I''m tring to squeez all the value I can out of my $2,000 for the center stone. I personally prefer quality over size and after going to the jewelery store with my fiance'' I think she does too.

Do you have any suggestiuons? The ring will be a real simple and dainty solitare in white gold so the stone is going to be center stage. I am a rookie at this diamond thing but when ever I buy anything I like to get the best for my money.

 

[mrssalvo]

Date: 2/13/2010 11:13:08 PM
Author: Bcow
One other question. The reason we went to the jeweler we did today is becasue my fiance'' has a ring from a previous relationship that was purchased from them and they have a trade in policy. The ring is a .98 carat SI1 F (AGS 1/1/5) and they will give us 3500 in trade. The problem is they are so over priced on what they are offering us that I''d be better off just buying online and keeping the ring.

[/i]

a few other Pricescope vendors will except trades so you might at least give them a call and see what they would offer for the .98 stone. I know Pearlmans does and I''m pretty sure Goodoldgold and James Allen do too. They all offer ideal diamonds so wouldn''t be sacrificing any quality going with one of them.

If you decide to just keep the stone, then out of the vendors you listed I''d go with Brian Gavin or WF. Both have awesome stones and very nice upgrade policy''s should the situation that situation ever arise.

 

[Dreamer_D]

Here''s how I look at it... if the diamond from the B&M vendor costs you out-of-pocket anything even close to $2k, then you should keep the .98 and buy a $2k stone online. Otherwise, you will have spent the same amount of money now out-of-pocket, but you will have only 1 diamond and not 2! Unless you *want* to get rid of the .98, I would actually suggest to keep it and get another diamond because then you can set it into a pendant or something and enjoy it.

But I suppose it if has bad juju then by all means trade it in. But I would still trade it for something equal priced or maybe only a few hundred more, AND then buy the second diamond flat out. Again, the trade in value is no where near the value of the diamond so it seems like just throwing it away to trade it in.

 

[Bella_mezzo]

I would definitely buy online from someone like Brian Gavin and set the .98 diamond in a pendant or just sell it on the open market, like ebay diamond bistro, or somewhere like that.

 

[Bcow]

Well the whole idea of trying to trade it in was we thought we could get more ring and invest the same new cash but that doesn''t seem to be the case. Can anyone tell me a good place to sell the ring out right (other then ebay) and what I could reasonably expect for it.

 

[Bcow]

Bump to the top.

I''ll be pruchasing in the next few days. Any suggestions would be appreciated!