buying one of these stones tomorrow which one would you buy

[mavven77]

I will be buying one of these stones tomorrow. Which one would you go with?

Both of these stones were in my hand today and I was able to view them with a loop as well.

This stone was nice but I can see the inclusion with my eyes without the loop. It wasn't blatently obvious, you had to look a bit to notice it. I am not a expert and I am aware of the HCA tool but I am not trying to get too technical with this stuff. I have made myself crazy the last couple of months with this stuff and too much information sometimes really isn't a good thing. This scored a 4.9 on the HCA scale. Price is $6,500 for the stone at 1.23ct






Here is the second stone. This stone is smaller at 1.08 same color G but it's a SI1 as opposed to a SI2 and it scored a 2.6 on the HCA scale and it's selling for $6,000




So basically I am looking at a $500 dollar difference in price to jump up to a 1.23 with a worse clarity and not eye clean like the 1.08. opinions please?

 

[arkieb1]

Re: buying one of these stones tomorrow which one would you

Did the first one look less brilliant at all? Did it appear to have less fire and sparkle over all than the smaller stone? Internal graining can occasionally make a stone less brilliant than a stone without it. I would go for a slightly smaller better cut stone over both of these two personally, neither one is a top cut.

 

[hawk25]

Re: buying one of these stones tomorrow which one would you

It's hard to make out the angles on the certification, can you retake the pictures showing just the diamond diagram with the numbers?

Generally speaking, I would rather take a smaller but better cut stone than a larger one with visible inclusions. Are you sure you weren't able to see inclusions in the SI1? They seem quite concentrated on the table. Did you see them in different lighting, or just store spotlighting?

Unfortunately with diamonds, the devil is in the details. If you want a top cut stone, you'll have to pay attention to the technical stuff (without buying a branded stone like ACA, BGD Signature, etc). Neither one of those are top cut stones.

Given the choice of just these two, I'd choose the smaller one, mostly because the larger one isn't eye clean.

 

[diamondseeker2006]

Re: buying one of these stones tomorrow which one would you

Why are you even asking us about a stone that is not eyeclean? Obviously that stone has to be ruled out regardless of the cut. And without the visible inclusions, you know we are going to rule it out based on the cut. A 4.9 HCA would rule it out, period.

The second stone is okay. You can do better, but it is the clear winner of these two if this is the only vendor you can possibly buy from.

 

[mavven77]

Re: buying one of these stones tomorrow which one would you

Why are you even asking us about a stone that is not eyeclean? Obviously that stone has to be ruled out regardless of the cut. And without the visible inclusions, you know we are going to rule it out based on the cut. A 4.9 HCA would rule it out, period.

The second stone is okay. You can d o better, but it is the clear winner of these two if this is the only vendor you can possibly buy from.

I highlighted the part where you said I can "do better"
Please show me where I can do better? As far as a 1.08?

The 1.08 is a "G" I don't want any less than a G, the clarity is SI1 and it scores what I would think is a respectful 2.6 on the HCA scale and it's priced at $6,000 (which is right at my limit for a loose stone) which I think is a very good price.

I have checked the same specs on all the major online sites and with those specs they have all been priced in the high 6k mark and have had worse HCA scores.

I'm all ears?

 

[mavven77]

Re: buying one of these stones tomorrow which one would you

I guess it's not so easy to find a comparable stone huh? I called a jewler that i know here in NYC (I live in NYC) that only deals with high end $50,000 dollar diamonds and up. Her exact words, " that's a great price for the specs I would grab it if I were you".

 

[hawk25]

Re: buying one of these stones tomorrow which one would you

It's not as simple as comparing color and clarity specs. There's a relatively wide range in GIA Excellent cuts, and you can get one that just made it into the category. That's what the HCA is used for, a rejection tool where any score above 2 means move on, and below 2 means its worth investigating further. Here's a video you can watch that compares a high and low end GIA Excellent cut.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cp94DI3xTA0

There may not be another 1.08 G SI1 from a PS recommended vendor that has a similar price (JA might have one, the more experienced PSers can help you look), but it doesn't change the fact that there are better cut diamonds that will sparkle more than that one. PSers mostly focus on cut, so from a cut perspective (and ultimately from a sparkle perspective), you can do better.

 

[diamondseeker2006]

Re: buying one of these stones tomorrow which one would you

I meant you could probably get a better cut stone than that. Some of us would rather have slightly smaller stone with a better cut or spend more and get a 1.08 that was great. Some people want size over cut, but not too many on PS! Again, the G stone is probably okay. We just have no idea without a magnified image and preferably an idealscope image. If you look on James Allen, you can see several H SI1 1 ct stones in the $5700-6000 range. But what you can also see is that the stones vary in cut quality even though they may be graded excellent.

 

[mavven77]

Re: buying one of these stones tomorrow which one would you

It's not as simple as comparing color and clarity specs. There's a relatively wide range in GIA Excellent cuts, and you can get one that just made it into the category. That's what the HCA is used for, a rejection tool where any score above 2 means move on, and below 2 means its worth investigating further. Here's a video you can watch that compares a high and low end GIA Excellent cut.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cp94DI3xTA0

There may not be another 1.08 G SI1 from a PS recommended vendor that has a similar price (JA might have one, the more experienced PSers can help you look), but it doesn't change the fact that there are better cut diamonds that will sparkle more than that one. PSers mostly focus on cut, so from a cut perspective (and ultimately from a sparkle perspective), you can do better.

Lol I'm sorry but I mean no disrespect when I say this. But wouldn't the HCA tool, after you input the numbers and it gives you a result greater than 2... wouldn't it just say MOVE ON dont buy this stone?

It actually tells you the stone is worth buying at a good price. I don't make myself as crazy as some on here.

I saw the stone in person, it is eye clean and I bought it for a great ptice. It will be ready in 2 weeks so look for some pics. Thanks for all the advice everyone!

 

[hawk25]

Re: buying one of these stones tomorrow which one would you

Ah sorry, I meant it to say "don't buy the stone, 'move on' to find another one" . I swear it made sense in my head when I typed it.

Anyways, congrats on the upcoming engagement

 

[thediamondshopper]

Re: buying one of these stones tomorrow which one would you

Congratulations on your purchase! More important than proportion data, ASET images, IS images ect is the fact that you liked the stone and feel that you got a good deal. The advice given was good in that there are "better" cut stones out there, the pavilion angel was a bit steep to be ideal, but at the same time the crown angle appears to be shallower which complements this (cant really read the specs). There was nothing horrendous about the diamond and the price seems quite fair based on the paper specs.