Find your diamond
Find your jewelry
shape
carat
color
clarity

Can somebody help me please with my first diamond purchase

N

natasha11

Rough_Rock
Joined
Jan 17, 2013
Messages
11
Hello Everyone,

I am choosing my engagement ring but my knowledge about diamonds is not great. However I have been reasearching for a while and I gather that 'ideal' cut is probably what I should go for and then compromise a little bit on colour and even a bit more on clarity as long as it is an eye clean stone. I spoke to James Allen and this is what they recommend.It is right on my budget of $5000 including the setting. Can you please give your opinion if this is what you would choose or if not what would you do instead. I find this all so overwhelming, there is so much choice. I would like a nice shiny decent quality ring and it is an important decision as I don't think I will be buying diamond jewellery often after this :confused:


http://www.jamesallen.com/#%21/loose-diamonds/Round-cut/0.90-carat-H-color-SI1-clarity-Excellent-cut-sku-184463

Thank you in advance
 
Re: Can somebody help me please with my first diamond purcha

It should be very bright and H SI1 is a very good value. Are they taking idealscope images for you? Did they recommend any others for you to compare? We could help make suggestions as well if you'd like.
 
Re: Can somebody help me please with my first diamond purcha

Hi,

Thanks for your reply. Not sure what these images are but I don't think they are. Is that something I should ask for? :confused:
I wouldn't even know what to look for in them..

They didn't suggest anything else at all and recommend this as the best in my price range.
Would you tweak the specs in a different way or do you think this is a good compromise between size,cut, clarity? Do you think this stone looks good for SI1?
Thanks!
 
Re: Can somebody help me please with my first diamond purcha

James Allen will offer you free idealscope images of three stones and their gemologist will compare them side by side and offer you her opinion. An IS image will show the stones potential light performance and if the stone has any leakage areas. When they send it to you post it here and we can read it for you and tell you if there are any red flags. I think that H SI1 is a great balance of color and clarity, if the stone is eye clean. Many SI1's are and the gemologist will assess this for you as well. Just let them know if you prefer the stone to be clean from a viewing distance of 6 inches or 12, do you care if you can see an inclusion from the side? If so let them know this as well. I'm personally ok with some types of inclusions from the side because the setting often hides many of them, but some don't want to see anything for any angle. From the video it looks like it's is probably clean, but I would want it confirmed. I have to get my little guy off to school, but I can take a look for you in a bit for a couple more options, and if you wait just a bit others will be along to make suggestions as well.
 
Re: Can somebody help me please with my first diamond purcha

Christina,

Thanks so much for your help! We are doing lunch and I have a school run too, will be back in couple of hours.
I Think I would like to chose two others (if you don't mind helping) in the price range and ten ask for the images and comparisons as you suggested. I will then post them for here before I make my final decision. I can't thank you enough for your help, I had no idea about any of this! talk to you a bit later
 
Re: Can somebody help me please with my first diamond purcha

natasha11|1358420816|3357630 said:
Christina,

Thanks so much for your help! We are doing lunch and I have a school run too, will be back in couple of hours.
I Think I would like to chose two others (if you don't mind helping) in the price range and ten ask for the images and comparisons as you suggested. I will then post them for here before I make my final decision. I can't thank you enough for your help, I had no idea about any of this! talk to you a bit later
Click to expand...

If you could also say what type of setting you are going with that would help narrow down the diamonds as well, so we don't goover your budget.

Also- if you have a candidate you think is good, put it on hold while its being discussed here as the one you were just looking at is already gone....

This one is available still, in the size range you are looking at (not sure about price but you will get a pricescope discount if you call and remind them) and has all the numbers in a good range. HCA score of 1.4

http://www.jamesallen.com/#!/loose-diamonds/Round-cut/0.90-carat-H-color-VS2-clarity-Excellent-cut-sku-127542
 
Re: Can somebody help me please with my first diamond purcha

Hi,

Thanks for the link and you message!
The one that I posted the link for is on hold which is why I guess it says 'not available'.
I am looking at 17927P setting
If you think anything else is suitable (and have time to have a look) please let me know. I appreciate your help even if it is something completely different that you would like to suggest. Thank you so much for your time and for searching through 'James Allen' for me, I really appreciate it.

Sorry, as I said my knowledge is not great - what is HCA and what does the score of 1.4 mean.
 
Re: Can somebody help me please with my first diamond purcha

natasha11|1358439924|3357839 said:
Hi,

Thanks for the link and you message!
The one that I posted the link for is on hold which is why I guess it says 'not available'.
I am looking at 17927P setting
If you think anything else is suitable (and have time to have a look) please let me know. I appreciate your help even if it is something completely different that you would like to suggest. Thank you so much for your time and for searching through 'James Allen' for me, I really appreciate it.

Sorry, as I said my knowledge is not great - what is HCA and what does the score of 1.4 mean.
Click to expand...

hi Natahsa-

The HCA tool is located up in the tabs near the top of the page and it is basically a pass fail test to weed out bad stones from possible good ones. ANything below 2 is worth looking at and getting information on, things above 2 are more chancey in terms of cut quality. The may be good or bad, but you'd need to evaluate more.

At James Allen, you get 3 free idealscopes ( helps evaluate the stones brilliance) and 3 gemologists review. The stone you selected is a little shallow, but scores a .7 on the HCA so it seems worth looking at. The stone I posted scores 1.4. That does not make it better or worse and is still worth looking at because it is below 2. I would take full advantage of the 3 idealscopes and 3 gemologists review and not buy the first likely thing. You could put both these on hold and request idealscope images to post on here, and a gemologist review of the stones asking about eye-cleanlisness and inclusions, and also light performance evaluations of both. They will hold the stones while the requests are processed and you can post the images and evaluation here so we can help.

WHile that is going on, you could search for one more back up to have looked at, but both of these seem like they are worth having evaluated just based on the scores.

Here's a quick explanation of what an idealscope does:

https://www.pricescope.com/tools/ideal-scope
 
Re: Can somebody help me please with my first diamond purcha

Thanks v much! I've got the one you kindly found for me on hold now. I am searching for the third one and tried using the tool you recommended but the only values I have are depth and table and keep getting 'The total Depth % entered suggests the girdle is overly thick,
or the data entered is incorrect'
Do you know why this is, do I need to input anything else apart form these two parameters? Thanks
 
Re: Can somebody help me please with my first diamond purcha

natasha11|1358449172|3357975 said:
Thanks v much! I've got the one you kindly found for me on hold now. I am searching for the third one and tried using the tool you recommended but the only values I have are depth and table and keep getting 'The total Depth % entered suggests the girdle is overly thick,
or the data entered is incorrect'
Do you know why this is, do I need to input anything else apart form these two parameters? Thanks
Click to expand...

Hi Natasha-
I don't think you gave the HCA all the info it needs. It needs 4 numbers. SOmetimes all teh info you need is listed and sometimes you have to look for it on the cert (GIA or AGS document). When you pull up the cert, there's a little diagram of the diamond with numbers all over it. The ones you need are the total depth (%), the table size (%), the crown angle and the pavilion angle. Perhaps one of these got switched? Could you post the numbers you used along with which box you put them in?

Here's an example:

depth: 61.2
table: 56.5
crown angle: 34.7
pavilion angle: 40.8
 
Re: Can somebody help me please with my first diamond purcha

Christina...|1358458471|3358084 said:
http://www.jamesallen.com/#!/loose-diamonds/Round-cut/1.01-carat-H-color-VS2-clarity-sku-142309


What is your budget?
Click to expand...

I think she said 5 including the setting. That setting is about 5-600, I think. A platinum solitaire.

DOn't forget about the pricescope discount! I think you have to ask now and it used to be posted when you looked at the stones. It'll be a few hundred dollars off the stone and so that will help.
 
Re: Can somebody help me please with my first diamond purcha

I' really like the one that bastetcat linked. I prefer the crown and pavilion angles better than the one that JA suggested, but it's going to face up smaller than the first one, so there is a bit of a trade off.

I'm not sure how you feel about color, but White Flash has this one that they say is eye clean but I would confirm, and it's gets you over a ct.
http://www.whiteflash.com/loose-diamonds/round-cut-loose-diamond-2805421.htm


Have you considered other shapes, or are you set on a round?
 
Re: Can somebody help me please with my first diamond purcha

04diamond<3|1358465167|3358176 said:
Hi,

Have you seen this stone? It scored a .8 on the HCA and is $4,330 before the discount which is usually about 5% which will leave enough for a solitaire setting. I'd make sure it's eye clean.

http://www.jamesallen.com/#!/loose-diamonds/Round-cut/0.90-carat-H-color-SI1-clarity-Excellent-cut-sku-189623
Click to expand...

That could be a third good option for you to have a scope done and a review on. Ditto on having them make sure its eyeclean.

Let us know what you decide!
 
Re: Can somebody help me please with my first diamond purcha

Hello,

Just to let you know that I requested gemologist reports and Idealscope images for these three:

184463
127542
189623

Also, in answer to your question, after looking into settings for a while I wanted the ring to be classic and since it is not v big I wanted it nice and 'shiny' which i think i will get best out of the setting and shape that I chose. I hope I am correct (considering my limited knowledge about diamonds and settings)? But please feel free to let me know if you think there are any other good options.

I will get back to you once I get the repots and images and hope can get just a bit more final help before I actually decide on one and buy.
Thanks so much for all your help - I even managed to get that tool all working and have learnt a lot in last 24h thanks to you - even though couldn't find anything better than what you suggested already! :-)

Also wanted to ask if by any chance you know anything about tax I would pay in UK?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
GET 3 FREE HCA RESULTS JOIN THE FORUM. ASK FOR HELP
Jewelry Blog
PriceScope-Concierge-Ad
Find prime cuts.
Top