Color and Clarity or Cut/Polish/Symmetry?

[JSGrimm]

So I've been looking at stones for a few weeks now, I've done a fair bit of research and I consider myself a somewhat educated consumer. I'm sticking to local brick and mortar shops because they can get me exactly the setting I want, I like to keep my money in the local economy, and I like seeing the stones and the people I'm dealing with. I've narrowed it down (for the most part) to two stones, both are Round Brilliant. I don't have the full specs on me (forgot to ask for the report numbers), but I'm torn between them. I'll be getting the GIA numbers tomorrow. Both seem to have good sparkle and pop, but its hard to compare them to each-other because each is from a different store. so here goes, which would you take:

GIA 0.92 carat
I Color
SI1 Clarity (completely eye clean, inclusions visible with a loupe for my untrained eye)
Ex Cut
Ex Sym
Ex Pol
6.33mm x 6.39 diameter
No Fluorescent
60% Depth
59% Table

GIA 0.93 carat
G Color
VS2 Clarity (completely eye clean, and I can't even see anything with a loupe)
VG Cut
G Sym
G Pol
6.34mm x 6.41 diameter
No Fluorescent
58% Depth
62% Table

The G color stone is slightly more expensive, (about $200) so basically the question is, should I sacrifice cut, polish, and symmetry for color and clarity? I'm having trouble pricing the G color stone though because there seem to be very very few stones of this color and clarity online with a G/G pol and sym, seems to be very unusual. The seller is a fairly large, local, reputable diamond and jewelry store.
Thoughts? (I can have full stone info tomorrow)
Thanks!

JSGrimm

 

[Enerchi]

Cut first. Then you can decide on colour, clarity and carat after that, but without a good cut, there is a loss in fire power.

 

[JSGrimm]

I guess I'm confused, when you say cut first, are you including the Symmetry and Polish as aspects of the cut? Because I've already decided that I won't go lower than VG on the cut, so one has a VG cut and one has EX cut. So my question is, is it worth going down 1 cut grade and 2 polish and symmetry grades to go up 2 color grades and 1 clarity grade?

 

[Dancing Fire]

i'd past on stone #2 b/c the table % is > the depth %

 

[Christina...]

You should start here.

https://www.pricescope.com/wiki/diamonds/diamond-cut

This will help give you a better understanding of what cut is. The cut is the diamonds proportions. I would always chose and excellent cut diamond over a very good cut one. They will be whiter and brighter and have much better light performance. A well cut H color can look whiter and brighter than a poorly F or G. So I would cut first and then color and clarity based on budget.

 

[diamondseeker2006]

Don't look at stones with less than excellent for cut (and very good or excellent for polish and symmetry). Some of the ex cuts are going to be much better than others, but almost all stones graded very good for cut are going to have problems somewhere. So of those two, the only one that would stay on my list would be #1, but I hope you have more options than just one!

 

[JSGrimm]

Thanks all, that's really helpful. Right now that's the only GIA graded Excellent cut stone that I've been shown. One of my dealers has a few EGL XXX stones, and they look OK, but they're not EGL usa, which makes me nervous. The other dealer doesn't seem to show me anything with excellent cut, I think they focus on color and clarity and may try to throw one over on less educated consumers who don't know how important cut is. The last dealer has shown me a few stones, but none jumped out at me, and he has 4-5 more coming in soon in my range to look at. Hopefully I'll see some more options.

JSGrimm

 

[Christina...]

I would strongly recommend staying away from EGL stones at this point. Would you be interested in buying online? We could make some suggestions with a trusted PS vendor.