SpeedracerII
Rough_Rock
- Joined
- Jun 17, 2007
- Messages
- 87
Hi all,
I've learned a lot from all the posters on here so I thought I'd return a small bit of that favor and post my experience in searching for a Round stone for my FI's e-ring. I'm certainly not an expert but I've been learning a lot about diamonds over the last few months. I've also learned that people have their own priorities when it comes to buying a stone so I have to preface this post with a disclaimer that these are just my opinions so please don't be offended if mine don't fit yours.
My FI and I have shopped at just about every good jeweler in the city and boy have we seen a lot of rings and diamonds. I also did a lot of on-line searching. We stopped in Movado and they have a proprietary 114 facet diamond. Now it might have been the lighting in the store but boy did that stone light up. Couldn't get any decent specs on it, but my FI liked the look of the action in the diamond and so I tried to find a stone with similar performance. The Movado was a little (!) pricey for us and I knew we would be paying a premium for the name. But then I found this site and GOG and discovered the Solasfera. Plus it is not easy to find a true Ideal cut RB in a jewelry store, so in a conversation with Tim @ GOG I realized I could have some stones shipped to a local appraiser and check them out in person. This was great since it would be my only way to see the Solasfera in person and I didn't want to make such a major purchase without seeing it. So by plunking down a $500 deposit per stone and paying the shipping I had three stones shipped to an appraiser. Besides the Solasfera I wanted to see the 'low' end of the color scale and the 'low' end of the clarity scale to get an idea of just how far I could compromise each. Here is what we looked at and my opinion...
- 1.01ct, H, SI2 Solasfera. Picked because of the excellent GemEx (as they all do) but also because the price was within my budget.
- 1.18ct, E, I1, H&A ideal cut RB. Picked because the color was excellent as was the cut (HCA 1.7) and the GemEx. The flaw that gave it an I1 was a feather that looked kind of like a facet and frankly our eyes are not good enough to see it without a little magnification. Plus I suspected that the light it would throw off would mask the feather. And the price for this 1.18 ct ideal cut was a bargain and both my FI and I are frugal!
- 1.287ct, J, SI1, H&A ideal cut RB. Picked because it had an excellent cut (HCA 1.6) and GemEx, and the low color kept the price down. The Solasfera and this RB were roughly the same price.
The appraiser put each stone through her Sarin machine (cool!) and graded the color and looked at the clarity. Each stone had an AGS or GIA cert and she agreed with each of the major aspects of the certs. She initially called the I1 as an SI2, but I guess she deferred to GIA on that one. She also gave me her opinion of the market value of each stone. I won't repeat those here, but in each case she appraised the stones higher than what I would pay for them. Some were better bargains than others.
Lessons Learned:
- The Solasfera did seem to throw off a bit more light than the ideal cut RB's.... but not nearly as much as I was hoping for. It was important that my FI got to see these two side by side for herself. Now she realizes that a well cut RB holds its own next to these proprietary cuts (well at least the Solasfera that seem to consistently perform well). Our unanimous opinion was that the price premium of the 1.01ct Solasfera was not worth it. The appraiser mentioned she did not see many of these proprietary cuts and that unless we just had to have it, it may not be worth the extra money. Now I can see that on a larger stone it might be a bigger difference, or of there was no price premium it might also be different. But in this size category and compared to ideal cut RB's, to us it wasn't worth it.
- Even a J color is a very nice stone. We saw a few J color stones in jewelry stores and now I realize these were poorly cut stones and none were GIA graded. So maybe they were less than a J. (?) But these stones were noticeably lower in color than this J we were looking at. Sitting next to the E stone, yes you could see a difference but not as much as you might expect. And face up, both RB stones were giving off so much light that you had an even tougher time seeing the difference in color. Sitting by itself the J color stone looked beautiful. The only concern would be that we are mounting it next to some princess side stones and these will tend to be G/H and in this case I was wondering if maybe a discerning eye might see a little difference... but realistically it would be hard.
- Even an I1 stone can be beautiful! The 1.18ct, E, I1 was a beautiful stone and threw off a lot of light. Face up I could not see the feather that resulted in the I1 grade. The feather just got lost in the flash. The appraiser said the feather was inside the stone and did not cause her concern that it might propagate in the setting process. Plus we are getting a semi-bezel setting and this will partially obstruct a pavilion view of the stone which is about the only way you can see this feather. The E color seemed very 'pure' but again not as much of a difference from the J as I expected.
- You see a lot of average stones in the jewelry stores. Amazing how the chain stores talk up the stones they have and the EGL and IGI certs. I seldom saw a GIA or AGS cert but I did see some 'average' stones with these certs. And to the untrained eye even these diamonds look great. But it is kind of like the difference between a nice factory paint job and a hand sanded paint job. Once you see the hand sanded paint job, you know what a great paint job should look like. You need to see these in person to really appreciate the difference the cut can make.
- Having the stones you are interested in buying reviewed by an independent appraiser is a very nice sanity check on your shopping ability. This wasn't free of course but the investment was worth the peace of mind and of course you want to see these stones fro yourself. Not that I don't trust GOG, but I just wanted a second opinion. If you can do this on the stones you have narrowed down to I'd highly suggest it. It's not like I'm investing my life savings, but it's nice to know you are paying a fair price for something that you buy once or twice in a lifetime.
- GOG is a great website and they have the most info on their stones than any other site I've found. Plus they are very easy to work with. Check them out if you haven't already.
In the end we decided on the 1.18ct, E, I1. In our logic, this was a bargain. $1,400 cheaper than the larger J stone. We got a diamond that looks beautiful, no question. It has a great cut, throws off a lot of light and is very white. The inclusion does not detract from the stones beauty but it does drive down the price. We put the savings back into the setting. We are having WF custom make a rather heavy setting and we can upgrade from 18kt WG to Platinum and still save a little over that. I know many people won't even consider an I1, or even a J color, but you may want to expand your search criteria, you may just find a bargain if that is what you are looking for. We also picked the 'bargain' stone because it will lose less value off the lot than a more expensive stone. Sort of the difference between buying a BMW and an Acura (not knocking an Acura).
I know when we get on these web sites we tend to get anal about things and search for the mathematically ideal diamond for our needs. Like we are going through some sort of equation. After my experience I've learned that cut is much more important than I had previously thought. I learned my eye sight isn't what it used to be! That you need to see and compare color and clarity for yourself (in a well cut stone!), and most importantly, each diamond is unique and before you plunk down that hard earned wire transfer you would be wise to check it out in person if at all possible.
I hope this helps someone and I'll post more as we are getting the setting made. Thanks again for all those who post and who I learn from.
I've learned a lot from all the posters on here so I thought I'd return a small bit of that favor and post my experience in searching for a Round stone for my FI's e-ring. I'm certainly not an expert but I've been learning a lot about diamonds over the last few months. I've also learned that people have their own priorities when it comes to buying a stone so I have to preface this post with a disclaimer that these are just my opinions so please don't be offended if mine don't fit yours.
My FI and I have shopped at just about every good jeweler in the city and boy have we seen a lot of rings and diamonds. I also did a lot of on-line searching. We stopped in Movado and they have a proprietary 114 facet diamond. Now it might have been the lighting in the store but boy did that stone light up. Couldn't get any decent specs on it, but my FI liked the look of the action in the diamond and so I tried to find a stone with similar performance. The Movado was a little (!) pricey for us and I knew we would be paying a premium for the name. But then I found this site and GOG and discovered the Solasfera. Plus it is not easy to find a true Ideal cut RB in a jewelry store, so in a conversation with Tim @ GOG I realized I could have some stones shipped to a local appraiser and check them out in person. This was great since it would be my only way to see the Solasfera in person and I didn't want to make such a major purchase without seeing it. So by plunking down a $500 deposit per stone and paying the shipping I had three stones shipped to an appraiser. Besides the Solasfera I wanted to see the 'low' end of the color scale and the 'low' end of the clarity scale to get an idea of just how far I could compromise each. Here is what we looked at and my opinion...
- 1.01ct, H, SI2 Solasfera. Picked because of the excellent GemEx (as they all do) but also because the price was within my budget.
- 1.18ct, E, I1, H&A ideal cut RB. Picked because the color was excellent as was the cut (HCA 1.7) and the GemEx. The flaw that gave it an I1 was a feather that looked kind of like a facet and frankly our eyes are not good enough to see it without a little magnification. Plus I suspected that the light it would throw off would mask the feather. And the price for this 1.18 ct ideal cut was a bargain and both my FI and I are frugal!
- 1.287ct, J, SI1, H&A ideal cut RB. Picked because it had an excellent cut (HCA 1.6) and GemEx, and the low color kept the price down. The Solasfera and this RB were roughly the same price.
The appraiser put each stone through her Sarin machine (cool!) and graded the color and looked at the clarity. Each stone had an AGS or GIA cert and she agreed with each of the major aspects of the certs. She initially called the I1 as an SI2, but I guess she deferred to GIA on that one. She also gave me her opinion of the market value of each stone. I won't repeat those here, but in each case she appraised the stones higher than what I would pay for them. Some were better bargains than others.
Lessons Learned:
- The Solasfera did seem to throw off a bit more light than the ideal cut RB's.... but not nearly as much as I was hoping for. It was important that my FI got to see these two side by side for herself. Now she realizes that a well cut RB holds its own next to these proprietary cuts (well at least the Solasfera that seem to consistently perform well). Our unanimous opinion was that the price premium of the 1.01ct Solasfera was not worth it. The appraiser mentioned she did not see many of these proprietary cuts and that unless we just had to have it, it may not be worth the extra money. Now I can see that on a larger stone it might be a bigger difference, or of there was no price premium it might also be different. But in this size category and compared to ideal cut RB's, to us it wasn't worth it.
- Even a J color is a very nice stone. We saw a few J color stones in jewelry stores and now I realize these were poorly cut stones and none were GIA graded. So maybe they were less than a J. (?) But these stones were noticeably lower in color than this J we were looking at. Sitting next to the E stone, yes you could see a difference but not as much as you might expect. And face up, both RB stones were giving off so much light that you had an even tougher time seeing the difference in color. Sitting by itself the J color stone looked beautiful. The only concern would be that we are mounting it next to some princess side stones and these will tend to be G/H and in this case I was wondering if maybe a discerning eye might see a little difference... but realistically it would be hard.
- Even an I1 stone can be beautiful! The 1.18ct, E, I1 was a beautiful stone and threw off a lot of light. Face up I could not see the feather that resulted in the I1 grade. The feather just got lost in the flash. The appraiser said the feather was inside the stone and did not cause her concern that it might propagate in the setting process. Plus we are getting a semi-bezel setting and this will partially obstruct a pavilion view of the stone which is about the only way you can see this feather. The E color seemed very 'pure' but again not as much of a difference from the J as I expected.
- You see a lot of average stones in the jewelry stores. Amazing how the chain stores talk up the stones they have and the EGL and IGI certs. I seldom saw a GIA or AGS cert but I did see some 'average' stones with these certs. And to the untrained eye even these diamonds look great. But it is kind of like the difference between a nice factory paint job and a hand sanded paint job. Once you see the hand sanded paint job, you know what a great paint job should look like. You need to see these in person to really appreciate the difference the cut can make.
- Having the stones you are interested in buying reviewed by an independent appraiser is a very nice sanity check on your shopping ability. This wasn't free of course but the investment was worth the peace of mind and of course you want to see these stones fro yourself. Not that I don't trust GOG, but I just wanted a second opinion. If you can do this on the stones you have narrowed down to I'd highly suggest it. It's not like I'm investing my life savings, but it's nice to know you are paying a fair price for something that you buy once or twice in a lifetime.
- GOG is a great website and they have the most info on their stones than any other site I've found. Plus they are very easy to work with. Check them out if you haven't already.
In the end we decided on the 1.18ct, E, I1. In our logic, this was a bargain. $1,400 cheaper than the larger J stone. We got a diamond that looks beautiful, no question. It has a great cut, throws off a lot of light and is very white. The inclusion does not detract from the stones beauty but it does drive down the price. We put the savings back into the setting. We are having WF custom make a rather heavy setting and we can upgrade from 18kt WG to Platinum and still save a little over that. I know many people won't even consider an I1, or even a J color, but you may want to expand your search criteria, you may just find a bargain if that is what you are looking for. We also picked the 'bargain' stone because it will lose less value off the lot than a more expensive stone. Sort of the difference between buying a BMW and an Acura (not knocking an Acura).
I know when we get on these web sites we tend to get anal about things and search for the mathematically ideal diamond for our needs. Like we are going through some sort of equation. After my experience I've learned that cut is much more important than I had previously thought. I learned my eye sight isn't what it used to be! That you need to see and compare color and clarity for yourself (in a well cut stone!), and most importantly, each diamond is unique and before you plunk down that hard earned wire transfer you would be wise to check it out in person if at all possible.
I hope this helps someone and I'll post more as we are getting the setting made. Thanks again for all those who post and who I learn from.
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