Diamond buying advice

[dcorrea78]

Hello everyone,

I am looking for a pair of 1.5 tdw diamond earrings for my wife for our anniversary. Today on a whim, I went into a local jewelers store and looked at his inventory. Although he didn't have any earrings on hand that were .75 each, he did show me two diamond rings that he could take the stones from and turn into earrings for me.

The diamonds are both I color and S1 clarity. I thought that they looked excellent, and the jeweler explained to me that both of these rings were originally from WhiteHall. He quoted me a price of $2500 for the pair, set with a screw on back! I've searched online and could not find a better deal on similar diamonds anywhere, and although I kind of wanted at least H colored diamonds, both of these diamonds looked fantastic to my eyes. He even let me compare the diamonds to others he had on hand using the magnifying glass, and these diamonds blew the others away.

The only problem that I have with them is that one diamond is .78 and the other is .70. Although next to each other they appear to be the same size, do you think that this would be a showstopper, or should I jump on this deal now?

 

[Gypsy]

No. I would not jump on it now. You don't have enough information. And I am VERY worried that a 70 point stone and an 78 point stone have the same measurements cause ONE of them is poorly cut, if not both.

Is size the most important factor for your wife?

 

[dcorrea78]

Thanks for the reply. I am actually going to get the dimensions from the jeweler later, but to my eye they appeared similar in size. My wife doesn't care about the size, but I definitely want to get her at least 3/4 carat studs.

 

[MichelleCarmen]

I remember when the Whitehall was going out of business in the mall and I went in and looked at their diamond studs and they were still overpriced (compared to online) and not that good of quality! Not to say that the two diamonds the jeweler showed you are as such, but I wouldn't be too hasty in purchasing based on what you've told us so far.

Also, it is SO easy to find well-cut round brilliant stones that are the SAME diameter, that it would make sense to hunt for a pair that are the same everything.

Remember lighting in jewelry stores is deceiving. Just about every diamond sparkles under that lighting so it's not the best indicator if a diamond is well cut. When I read the name Whitehall, my first thought was RUN!

 

[yssie]

I'm glad you found PS before you paid anything.

Unfortunate (for us consumers) Fact 1: Genuine steal-of-a-deal deals are VERY rare when you're buying retail. Vendors know the fair market value of their goods.
Unfortunate (for us consumers) Fact 2: The few genuine steal-of-a-deal deals that do come around are going to be snatched up well before new consumers stumble on them.
Corollary: If it seems too good to be true... it is.

As Gypsy says, the weight difference in this size range is significant in terms of how that volume distributes and translates into face-up size - I would be worried if they do have similar diameters.

As for how they look under magnifying glass - well, that's rather misleading, isn't it? I can inspect my husband's thermal imaging photos all I want, but since I have no idea what I'm looking for or what to judge what by my very thorough inspection is useless, my observations are meaningless, and my conclusions are at best misinformed. The best way to compare stones is with your own naked eyes - make sure they're clean, take them around and just look at them under different types of lights, then rub your fingers over them and get them grubby with skin oils and take them through those different types of lights again.

 

[maccers]

Would you consider pre-loved with OECs? JbEG has some beauties. http://jewelsbyericagrace.com/earrings