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Diamond Buying experience

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jkheat

Rough_Rock
Joined
Nov 28, 2011
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Hi all,

Firstly just a general disclaimer, everything opinionated below is what I have found in my experience and the opinion I have come to based on my experiences. And to note I have only ever bought 1 diamond. And everythign below relates to the round brilliant cut.

Its been a while since I have posted. I think I have posted a total of 4 times and I am quite sure all of them would be of questions that I had when I went diamond shopping. Hoping to add to this community of collaboration and helping each other, I have decided to write all my experience down and maybe provide insight to those who I am sure would have been in my position.

Basically for the last 6-8 months I have read up and looked at everything about diamonds. Researching those C's, working out my budget and eventually working toward buying the right diamond that I felt was good enough for my girl. I knew whatever I got her would be good enough but I always wanted it to show her how much I cared and I think that is the premise of why I spent so much time looking for something no bigger than a 10cent piece (I do live in Australia).

As most Australian's would be able to see straight away from a quick online price comparison, retail is EXTREMELY expensive compared to buying overseas. For comparisons sake, these are some quotes that I had got from some retail shops:
TIffany - 1.07c SI1 G + plain platinum band AUD14,300
Tiffany- 1.01 VVS2 F + plain band AUD13,700
Others- GIA cert 1.00 SI1 D good cut AUD10,000
GIA cert 1.08 SI1 G excellent cut AUD14,500

In a way diamonds are like a commodity. Yes each diamond is different but diamonds are diamonds too so my tip, avoid retail! You will save yourself a packet.

Ok so what I wanted:
great cut, great light performance, big diamond, white diamond, best price, eye clean

what she only looked at and what her friends only looked at:
size, sparkle and some just trying to notice any shade of colour

Hence most of the things I spent countless hours over was really not such a big deal to her. She didnt care about much besides mainly size and sparkle.
What I found about the 4Cs:
CUT is King. Don't bother with anything else. Go straight to excellent or better. A good cut will make your diamond look bigger and brighter!
COLOUR- this is probably the most subjective of them all. Whilst you don't notice the colour when you look at other peoples rings at a glance, I found that its just about what she would like. I personally wanted something in the IJ range for value but in the end after talking to some people they were saying dont go for a 1.5c J, go a smaller diamond and something less yellow. So for me I went down to a 1.08 F which i wasnt comfortable about as I wanted something slightly bigger. But colour is noticeable so if you dotn want colour, I do think a G is very good.
CLARITY just go for somethign eyeclean. SI1 or SI2 is fine. even an I if you cant see any inclusions. I wouldnt bother with anything other than eyeclean so for value, either do your homework on the diamond or find someone who can verify it for you if your purchasing over seas. for me this was the biggest hurdle as I couldn't see the diamond beforehand. I ended up being honest to the fact that it was a better decision to have someoen look at the diamond for me and verify that it was eyeclean. So I couldnt use the services of a drop shipper company which are cheaper (as you would expect).
CARAT- Big is better always. Will the diamond be too big for her hand? My girl is a size 4 and i thought a 1.5 was perhaps way tooo big. some people said a .7 or .8 would be suitable.... IT IS NEVER TOO BIG. get the biggest your money can buy and bear in mind a good cut makes the diamond look bigger. Also it is the SIZE of the diamond not the carat weight which you should look at. A great cut diamond is usually bigger face up than something bigger carat wise and bad cut.
So what i found in order or priority:
MUST BE:
BEST CUT (not best available, but BEST CUT. if the place you are looking at doesnt have excellent cut or higher grade cuts, move on)
EYE CLEAN don't bother with SI, VS VVS TAB VCR or any other codes. If its eye clean its good.
CARAT- its a good indication of size but look at size of a diamond to see how big it will be. those numbers like 6.74x6.80x4.50 for e.g
COLOUR- up to your preference. if you want something clear, a AGS G is perfect. not sure about the H or I but its cheaper than a D and doesnt really have any colour at all.

In the end my budget from AUD8-9K (going for a J 1.50 RB SI1/SI2) quickly became too small. Now this is alot of money in relative terms. its ALOT. But always spend within your means but if you can stretch that little bit for a little bit more, I think its worth it. Alot of my guy friends who boguht diamonds have often said that given how things have turned out, they would have been happy to spend a bit more on the rock than they did coz in the end, its just money. Im telling you guys that I have never seen my girl so happy. She was over the moon. that kind of feeling, that smile, its priceless compared to something like money which you will be able to get more off down the track. I see it as 1 engagement ring, no upgrades, no changes, the rock she is given is the one she wants to keep. Its a lifetime thing so think about how much money you will make in your life time and think if you can stretch that little bit. in the end i went from 8-9k to 12K. Im seriously broke but I am working the usual grind to get money back but she is over the moon. what did that 3K extra get me? Realistically i wasnt going ot ge tthe 1.5J after my research. I was down the line to a 1.04F SI1. I ended up going up 2K on the rock to a 1.22G SI1 and 1K for the badn which I hadnt really factored in money for... Was it worth it? You bet. And yes I am still working to pay off the extra bit but having paid the extra at the time and thinking what am i doing, it is clear now that it was worth it and not as hard to pay off as I thought. LOL

Oh just another thing, the girl at working at Tiffany said and I think this is a great way to put it, some of her friends got D rocks but smaller in size. They would have gladly swapped the D to somethign lower for more size. Remember th eimportant stuff she looks for? SIZE AND SPARKLE before colour!

What did i end up getting? I ended up with a ACA from whiteflash. Some people in Australia might be wary of making a huge purchase online but I didn't have any problems. Not saying things wont happen, such as diamondexchange which went udner but its a risk you take to save over 30% retail. Its a personal decision if you want to make that leap of faith but i based my decision on the feed back from this forum and said I don't think anything will go wrong with getting my diamond online from overseas. I reckon it saved me a few grand easy and its a really really really simple process. You pay someone to transfer the money in USD such as KVB Kunlun which I used. the transfer fee was like 25 bux. you send whiteflash the confirmation and they will send you the rest like photos (really nice ones of your purchase. I think tho its too nice and looks unbelieveable LOL).

Oh if I havnet mentioned DO buy certified AGS or GIA. I have seen some ppl claim they have a G which when compared to the missus' rock looks like my teeth. Just for comfort and to know what you are getting, its worth to pay for a certified diamond.

I ended up with ACA as mentioned. Its eyeclean, its nice, its the size of a pebble... did i expect to be underwhelmed to pay so much for somethign so small? Well yes. But I am the guy. But on her finger, its remarkable. its relaly really nice. And people mention all the time its soooo sparkly. Is this coz its an ACA hearts and arrows? Well not too sure. I would think you could get away with a excellent cut without HnA and ACA. If the difference is substantial, i would really look at going jsut a normal excellent cut diamond.

As most ppl would have read im done with Diamond buying. This Pricescope sight has been a big part of my buying process and the people who give input well you just cant thank them enough. So before my final summary, thank you to all who have helped in my diamond buying experience. People power, word of mouth, it all does help the poor guy who is shopping online late at night with no idea what he is doing.

So if you are in the market, firstly congrats on making the big decision. These are my recommendations from my experience (specificially if you live abroad in AUS):
She wants something big and sparkly. Don't worry too much about numbers. Just look for eyeclean, excellent cut diamonds. Finding the cheapest eyeclean diamond will be the biggest hurdle. This might rule out drop shippers if you cant see the diamond or have someone there verify the actual diamond.

When you have a budget and search for your desired colour, excellent cut, try SI1/Si2 first, and your ball park carat weight, look at the size of the diamond. this is more important than Carat weight. Use the HCA good proprotions to narrow your choices down. When you find something that looks good, thats when you ask for more information. I personally dont know anythign about images so I just went the ACA, its a brand that you can rely on and you have alot of the subjective stuff worked out e.g eyeclean, really sparkly etc. Otherwise you will have to sift through some images and reports.

Good luck to all and hopefully my experience was helpful to you. Sorry about the whole format of the post, there is always SO MUCH you want to write and sometimes you have trains of thought you just want to go on.

PS2.jpg
 
I will see if WF has any issues if I post the other photos but will try add the WF photos.
 
You are welcome to post the WF photos! I think the only thing not allowed is for the WF logo to be on the pictures.

You are certainly going to be in a good position to advise all your friends on diamond buying from now on! Your ring is beautiful and you made a very wise choice! :love: :appl:
 
Very pretty!
 
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