Diamond certification knowledge needed !

[Kikoman]

I recently stumbled upon this website searching for credibility on B2Cjewels.

First let me congratulate all the experts here and the advice you guys provide, it is without a doubt, a great community and source for knowledge !! Great site for everybody looking to buy the best stones out there !

And now a bit of background...

I have been looking on Blue Nile, James Allen, WF and B2C for a specific diamond.

I had not heard of B2C before, in fact I only knew about Blue Nile before I found this website, so I am already grateful for the additional options.

My concern here is that I read a review from a customer who received a stone with a grading report that was too generous from a rock he purchased from B2C. It was GIA cert. I am under the impression that as long as the rock has a GIA certificate and laser inscription you can get the same quality from any reseller. Am I right ?

Here is a little bit more of an explanation to my question:

If I found two identical rocks on Blue Nile and B2C both are G Color - VS2 - 1.65 Carat and XXX

Both are certified by GIA with 1.9 HCA visual performance.

Yet one is 1,000 dollars less - arent these exactly the same rocks ?? And exactly the same performance no matter what ?

Or would you still ask the seller to look at them under the scope for the patterns ? (H and A's )

So would a true hearts and arrows outperform the above stone if it did not have a perfect pattern ?

It would still be a pretty good stone even though it was not H & A right ?

I mean why would that person provide a review that he got a stone from B2C on which GIA was very generous on their grading ?

Isnt this GIAs fault ? Meaning it could happen from any website..

Does this make sense ?

Thanks for all your help guys ! Keep the great work ongoing !

 

[JulieN]

There are many different combos that can give a 1.9 HCA score, so no, they definitely are not the exact same rocks with the exact same performance.

 

[Kikoman]

Yet both would be amazing rocks am I right ?

I know angles might be different, tables size and depths too.

I mean one might have a bit more fire or brilliance but to the naked eye they would both be bedazzling.

Is this Ok to conclude?

 

[hawk25]

Someone correct me if this is too far a stretch, but I think you can conclude to a regular non-PS consumer, a GIA Triple X stone would look noticeably better than the standard diamonds you see from mall stores

That being said, a GIA triple x doesn't guarantee the best performing stone, and it definitely wouldn't be a safe bet for PS standards. It scored below a 2.0 on the HCA, that's good, but that only says it's worth investigating further.

 

[Christina...]

HCA's sole purpose is to help consumers weed through very long virtual lists. It should NOT be used to select a stone. If you find a stone that scores below 2 on the HCA it simply means that it's worth further investigation...ideal scope images, gemological evaluation, magnified images, and ultimately seeing it with your own eyes are much better options in regards to determining it's performance. HCA will occasionally allow a beautifully performing stone to fail, and it will occasionally allow a dog to pass....you can't tell without gathering further information. Therefore I would only purchase from vendors that can provide this additional information and have the ability to view the stone in person. It should also be mentioned that it's not necessary to run AGS0 stones through the HCA as they have already been evaluated for light performance. It's also important to note that GIA rounds and averages it's proportions...this is another reason that ideal scope images are important. GIAs cut guidelines allow for many more proportion combos than AGS does...many PSers feel that GIAs range is too large and includes some combos that result in less than ideal performance.

It's unlikely that any GIA EX stone will be a complete dog, and its even likely that they perform better than the average stone sold in many BM stores, however, if you are going to pay the premium for a GIA EX stone, I would want to make sure that I was getting the BEST performing stone in that category.