Diamond studs - $1.5k - what's important and what can be compromised?

[fruxo]

While I haven't read all the replies, I want to suggest that you go to some jewelers in Australia, and look at the GIA stones for color to see what would be acceptable to you.

Hi Annette.

I completely agree. I tried to look at diamonds locally at what I believe is the biggest diamond store we have, but when I asked if they were certified, she said no. So I didn't pay much attention to the color they had listed. Maybe I should try and find some other stores, but there isn't that many around.

Even if I find a store somehow, I can foresee other issues. First being that it's hard to make a judgement by a quick glance, and the lighting is usually very specific I jewellery stores. Second being that other things like size and cut affects how much color you see if I understand things correctly, so it's going right be very hard to find any comparable diamonds. That said, even with not exactly comparable diamonds, it would still be great as a starting reference. But yeah, I have to do some research on where I can find such a store.

 

[mrs-b]

Fruxo -

You were completely right to ignore ungraded stones; if they're not graded, it counts for nothing.

 

[fruxo]

Hi again.

IDJ said that the ps quality diamonds they have are non certified, but excellent cut. I'm sceptical but happy to see what they suggest at least. What are your thoughts on this?

Normally I would say no right away, but this retailer is obviously very well regarded on these forums. Is there any circumstance where this is fine? It's not like I really care about resale value or anything, but diamond grading is very complex even for professionals. I think the cut can be somewhat verified with those tests (ASET and whatever they are called) but clarity and color would be harder. On the flip side, I might be able to get a bigger size or lower price.

 

[ac117]

Before I found PS, I had 1ctw studs that were duds. When I went looking for a new pair, I wanted sparkly but I didn't want to go a whole lot smaller since I was used to my old pair but I was still working with a budget. IDJ found me a gorgeous pair of ungraded .90ctw H&A, E SI1 stones and they were really gorgeous! I have a thread on them if you want to see pics and I'm very happy that was the route I took for stones of that size. This year I upgraded and I did go for GIA certified stones bc they are .80 each. IDJ may even have my old pair! They do a great job of meeting quality at reasonable price points!

 

[fruxo]

IDJ found me a gorgeous pair of ungraded .90ctw H&A, E SI1 stones and they were really gorgeous! I have a thread on them if you want to see pics

Thank you, I will definitely dig up your thread.

Is it common practice to have a bunch of ungraded diamonds of high quality? I assumed the best ones would be graded and the ungraded ones would be the ones with concerns about the grading they would get. But maybe it's prohibitively expensive to grade diamonds and it's more worthwhile to sell ungraded stones in this price range, despite the lower sell price. I really have no idea how these things work.

 

[Dizzie]

Well, cost of grading at this size would be in the range of USD60 per stone. So that you can compare to the total cost per stone yourself

Here is a link to GIA prices:
https://www.gia.edu/cs/Satellite?bl...entFile&blobwhere=1355957705107&ssbinary=true

 

[fruxo]

Well, cost of grading at this size would be in the range of USD60 per stone

So why would they have un-graded stones then? Doesn't seem like the cost is overly prohibitive.

 

[ac117]

I'm not positive, but I would imagine it's just more of a waste of time/money for not much gain. Although, I would imagine this is up to a certain size point and then it may be what you said with the concerns about what grade it would get. You also need to remember that all people vary and PS is a very small subset who care most about cut first, etc....there are many people out there who will happily pay for a much larger stone regardless of whether it's graded if it gets them what they want within their budget.

Just so you know, other vendors do this as well. I bought a DBTY necklace from WF with .15 stones and they are not individually graded, although they are "ACA melee" so they are of the same standard as their larger stones.