Diamond Studs

[stonelover]

Hi there,

I am interested in purchasing a pair of diamond studs for my girlfriend and my budget including the studs of about 0.5 ct to 0.7ct each is below $1500. Where should I start and what cut and color is recommended?
Please advice.

 

[Giangi]

I don't think you can get 1.00-1.40cttw high quality studs with 1500. You should look at I 1's and probably I-K color. Otherwise go a little smaller in the H-I-J/SI 1-2 quality.

 

[sneakyp]

i recently purchased diamond studs for my wife through good old gold. if you punch in your size and budget you can get some idea on the pricescope of what you can get for your money. i would agree with the other poster that you will need to look at H, I, or J and probably SI 1 or SI 2 in the carat range of 0.4 to 0.5 carats per stone to fit your budget. give jonathan a call at good old gold or one of the other vendors that frequently come up on the forum and ask for their advice. the cut is very important.

 

[AGBF]

On 7/11/2003 11:50:48 PM stonelover wrote:

"I am interested in purchasing a pair of diamond studs for my girlfriend and my budget including the studs of about 0.5 ct to 0.7ct each is below $1500. Where should I start and what cut and color is recommended?"

Everyone is different. As my husband always says, "That's why they make vanilla and chocolate". I'll tell you what I would want, however.

I would want smaller studs with better quality (clarity and color).

Here is my experience: I have a pair of 1.25 carats (each) earrings. Although I have been told they are beautiful and that I can carry them, I wear them once every 5 years. They pull down my earlobes (it's not painful, but it isn't what I wanted!!) and don't look right for most daytime wear.

After joining Diamond Talk I bought another pair of studs (.5 carat each). They are great, but I wouldn't mind going down to .25 carats each now that I see what they are like.

I think small, sparkly stones scream, "I am real" and look classy. It isn't bad to be understated.

And, just to confuse you, now that I KNOW I have the real thing I wear CZ studs *most* of the time. Why risk losing my diamonds? The .5 carat diamonds are there for wear several times a year, though...unlike the bigger pair. Maybe I would wear .25 carat earrings daily!

PS-I bought my lovely studs from Jan and Brad (Diamond Brokers of Florida).

 

[Mara]

You can run the gamut with where to shop for studs. Some people prefer larger, less quality stones just for the size appeal esp because people will not be up close to your ears the same way they would something like a ring. This is why alot of the typical stud earrings sold out in the B&M or maul stores are usually something like I color and SI2 or I1 clarity.

If you want to go higher quality for that same ctw, you should expect to spend more money. It's hard to find well matched stones that go into earrings that are well-cut, you can build your own using something like the Pscope tool (e.g. search for similar type stones) or work with a vendor who can pull in stones that would work well for earrings. Or if you go offline, work with a jeweler who can have similar stones called in. My 1ctw studs are very well cut for earrings, I really love them, but again....people don't know much about diamonds in general and really will not scrutinize earrings the way they do a ring so you can get away with more if you ar tight on budget. Sparkle factor and cut is what I would focus on with a lower budget, and stay within a reasonable or slightly smaller size (e.g. .40c each instead of .50 to get a better cut).

The others are right about the budget, for $1500 for a 1ctw type set of studs, expect around I color and SI clarity at BEST depending on your cut. IMO don't go with a BlueNile or similar online vendor because their studs seem to be even more marked up for marginal quality and you don't even know anything about the cut of the stones, only the color and clarity.

I ran a quick Pscope search and found that .40c stones from F/G/H/I color and VS2/SI1 clarity are around $800 each for well cut AGS 0 H&A stones, so if you went to that size, you'd end up with exceptional diamond earrings that she can really be proud of *instead of* something that looks larger but does not sparkle as much and/or looks smaller than they are because of deep pavilions or thick girdles. This was just a quick search for 'excellent quality' stones on the 'cut quality' engine, so as you search around, keep in mind you definitely have a large range of options!

Good luck!

 

[stonelover]

Thanks mara,
I found this from diamond.com which sells the 0.5cts H-I, complete with studs.
http://www.diamond.com/stud_results.asp?sn=87918096&dept_id=235&ccl=Y&lid=14CTS1400177

Are these worth considering?

 

[Giangi]

I don't know if you mean the VS, SI or I 1 quality, but they are definitely giving too little info about these stones.

Mara's suggestion is right (as always

) but keep in mind that nobody will scrutinize earrings too close. So, if you want H&A stones, then good for you, but let me tell you that NOT too many people will understand and notice these beautiful stones, especially since these are in earrings. In earrings you can even lower your standards and consider some very nice stones (I'd say AGS 1-2) which will sparkle nicely and outclass ALL of malls' diamonds without paying the markup for H&A. Now, if you go crazy over H&A, then get them, but a very very good make will look very nice too and allows you to buy larger stones.

 

[Mara]

Giangi

Stone:

The diamond.com url you posted has 1ctw studs for $2100 for H color I1 clarity. Isn't that over your budget? You mentioned wanting .5 carats for EACH ear right? Or are you talking a total carat weight (TCW) which means BOTH stones together of .5c? If it's the TCW of .5 then you are definitely in good shape with $1500 budget, in fact you can get bigger.

But if you are talking .5c each as noted in my previous post (which is 1.0 carat total weight (tcw), you will probably have to go a little smaller to get good earrings. While you may not want H&A earrings, don't get I1 earrings in my opinion. People may not look up close to them, but to me that's almost like buying mall quality. If you go a little smaller and look at something like the .40c well cut stones...you can get EXCELLENT cut G/H or similar SI stones with no eye visible inclusions for around $1600 for .80 tcw. Not bad!! Compare it to the diamond.com stones that are 1ctw H color I1 clarity and probably mediocre cut. The 1ctw diamond.com stones may even look smaller than they are because of a bad cut, while the excellent cut H&A type stones will look every bit as big as they are.

Definitely better looking than any earrings you will find on Diamond.Com or Blue Nile etc due to cut.

Or as Giangi noted, find an AGS1 or AGS2 pair of stones and get a good deal. But with your budget you are pretty tight and if you don't want to do the research on the stones, stick with top quality and slightly smaller stones and you can't go wrong.

My two cents!

 

[Mara]

Sans MS">Found these few links in a quick search to show you different prices.

http://www.diamondsafe.com/earrings.asp?L=0.8&H=0.99&pors=carat


http://www.vsdiamondbrokers.com/dsegold.asp


http://www.dyjewels.com/item/DSE100

( this website has a good way to value CUT, pulldown lets you add $950 for a very good cut and $2500 for a premium cut pair of eararings. Cut can be expensive because it means alot to the eye....)

Suddenly the .40c (.80ctw) G/H SI stones with an excellent cut on Pscope look pretty good eh?!

When you buy pre-matched earrings alot of the time you don't know what you are getting with cut and/or they markup the studs due to convenience.

Anyway hope this helps.