Did I make a decent purchase?

[crober51]

I''ve been lurking on this site for a number of weeks now and I''ve gotten the idea that you guys aren''t particularly fond of EGL certs, especially non USA.
Now with that understanding already there I''m curious about your opinions.

The stone is a 1.02 carat h vs2 listed as an excellent ideal cut with 8 hearts and 8 arrows. I looked at it under the scope at the jewelers and confirmed that the symmetry seems to be quite good. I had previously purchased an ags0 stone and brought it with me when I compared the two stones. Although I am no jeweler I was unable to see a difference in brilliance between the two and if anything favored the EGL stone.

The proportions listed on the cert are:
Total Depth: 60.5%
Table width: 57%
crown height: 14%
pavillion depth: 44%
Girdle Thickness: Medium, Faceted.
Shape Round Brilliant
Measurements 6.56 -6.53 - 3.96

Finish
Polish: Excellent
Symmetry: Excellent
Culet: None
Very Slight Graining
Slight Blue Fluorescence.

I paid 5k even for the stone. I''m not expecting that I got some great bargain, I''m just curious if I bought a decent stone for a fair price.

Thanks in advance

 

[:)]

take it to an independent appraiser (meaning one that does not sell any jewelry) - need to verify color/clarity

 

[crober51]

Unfortunately I do not have access to an independent appraiser, at least not according to the database on this website. The nearest one to me is a very long drive from here. I understand that you can''t get a real idea for the clarity and color, and again I''m no jeweler but I have done a LOT of shopping around over the past month and seen at lesat 50 diamonds under the scope and I''d say that this is a true vs2, and although color is harder for me to judge, it was not noticeably more yellow than the g stone I had that was an ags cert. And believe me when I say that I''m not trying to make myself feel better, I was perfectly ready to move to another stone if I noticed any issues with this diamond.

Again I understand what you are saying by recommending the appraiser, and I appreciate that you guys may not be able to give a fair assesment without it. And if so that''s find too, but any opinions are still welcome.

Thanks again.

 

[:)]

Date: 9/17/2008 11:12:19 PM
Author: crober51
Unfortunately I do not have access to an independent appraiser, at least not according to the database on this website. The nearest one to me is a very long drive from here. I understand that you can''t get a real idea for the clarity and color, and again I''m no jeweler but I have done a LOT of shopping around over the past month and seen at lesat 50 diamonds under the scope and I''d say that this is a true vs2, and although color is harder for me to judge, it was not noticeably more yellow than the g stone I had that was an ags cert. And believe me when I say that I''m not trying to make myself feel better, I was perfectly ready to move to another stone if I noticed any issues with this diamond.

Again I understand what you are saying by recommending the appraiser, and I appreciate that you guys may not be able to give a fair assesment without it. And if so that''s find too, but any opinions are still welcome.

Thanks again.

There probably are some in your area that aren''t listed here. You could try the yellow pages (or if you want to get really anal you could mail it to one!). It sounds like you are happy with the performance so that is good! When I tried to pricescope your diamond prices it looked like general prices for EGL in that size/clarity were running in the low to mid 4K range. If you want to try it yourself you can go to the top of the page under pricescope your diamond and after you run it, you need to go to the bottom of the page again and under lab select ''other'' (leave GIA and AGS blank) and run it again to filter out the gia/ags stones - that should give you the comparables for what EGL is running - it doesn''t differentiate bet egl usa and egl elsewhere but can at least give you an idea.

 

[UCLABelle]

On paper the diamond seems fine, but I would take even the world''s best diamond to a 2nd appraiser. Your local jeweler could probably do one for you...

 

[crober51]

Well it seems as though I could have saved at least a couple hundred dollars had I been willing to go through USA certed. However there is something to be said about the customer service I recieved at the store, and although they were apparently less than forthright about how much the diamond cost them (claiming that they sold me the diamond at cost in order to get me to purchase the e-ring and wedding band as well, I still feel rather comfortable with the store. This is surprising to me as I would normally be irate about them lying to me, but they were incredibly patient with me as I went into the store almost every day for two weeks looking at different diamonds they brought in. I suppose from now on I''ll make my gemstone purchases online, but I''ll probably still purchase the jewelry from this store. Part of me feels taken advantage of, the other part of me is to weary from the weeks upon weeks of comparing and looking for a better bargain to even bother going in and making a stink about it. Combine it with them guaranteeing to replace the diamond if it falls out of the setting (obviously not if there are signs of abuse) and providing free resizing for life, as well as a full value towards upgrades in the future and I suppose I can be ok having paid a couple hundred dollars extra. Yes this paragraph has been me convincing myself I didn''t just get taken advantage of when in fact I did. Thanks for listening

 

[honey22]

Honestly, I am not suprised that they wouldn''t disclose their price to you, why should they? I am not trying to have a go at you, but I wouldn''t expect any business to tell me what they paid for something. It''s just not common practise.

One thing I can tell you for sure is that they didn''t sell it to you for the same or less than they paid. They are in business to make money, not lose it. It''s a common thing for jewellers to say so you think you are getting the deal of the year, but it''s simply not true. They would go out of business in a week.

There is one exception to this - if they overcharged you on the setting and wband, to make up their profit on the stone, they made their money somewhere.

 

[Lorelei]

The diamond scores 2.9 on the HCA, you could have found a better cut stone, but if you are happy with this one then that is the main thing. Which EGL is it?

 

[crober51]

Date: 9/18/2008 3:39:08 AM
Author: honey22
Honestly, I am not suprised that they wouldn''t disclose their price to you, why should they? I am not trying to have a go at you, but I wouldn''t expect any business to tell me what they paid for something. It''s just not common practise.


One thing I can tell you for sure is that they didn''t sell it to you for the same or less than they paid. They are in business to make money, not lose it. It''s a common thing for jewellers to say so you think you are getting the deal of the year, but it''s simply not true. They would go out of business in a week.


There is one exception to this - if they overcharged you on the setting and wband, to make up their profit on the stone, they made their money somewhere.

Yeah I''m not so much upset that they didn''t sell it to me at cost as I am upset that they made a big stink about how they were selling it to me at cost. Of course I expect a retail environment to need to make money, I just figured they were doing so by selling me the rings at retail. I suppose I am happy with the diamond, or at least my eyes were. And now I''m trying to satisfy my mind because I''m strange like that. I mean whats the point anyway? I suppose I could have saved some money, but as far as appearance goes I obviously couldn''t see a difference. My gf is even worse about it, when we were comparing the Hearts on Fire Diamonds vs some very average stones she confessed to me afterwards that she couldn''t see the difference. Oh well. Anyway, thanks so much for the input guys, from now on I will probably run purchases through here BEFORE I make a purchase.

 

[John P]

For the cut geeks

, based on the measurements the c/p angles are 33.2/41.4.

Regarding cost; the path diamond A takes to retailer X can be different than diamond B to retailer Z (or A to Z) so "costs" may be different, though the differences shouldn't be extraordinary. This store may also have added some margin to cover overhead, and while that's not selling it to you at "cost" they might have made little or no profit in their system. There's also the chance what they told you is just part of the sales plan. For future reference one of the best consumer price-comparison tools is the PS search engine.

If you are happy with the diamond and, more importantly I imagine, if she is happy there's no need to worry. What you report is not uncommon. Different levels of "cut perception" exist, just as we often hear of people who see more or less color & clarity. It's also something that is acquired over time. What you like and the priority you assign it - or any of the Cs - is a personal decision.

 

[sarah95]

Crober51, I''m glad you were satisfied with your experience. I''m just adding to this post because I recently purchased a diamond from USA Certed and while I admit I was nervous throughout the process (especially transferring $ via wire to Canada), Martin couldn''t have been more accomodating and understanding. I had a very smooth transaction and got a great diamond for an amazing price.

 

[crober51]

Date: 9/18/2008 4:25:25 AM
Author: Lorelei
The diamond scores 2.9 on the HCA, you could have found a better cut stone, but if you are happy with this one then that is the main thing. Which EGL is it?

Sorry it took so long for me to reply to this, I'm not certain which EGL it is. I'm fairly sure it isn't EGL USA because I don't see anything on the cert that says USA. I'm also pretty sure it isn't EGL Israel. The cert simply says EGL. Is there an easy way to find out where it's from? I know it probably doesn't matter all that much if it isn't USA but I am curious.

Oh and I want to thank everyone who gave their opinion it helped a lot. I ended up going back in and giving them hell about it, but in the end I looked at my diamond and compared it to other diamonds graded by GIA and AGS, and compared it to "better cut" stones with higher specs (Obviously at significantly higher prices) and my eyes had difficulty finding a difference. So I ended up settling with the stone and realizing that I wasn't going to be able to find a stone that made all my neuroses go away in my price range so I decided the best thing for my mental health was to just get it done with