Hi guys, I wanted to get a running discussion on the current landscape of EGL vs GIA certified diamonds.
So I went into the jewelers a few days ago and absolutely fell in love with one of the diamonds. The jeweler started by showing me GIA diamonds which were expensive but looked great. Out of no where the owner of the jewelry shop brought out additional diamonds that weren't encased but in an envelop, at the time I wasn't aware that these were EGL diamonds, but I could really tell that it was an excellent cut diamond that had quite the sparkle to it and was bigger than I thought I could afford. I fell in love with it and started to haggle with them and got them down to my budget but it wasn't until I started paying that they busted out the pamphlets showed me an EGL certification for the diamond.
This alone caught me off guard, thinking all the diamonds they had were just GIA.I was price matching with rarecarat and felt that I had a great deal thinking that they were GIA certified, plus the diamond alone passed my eye test. So I decided to just put down a deposit (fully refundable) and decided to do some research.
The research I found was ASTONISHING, I've heard horror stories about the color grading having up to 6 levels of difference. I quickly complained to the owner about not letting me know the difference between EGL vs GIA in the beginning and that I would like to put my order on hold and come back in tomorrow to discuss further. They're nice people but I felt this was a big deal breaker for me, it's a HUGEEEE factor that should be noted prior to purchasing. They apologized for the 'miscommunication' and sent me a comparison between my current diamond vs EGL/GIA but I believe they aren't showing fair comparisons, just playing the price game. Here's a screenshot of what they sent me:
1. 1.71 ct I VS1 EGL $10,500 including the ring
2. 1.90 ct H/SI2 EGL $13,000 (diamond only)
3. 1.50 ct G/SI2 GIA $10,500 (diamond only)
4. 1.50 ct I/SI1 GIA $10,000 (diamond only)
At this point I feel that the trust factor is out the window, I definitely feel that they pulled a bait and switch on me. I'm wondering if it's worth using that to negotiate a better price for a diamond or just dumping them altogether. I guess I'm also interested in seeing the diamonds in person (they had a very large selection) and I believe I might just purchase a diamond online at this rate.
My question now is, when I go into the store tomorrow what's a good way to compare EGL vs GIA diamonds? I'm thinking of looking for a lower color quality GIA diamond vs the current diamond I have right now. With my current budget I can get a 1.7 J/VVS2 @ $8.9K online which would be a little bit over my budget but better clarity and GIA certified. Unfortunately rarecarat doesn't have other EGL diamonds within their searches so I'm not able to aggregate a price range. Any advice would be awesome and going about the differences of these certifications!
Thanks guys
So I went into the jewelers a few days ago and absolutely fell in love with one of the diamonds. The jeweler started by showing me GIA diamonds which were expensive but looked great. Out of no where the owner of the jewelry shop brought out additional diamonds that weren't encased but in an envelop, at the time I wasn't aware that these were EGL diamonds, but I could really tell that it was an excellent cut diamond that had quite the sparkle to it and was bigger than I thought I could afford. I fell in love with it and started to haggle with them and got them down to my budget but it wasn't until I started paying that they busted out the pamphlets showed me an EGL certification for the diamond.
This alone caught me off guard, thinking all the diamonds they had were just GIA.I was price matching with rarecarat and felt that I had a great deal thinking that they were GIA certified, plus the diamond alone passed my eye test. So I decided to just put down a deposit (fully refundable) and decided to do some research.
The research I found was ASTONISHING, I've heard horror stories about the color grading having up to 6 levels of difference. I quickly complained to the owner about not letting me know the difference between EGL vs GIA in the beginning and that I would like to put my order on hold and come back in tomorrow to discuss further. They're nice people but I felt this was a big deal breaker for me, it's a HUGEEEE factor that should be noted prior to purchasing. They apologized for the 'miscommunication' and sent me a comparison between my current diamond vs EGL/GIA but I believe they aren't showing fair comparisons, just playing the price game. Here's a screenshot of what they sent me:
1. 1.71 ct I VS1 EGL $10,500 including the ring
2. 1.90 ct H/SI2 EGL $13,000 (diamond only)
3. 1.50 ct G/SI2 GIA $10,500 (diamond only)
4. 1.50 ct I/SI1 GIA $10,000 (diamond only)
At this point I feel that the trust factor is out the window, I definitely feel that they pulled a bait and switch on me. I'm wondering if it's worth using that to negotiate a better price for a diamond or just dumping them altogether. I guess I'm also interested in seeing the diamonds in person (they had a very large selection) and I believe I might just purchase a diamond online at this rate.
My question now is, when I go into the store tomorrow what's a good way to compare EGL vs GIA diamonds? I'm thinking of looking for a lower color quality GIA diamond vs the current diamond I have right now. With my current budget I can get a 1.7 J/VVS2 @ $8.9K online which would be a little bit over my budget but better clarity and GIA certified. Unfortunately rarecarat doesn't have other EGL diamonds within their searches so I'm not able to aggregate a price range. Any advice would be awesome and going about the differences of these certifications!
Thanks guys