EGL USA vs GIA, AGS

[anitabee]

just a little pet peeve of mine...

so many people here give advice about egl usa that goes along these lines:

"egl usa is usually less stringent with their grading, not as strict as gia and ags. i.e. an egl usa si1 is often a gia si2."

according to the grading lab survey done here by pricescope (click on "knowledge" and then down to "grading lab survey") that is NOT the case. YES, they're known to grade color softer BUT NOT CLARITY. in fact, in some cases egl usa's clarity grading is actually stricter!

i just so happen to own an egl usa graded princess and have had different jewellers look at it in addition to having it plotted. each and every time they guess that it's a vs. i always surprise them when i tell them it was graded si1.

i don't want to open a 15-page debate about the merits of ags & gia over egl usa. i get it. it's preferable to have a report from them. what really irks me, though, is when people give false information to others trying to assess an egl usa stone. and YES there is a difference between egl and egl usa. when talking about egl usa INCLUDE the usa after the egl because they're definitely not the same.

wheww. rant over.

 

[Rockdiamond]

The survey done here was so limited so as to be useless- especially when it comes to advising consumers. IN a far broader sense, EGL grading is NOT accepted by the trade to set prices- and GIA grading is used to set prices.
The main point is that there's a lot of deception going on out there- that being sellers who know they are selling misgraded stones.

If a seller is clear about the fact that EGL is not taken seriously in the trade, and assesses the diamond, it can be just fine buying a stone with an EGL report.
But most of what goes on in stores, and online is that unsuspecting shoppers are led to believe they're getting a bargain based on false grading.
I feel this information can't be repeated often enough

That said, you do bring up a good point- EGL USA is better than some of the other EGL's- and it's not correct to say a diamond is "bad" simply due it's having an EGL report ( like yours)

BTW, If people are guessing the grade of your stone, and it's in a ring, that invalidates the guesses...

 

[denverappraiser]

You don't hear that often coming from the trade people. Actually, that wouild be an endorsement of EGL-USA. The problem is that sometimes EGL-SI1=GIA-SI2 but sometimes it's SI1 or even I1. There's no reasonable way to translate from one system to the other so the often used habit of 'discounting' EGL grades and assuming that you've arrived at a comparable GIA grade without looking at the stone simply doesn't work. You simply cannot reasonably convert from one to the other. GIA doesn't make beautiful stones beautiful but it does provide a useful set of grading benchmarks for people who are trying to compare one stone against another. It's not a perfect system to be sure, but it does perform a useful service and for most consumer purposes, EGL-USA documents are not sufficient as a substitute. Actually, for most people, neither is AGSL. They have a loyal following here and with certain specialty stores but their market penetration in the lab business is so low as to make them barely relevent in the 'mass' market.

 

[Rockdiamond]

You don't hear that often coming from the trade people. Actually, that wouild be an endorsement of EGL-USA. The problem is that sometimes EGL-SI1=GIA-SI2 but sometimes it's SI1 or even I1. There's no reasonable way to translate from one system to the other so the often used habit of 'discounting' EGL grades and assuming that you've arrived at a comparable GIA grade without looking at the stone simply doesn't work. You simply cannot reasonably convert from one to the other. GIA doesn't make beautiful stones beautiful but it does provide a useful set of grading benchmarks for people who are trying to compare one stone against another. It's not a perfect system to be sure, but it does perform a useful service and for most consumer purposes, EGL-USA documents are not sufficient as a substitute. Actually, for most people, neither is AGSL. They have a loyal following here and with certain specialty stores but their market penetration in the lab business is so low as to make them barely relevent in the 'mass' market.

I agree wholeheartedly with the jist of your post, but I was curious as to which part you meant Neil- just for clarification.

In terms of the different EGL labs, I have noticed that the EGL-USA lab is a lot better than some of the other ones. Not to the extent that I'd ever recommended using them, but I've never seen them issue grades that are as far from reality as some of the other EGL's

Again to stress- there's no "formula" by which to asses a true grade using EGL. Any EGL.

 

[denverappraiser]

Here's what I was responding to.

just a little pet peeve of mine...

so many people here give advice about egl usa that goes along these lines:

"egl usa is usually less stringent with their grading, not as strict as gia and ags. i.e. an egl usa si1 is often a gia si2."

EGL-USA is a very agreeable company to work with, they have some worlds finest gemologists on staff, and they are some very capable folks. I would add that they outsell me by a factor of 1000 so they are obviously doing something right. They are unapologetic about the fact that what they are providing is paperwork, packaging and materials that are useful for the selling of diamonds. This is NOT what GIA is providing, or at least it's not what they claim they are providing. They are offering opinions for the benefit of people who are buying diamonds. In my opinion, this difference is of tremendous importance even though it is a bit slippery when it comes down to the details. Nearly every attribute of diamond grading is a matter of opinion and so the question of whose opinion it is is of supreme importance if a buyer (or seller) is going to rely on it. In the eyes of the marketplace, a diamond is an SI1 (or whatever) if GIA says it's an SI1. This includes stones that other gemologists, and perhaps even GIA under different circumstances, would call something else. It's SI1 now, and it will remain such until GIA calls it something different. This is a tremendously powerful position for the folks at GIA and there is simply no other lab that comes close to that in terms of market credibility. As a buyer, especially a buyer who is trying to buy a stone 'blind', that credibility is everything. I can't recall ever meeting a customer who had a preference for an opinion by EGL-USA over one by GIA. Those who buy stones based on their reports are either doing so because they don't understand the question, because they believe that the labs are interchangeable and that it therefore doesn't matter, or they believe that it is possible to convert using some formula like the one suggested in the first post and that this can lead to a bargain. Although I can't recall any consumers who prefer them to GIA, I know tons of dealers who do. In fact, most do. That's why they're so successful. Since the selection of the lab is nearly always done by a dealer, the question consumers should be asking is why they made the choice they did.