Engagement ring center diamond help / advice. Thanks!

[Jhyphi]

Hi everyone!

I've been reading on this forum many times for when I bought some earrings for my gf a year ago and now while looking for an engagement ring.

I have the setting picked out and now looking for a center stone.

I found this gem on Bluenile and think that it seems pretty good and HCA of 1.3 (excellent on everything except very good on spread - slightly thick girdle)

http://www.gia.edu/cs/Satellite?pag...&c=Page&cid=1355954554547&reportno=7211864960
1.80 carat
E color
VVS2
Excellent cut (NOT BN's signature ideal)

Depth 62.3%
Table 56%
Crown angle 35.5%
Pavilion angle 40.6%
Girdle Medium to slightly thick 4.0%
Culet None

Here's an image:
http://www.pricescope.com/files/images/7211864960.jpg


So the girdle is slightly thicker than ideal and depth slightly higher than ideal but HCA says it's pretty good. Price is also quite good ~$26k (I can find it at a few other places online for essentially equal price, a few hundred cheaper)

Thoughts on buying this? Should I try calling one of the other guys like WF and see if they can get me an ASET/idealscope? Or go only for "Signature Ideal" from them?

Should I look for another diamond with thinner girdle?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you!

 

[SparklySoprano]

For that amount of money, I would not want to purchase a diamond without the ASET images. But, that's me. Also, consider upgrade policies, too. That could be worth something in the future, as well.

 

[Jhyphi]

Also, consider upgrade policies, too. That could be worth something in the future, as well.

Do you mean if I can upgrade in future? Like one brick and mortar store I went to has a 100% upgrade/tradein. I think online usually doesnt, correct? Is it common for people to want to upgrade/resell?

 

[grateful4life]

I just purchased my diamond from Whiteflash online and they have an upgrade policy and had images for all their diamonds. They were fantastic to work with as are many of the other vendors mentioned on Pricescope

 

[Fulvia]

Why are you going so high in colour and clarity? You can get a much bigger stone for 26K by going down to a G and VS2 (for instance) without making any real sacrifice to the way the stone looks to the naked eye.

 

[susief]

Blue Nile offers upgrades and will credit 100% of the original cost of your diamond, BUT the new diamond has to cost at least twice what the original did. Not a problem with a small diamond, but if your original costs 26 000 Most PS vendors offer upgrades that aren't as restrictive. Upgrading is a nice option to have - it's hard to know at the outset if you'll ever want to or not.

Have you asked BN if they can get you an Idealscope or ASET? They do offer this on some diamonds (not in their signature line) - they have a network of suppliers who hold the diamonds they sell, and it just depends what an individual supplier is prepared to offer. Worth asking for sure.

I love Blue Nile and have had great experiences with them, but I am in the UK so this limits my options for vendors. If you are in the US (not sure if you are or not), you definitely have more choice.

 

[Jhyphi]

Here are the aset and idealscopes. Anyone with more expertise can help me read them? Thanks!

It seems good?

ASET


Idealscope


Hearts


Arrows

 

[Jhyphi]

Looks good. Arrows and Hearts are typical of non HA diamonds. If the price is right, go for it.

What do you mean typical of non HA? As in, most diamonds even non-HA ones still show arrows and hearts?

I've looked at the Hearts and Arrows in these pics and they're not perfectly symmetrical with ideal H&A labeled ones but pretty close (given I'm not paying super premium price, I guess it's expected, haha). There's clefts in some of the hearts, some of the triangles are not symmetrical.

What about the ASET and idealscope? Are the light performance from these 2 images showing properly? I'm not fully sure how to read the green parts and the white parts in those 2 images. That are not fully red. I've heard ASET/Idealscope light return is extremely important to determine cut and brilliance.

Anyone know more about reading these properly?

Thanks!

Oh, and here's an actual image I was sent.

 

[Jhyphi]

Note that I did find a similar size diamond (1.80 carat) on WhiteFlash at 1 step lower color and clarity (F, VS1) for $1000 more that was rated ideal (H&A) cut by WF.

So that could possibly also be an option. Is extra $1k for ideal H&A compared to slightly non-ideal H&A, plus lower color and clarity?

Original

$25500
1.80, E, VVS2, non-ideal H&A (but excellent cut - see images above)
HCA 1.3



Whiteflash

$26500
1.80, F, VS1, H&A (WF top cut)
HCA 0.7

Of course the VS1 in the GIA cert looks to have more inclusions. So wondering which is better and if my original diamond with ASET/idealscope above is good.

 

[Jhyphi]

One other note:

I did go into a couple jewelry stores with the GF (incl. Tiffany's - purely for easy same setting / comparison across center stones) and she thinks 2.0 carat might be a bit too big. She was thinking 1.5 carat would be great and could possibly go slightly larger to the 1.75 but wouldn't go much bigger. Which is why I was going to go 1.8.

She is quite slender, finger size is only a 5. And planning on getting a tapered setting from 2.1 to 1.6mm (if any of this helps at all for imagining).

This is why I'm not quite looking at the 2's. Though maybe one of you could convince me otherwise. So I'm really optimizing what my gf most values which is "Shinnyness" (in her words) while still being big, rather than have it be too big which she worries about.

Unless one of you says I'm going about it wrong, haha.

 

[NICHLO]

By shiny, I can only assume she wants it to sparkle quite a bit. I think both of those will do the job but I would look closely at the second one you listed. If the inclusions are not visible to the naked eye, that could be the one. While E color is great, I dont think it's needed....the F will look white too.