Expert Advice Needed: AGS G vs GIA G

[diamondseeker2006]

Paul and John will both be in my store in January for the annual “Meet The Cutter” party I host and I will ask them to speak about this topic. I’m trying to contact Andrey to place a banner for this event in case any of you Pricescopers are within striking distance of St. Louis.(Hellooo Andrey!).

Yeeeehawww! CANNOT. WAIT.

Lucky YOU!!!!

 

[ame]

I have gone to I think every one they've had. I met Ellen at one, though she's not posting anymore

I enjoy the hell out of those!

 

[OCgirl]

I've been following the replies but didn't get a chance to post. Thank you all again for contributing to this post.

As a relatively newcomer to the diamond buying/admiring "group", I feel tremendously lucky that we settled on a Brian Gavin diamond before I even read up/joined PS. We went to the LA diamond district and saw quite a few GIA graded and EGL graded stones. I was not familiar with EGL graded stones at the time but for some reason I just did not like them (I was not aware of their inconsistent gradings). We almost bought a GIA 1.34 ct E VERY GOOD cut stone but could not agree with the jeweler on the price. I then came across BGD out of a random search on Google Looking back it's a huge relief that I did not purchase a very good cut stone. I believe the stone was cut too shallow.

With that said, the responses to this post also helped me realized (more than before) what I want as a consumer. This post is purely for my own learning/exploring as I will not be selling or trading my current stone since it holds much sentimental value. Therefore any gradings are for my own personal reference. We do, however, plan to "upgrade" (buy a new stone) in 3 - 5 years and I know my next big purchase will be:

-Cut: Excellent/Ideal, no compromise
-Clarity: I am totally fine with an eye-clean SI1 (I've even seen some eye-clean SI2's). I don't have mind clean issues. But I do want my stone to be eye-clean from 5 - 6 inches, not the typical 9 - 12 inches. I am not as sensitive when it comes to profile; eye-clean face up is fine.
-Color: This is what I learned most from this post. After going back to the jeweler and looking at my stone against more GIA graded E, F and G's, I can safely say it's most likely a G/H. Patrick Davis appraised my stone as a G/H against a GIA master set (he also graded blind without looking at the AGS set) so I feel comfortable with that. I am extremely color sensitive and even though I don't think I'll need an ICY white D or E, I think I much appreciate F or G colored stones. I realized it's a very personal choice and all of us here prefer different colors and/or are more color tolerant than others.

Thank you all again!