Experts, you''re opinion please

[insearchofastone]

Would any of you recommend buying from BlueNile or any other on line store?

 

[Laila619]

Date: 12/2/2009 9:12:51 AM
Author: insearchofastone
Would any of you recommend buying from BlueNile or any other on line store?

Blue Nile does have some nice diamonds, sure. You have to hunt a bit. But they also do not provide Idealscope images. You can also try www.jamesallen.com or www.goodoldgold.com or www.whiteflash.com or www.exceldiamonds.com .

 

[insearchofastone]

Here is a picture of the diamond in question

 

[FB.]

As you can see, the centre of the stone is quite dark.
Additionally, the arrows have morphed into paddles - suggesting obstruction.

But if you like that look, then who are we to tell you otherwise?

 

[insearchofastone]

ok. i guess I''ll pass and keep looking. do you recommend buying from Bluenile.com?

 

[FB.]

BN are a good company.
But they are generally unable to provide more information, other than answers to basic questions such as "is it eye clean". As far as I know, they don't offer images.
But their prices are good and so is returns policy.

If buying "blind", I would suggest tightening up your acceptable specifications, so as to make sure that "borderline" stones don't disappoint you (e.g. be careful with a stone that sits at the edge of the "sweet spot" 41.0 for example> or eye clean SI2 clarity and so on).
I would hazard a guess that the best of the stones that sit on the edge of sweet spots have been bought by jewellers for their "in house" inventory. I would assume that all stones on online lists that are on the edge of a sweet spot are the not-so-good one's. I also suspect that a higher proportion of online SI2 stones are not eye clean because many jewellers have picked the best for their own stocks.

 

[Dreamer_D]

Date: 12/2/2009 12:24:23 PM
Author: insearchofastone
ok. i guess I''ll pass and keep looking. do you recommend buying from Bluenile.com?

They are a very good company with good prices and an excellent return policy. However, they do not have the diamonds they sell in their hands, which means they do not provide pictures or other assessment tools. But they do have a 30 day return policy so many people have successfully bought diamonds based on the numbers (we can help you) and then had the diamond shipped to them to personally inspect or to an independent appraiser (*not* a jeweler, a real appraiser). If the diamond was not to their satisfaction they simply returned it.

Laila provided some links to other online vendors who are HIGHLY recommended on PS:

www.goodoldgold.com
www.whiteflash.com
www.jamesallen.com

Are three whom I would not hesitate to recommend based on reviews on PS.

 

[Dreamer_D]

Date: 12/2/2009 12:45:37 PM
Author: FB.
BN are a good company.
But they are generally unable to provide more information, other than answers to basic questions such as ''is it eye clean''. As far as I know, they don''t offer images.
But their prices are good and so is returns policy.

If buying ''blind'', I would suggest tightening up your acceptable specifications, so as to make sure that ''borderline'' stones don''t disappoint you (e.g. be careful with a stone that sits at the edge of the ''sweet spot'' <35.0/41.0 for example> or eye clean SI2 clarity and so on).
I would hazard a guess that the best of the stones that sit on the edge of sweet spots have been bought by jewellers for their ''in house'' inventory. I would assume that all stones on online lists that are on the edge of a sweet spot are the not-so-good one''s. I also suspect that a higher proportion of online SI2 stones are not eye clean because many jewellers have picked the best for their own stocks.

FB as an aside, I was just reading about this in the PS archives and it is not the case that virtual diamonds are worse than in house diamonds, or are leftovers. Apparently the online market represents less than 10% of the market, and many B&M jewelers do not carry a large in house inventoy, so the majority of diamonds out there are owned by large warehouse/cutter companies (not clean on the specifics here) that send the diamonds out of spec to B&M jewelers. Most PS vendors buy only from 1 or 2 sources (e.g. WF has a cutting house in antwerp whom they use exclusively). So virtual diamonds are no better or worse than online in house stock, they are simply different.

Here is the thread: https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/virtual-diamonds-lesser-quality-than-in-house.53115/