Hi All,
Thanks to a previous poster, and armed with my idealscope and loupe, my husband and I went to the LA Jewelry mart to look for an engagement ring for my nephew. He had previously gone to see a ''Leo'' cut damond at the mall, and for the stone only, .75 ct, I color, SI1 clarity, he was quoted $4500!!
Well, I just had to get involved. I found a great .80 ct stone G color, VS2 clarity on ADOL, but then he decided that he wanted to go at least a carat for a very small budget. We decided to have me look for an H color, SI1 or SI2. Needless to say, with that in mind, I would have to see these with my own eyes to see if they were really eye-clean.
We went to several diamond dealers that had a nice selection, but a lot either had EGL certs (which amazingly enough, they couldn''t say enough bad things about!) Apparently all reported a one to 3 color or clarity issue with their grading. I noticed that the ones I was looking at, the clarity seemed right on, but the color was off quite a bit in most cases. That did it for me!
From that point on, we only looked at GIA certed stones. I did see one K color, VS1 stone that absolutely knocked my socks off, I still think that GIA had a bad day and misgraded the color, it looked so white. The explanation from the dealer was an extra fine cut. My idealscope confirmed that. I just couldn''t see getting the stone ($3000), since it was such a grading issue and we had no time to see if my nephew would feel comfortable with that, so we passed.
Eventually, we realized that a great cut in an SI1 was more than his budget ($3700 including a setting) would allow. We found very nice stones for about $3800 to $4000, but those were about 1.08 ct. So, by then my husband was getting a bit tired after seeing me reject one stone after another - poor dear, I owe him one!
We decided to see Oscar at Oscar''s Design Jewelry at 550 S Hill, Suite 725. Oscar is great, patient and very accomodating. He had such a beautiful stone, but at $3995, just more than we could pay. He called around and found two SI2''s for me to look at. They both had VG symmetry and G polish. The one stone with less loupe-visible flaws looked very nice under the idealscope, saw nice little arrows and a lot of pink. They were both completely eye-clean stones, so we ended up getting the one that I liked best. As an additional bonus, it has a laser inscribed girdle with the GIA cert (by GIA). Very sparkly stone.
The stone''s specs are as follows: H color, SI2 clarity, 1.07 ct, 6.53 x 6.56 x 4.07, 62.2 D, 57 T, Girdle Thin to Slightly Thick faceted, culet none, flo none, polish Good, Symmetry Very Good. We paid $3525 and no tax, since it was getting shipped out of state. We also picked out a nicer white gold setting with channel set small diamonds. The total with shipping and a Credit card %charge came out to be $3850. We went ahead and ''subsidized'' the total since it was $150 over my nephews max that he had wanted to spend.
We stayed to check to setting work (Oscar has an in-house setter, so that was nice - a lot of the diamond dealers/jewelers do not, they have a common group of setters that they use). The setting work was great, he took his time to make sure it looked good. Then we double-checked the inscription in the microscope, and watched as it got Fedexed for today''s delivery. I can''t wait to hear from my nephew! He is going to be blinded!
Kudos to Oscar, very low pressure, professional, I highly recommend his services. He does custom work as well, as their was a couple there that was having a designer ring copied, but with a twist.
Sorry this was so lengthy, but I know that details are important to new shoppers.
Thanks to a previous poster, and armed with my idealscope and loupe, my husband and I went to the LA Jewelry mart to look for an engagement ring for my nephew. He had previously gone to see a ''Leo'' cut damond at the mall, and for the stone only, .75 ct, I color, SI1 clarity, he was quoted $4500!!
Well, I just had to get involved. I found a great .80 ct stone G color, VS2 clarity on ADOL, but then he decided that he wanted to go at least a carat for a very small budget. We decided to have me look for an H color, SI1 or SI2. Needless to say, with that in mind, I would have to see these with my own eyes to see if they were really eye-clean.
We went to several diamond dealers that had a nice selection, but a lot either had EGL certs (which amazingly enough, they couldn''t say enough bad things about!) Apparently all reported a one to 3 color or clarity issue with their grading. I noticed that the ones I was looking at, the clarity seemed right on, but the color was off quite a bit in most cases. That did it for me!
From that point on, we only looked at GIA certed stones. I did see one K color, VS1 stone that absolutely knocked my socks off, I still think that GIA had a bad day and misgraded the color, it looked so white. The explanation from the dealer was an extra fine cut. My idealscope confirmed that. I just couldn''t see getting the stone ($3000), since it was such a grading issue and we had no time to see if my nephew would feel comfortable with that, so we passed.
Eventually, we realized that a great cut in an SI1 was more than his budget ($3700 including a setting) would allow. We found very nice stones for about $3800 to $4000, but those were about 1.08 ct. So, by then my husband was getting a bit tired after seeing me reject one stone after another - poor dear, I owe him one!
We decided to see Oscar at Oscar''s Design Jewelry at 550 S Hill, Suite 725. Oscar is great, patient and very accomodating. He had such a beautiful stone, but at $3995, just more than we could pay. He called around and found two SI2''s for me to look at. They both had VG symmetry and G polish. The one stone with less loupe-visible flaws looked very nice under the idealscope, saw nice little arrows and a lot of pink. They were both completely eye-clean stones, so we ended up getting the one that I liked best. As an additional bonus, it has a laser inscribed girdle with the GIA cert (by GIA). Very sparkly stone.
The stone''s specs are as follows: H color, SI2 clarity, 1.07 ct, 6.53 x 6.56 x 4.07, 62.2 D, 57 T, Girdle Thin to Slightly Thick faceted, culet none, flo none, polish Good, Symmetry Very Good. We paid $3525 and no tax, since it was getting shipped out of state. We also picked out a nicer white gold setting with channel set small diamonds. The total with shipping and a Credit card %charge came out to be $3850. We went ahead and ''subsidized'' the total since it was $150 over my nephews max that he had wanted to spend.
We stayed to check to setting work (Oscar has an in-house setter, so that was nice - a lot of the diamond dealers/jewelers do not, they have a common group of setters that they use). The setting work was great, he took his time to make sure it looked good. Then we double-checked the inscription in the microscope, and watched as it got Fedexed for today''s delivery. I can''t wait to hear from my nephew! He is going to be blinded!
Kudos to Oscar, very low pressure, professional, I highly recommend his services. He does custom work as well, as their was a couple there that was having a designer ring copied, but with a twist.
Sorry this was so lengthy, but I know that details are important to new shoppers.
300x240.png)