GIA Excellent Symmetry - has the standard dropped?

[Dancing Fire]

Seriously- IMO it was never an accurate statement that "SI1 is always eye clean". It's the nature, size and number of imperfections, as opposed to their visibility- and IMO it's always been that way.
I might agree that grading overall has gotten a bit softer, because my memory is so darn....what was I saying?

If you are over 60 SI1s always look "eye clean" and when you hit 65 so are the I1s..

 

[OoohShiny]

If you are over 60 SI1s always look "eye clean" and when you hit 65 so are the I1s..

Say, your Octavia is VS2, isn't it?

And you're an 'older chap'?

That's just a waste, you should send it my way so I can appreciate it

 

[pyramid]

No, I just found that I could see any SI1 after I had focused on it before hand with a loupe and knew where to look, the lighting was behind me too which made it easier to see. I ofcourse believed what was written on the internet, from free information, so thought it was my stone. I have seen worse stones now that are VS. Think I had good close up vision then which I don't have so much now. However, it has made me only choose VS. Except, I bought a half carat stone recently which was princess cut in a very unusual and which I loved setting from a chain store and it is an SI2 G according to the IGI grading report card. And i love it. Expensive for what it was, but not as expensive as buying VS1 and then going up in size once I got too much into diamonds and started looking for the best and keeping up with carat size on the forum is. Being British though we do tend to focus more on unusual ring settings and more unique settings rather than carat size so maybe that is the appeal I am going back to now.

I know we criticise chain/mall stores here, but some of the local jewellers just seem to have dull stones in comparison due to low colour and more frequently low cut. The chain stores sometimes do better with cut. The information here is great if you know what you want but you can easily make mistakes in your budget more by being here and not sticking to it, more so than buying overpriced from a mall store, I suppose if buying a 2 carat plus from chain stores then it is maybe just the same thing.

 

[bmfang]

I know we criticise chain/mall stores here, but some of the local jewellers just seem to have dull stones in comparison due to low colour and more frequently low cut. The chain stores sometimes do better with cut. The information here is great if you know what you want but you can easily make mistakes in your budget more by being here and not sticking to it, more so than buying overpriced from a mall store, I suppose if buying a 2 carat plus from chain stores then it is maybe just the same thing.

Must be a different situation over in the UK compared to here on the other side of the world (ie Australia). The mall/chain stores frequently have stones that are low colour, clarity and cut but try to say that these are the best in the market.

A week ago while window shopping, I had a salesperson at a low end mall chain try to tell me that an EGL International graded M SI3 with a Good cut grading (around the 1ct mark) was “good value” at A$7.5k in a simple 4 prong 14kt WG solitaire setting and one of the best stones available in the market (I had to stifle my laughter). She then said that she could discount the whole ring down to A$6k if I were to buy it then and there. It was an absolute dog of a stone. I politely declined and walked off briskly to find my wife.

The independent local jewellers I have dealt with frequently have better cut, colour and clarity stones than the mall/chain stores and are more competitively prices (not as cheap as buying online from a PS community recommended vendor, but cheaper than mall/chain prices).