bem3231
Brilliant_Rock
- Joined
- Aug 28, 2007
- Messages
- 646
Hello Pricescopers...
I’ve been posting periodically about our search for ‘the diamond’. This has been a pretty intensive experience lately, and I wanted to post some of what we’ve been through. Specifically, I wanted to chronicle some of our experiences dealing with Jonathan and Good Old Gold.
I have had the unique experience of working with Jonathan (and some of his staff) online via e-mail, but I have also been fortunate, despite living in western Canada, to have paid him two site visits at Good Old Gold over the past two weeks to see in person stones that we had been discussing / had seen in videos / had been considering online.
Jumping ahead some, we think that we’ve now found ‘it’ – a 2.68 FVS2 ideal cut RB! More on that later.
I sent my first e-mail to Good Old Gold sometime in early November. At that time I was still considering a Tacori setting, and the fact that GOG carries both Tacori and has an excellent online reputation for stones drove me to enquire. My first inquiry was to Marie regarding the Tacori setting that I was interested in. She was prompt with her replies and always went out of her way to provide all of the information needed to answer my many questions, sending attached photos where necessary to describe detailed design elements. When I began to enquire about center stones, she directed me to Jonathan.
To say the very least, Jonathan has been absolutely amazing. He has gone out of his way to answer all of our questions (and believe me, there have been many!). Although I had been looking at stones online for a while, I had not had the experience of seeing any in person. Also, I began to consider Leon Mege to do the setting for us. When I had a business trip to eastern Canada two weeks ago my boyfriend and I decided that it would be worthwhile to do a side trip to New York in order to visit GOG, meet Jonathan, and see some stones in person. I also met with Leon on that trip, but that’s the subject of another post (he, too, is great).
Jonathan had two stones that he suggested I look at – a 2.52 GVS2 and a 2.36 ISI1 H&A. He also brought in a 3.01 FSI2 Eighternity that I had been inquiring about. When I met him at GOG he first took me through a pretty extensive tutorial. Although I had ‘done my homework’ beforehand, reading as much as I could about the vagaries of diamonds and also the technologies used to grade them, his explanations were simple, informed, and enlightening, especially given the fact that we had various stones and various technologies at our fingertips for demonstration purposes. He also provided a demonstration of an H&A ideal, an Eighternity, a Solasfera, and a Star 129 in the diamond dock in order to demonstrate the differences and nuances in light performance between them all.
We then turned to a consideration of the three stones that I had come to look at. Long story short, they were all beautiful, but I was especially struck by the Eighternity. I wanted to come home and discuss all of what I saw with my boyfriend. Jonathan offered to make a video comparing the three stones (which is now posted on the GOG website if anyone’s interested). I cannot stress enough what a great tool this was in order to be able to revisit at home what I saw in person, and also in order to try to convey that to the other half of this purchase decision!
While I was very taken with the Eighternity, I still was not totally certain that that was ‘it’. Jonathan researched all of the available stones that met our ‘ideal’ criteria (2.6 – 3.1, F-G, VS2-SI1) and sent me a list. He then asked us to choose five stones which he would call the suppliers to get more research on in order to make a recommendation. He recommended two – a 2.68FVS2 and a 3.00GSI1. My boyfriend and I were anxious to make this decision, and did not want the process to drag on over the holidays or until such time as some of the stones that we were considering were sold to others, therefore putting us back at square one. After some deliberations, we decided that it would be worthwhile for me to make a special trip back to GOG in order to see the two ‘new’ stones, compare them with the Eighternity, and ultimately make a choice!
I was back at GOG on Thursday, and again, Jonathan was great. He spent time with me looking ‘under the hood’ of the two new stones, and then we compared them in the diamond dock and in different lighting conditions. All three were exceptionally beautiful, although my heart is now set on the 2.68FVS2. If anyone has watched Jonathan’s video tutorial on the nature of scintillation (which I would highly recommend), the 2.68 has percentages similar to the last of the three ideal cut RB’s featured on the video. It has lots of pinpoint sparkles reminiscent of the Eighternity, however it retains the ‘classic’ look of the 57 facet RB. I will attach a photo or two.
Before I leave the topic of GOG’s video technology, I would like to add that in my experience this is a unique and extremely valuable tool that GOG offers. I don’t believe that there are any other online retailers who offer video tutorials or the option of video comparisons.
I used these videos in two applications. The first is the video that Jonathan made for my boyfriend and I in order to compare the first three stones. This really helped me describe to my boyfriend what my eyes had seen at GOG. If I were making a diamond purchase sight unseen, this would have been all the more valuable as a resource.
The second way that GOG’s video technology was extremely helpful to me was using the tutorials to ‘prime’ me for seeing stones in person. The more videos that I watched, the more I began to understand exactly what brightness, contrast, scintillation, etc. mean. By the time of my second visit to GOG, I noticed a significant difference in terms of how well my eyes had been ‘trained’ to pick up performance details of different stones. On my first visit, Jonathan took the lead in pointing out what I should be noticing and paying attention to. By my second visit, I wanted to look first, tell Jonathan what I was noticing, and then get his feedback to confirm it. It was cool to see that I was ‘learning the ropes’ and that my eyes were beginning to tune in to such details!
Apologies for the excessively long post, however I know from our experience how overwhelming a diamond purchase can be for the uninitiated, and I wanted to share some of my experiences with GOG and their video technologies, and try to convey how they went out of their way to make this purchase a fun and exciting one. Thanks for reading! I’ll attach a photo of the 2.68 FVS2 which I hope will soon be mine!
Happy Holidays!
I’ve been posting periodically about our search for ‘the diamond’. This has been a pretty intensive experience lately, and I wanted to post some of what we’ve been through. Specifically, I wanted to chronicle some of our experiences dealing with Jonathan and Good Old Gold.
I have had the unique experience of working with Jonathan (and some of his staff) online via e-mail, but I have also been fortunate, despite living in western Canada, to have paid him two site visits at Good Old Gold over the past two weeks to see in person stones that we had been discussing / had seen in videos / had been considering online.
Jumping ahead some, we think that we’ve now found ‘it’ – a 2.68 FVS2 ideal cut RB! More on that later.
I sent my first e-mail to Good Old Gold sometime in early November. At that time I was still considering a Tacori setting, and the fact that GOG carries both Tacori and has an excellent online reputation for stones drove me to enquire. My first inquiry was to Marie regarding the Tacori setting that I was interested in. She was prompt with her replies and always went out of her way to provide all of the information needed to answer my many questions, sending attached photos where necessary to describe detailed design elements. When I began to enquire about center stones, she directed me to Jonathan.
To say the very least, Jonathan has been absolutely amazing. He has gone out of his way to answer all of our questions (and believe me, there have been many!). Although I had been looking at stones online for a while, I had not had the experience of seeing any in person. Also, I began to consider Leon Mege to do the setting for us. When I had a business trip to eastern Canada two weeks ago my boyfriend and I decided that it would be worthwhile to do a side trip to New York in order to visit GOG, meet Jonathan, and see some stones in person. I also met with Leon on that trip, but that’s the subject of another post (he, too, is great).
Jonathan had two stones that he suggested I look at – a 2.52 GVS2 and a 2.36 ISI1 H&A. He also brought in a 3.01 FSI2 Eighternity that I had been inquiring about. When I met him at GOG he first took me through a pretty extensive tutorial. Although I had ‘done my homework’ beforehand, reading as much as I could about the vagaries of diamonds and also the technologies used to grade them, his explanations were simple, informed, and enlightening, especially given the fact that we had various stones and various technologies at our fingertips for demonstration purposes. He also provided a demonstration of an H&A ideal, an Eighternity, a Solasfera, and a Star 129 in the diamond dock in order to demonstrate the differences and nuances in light performance between them all.
We then turned to a consideration of the three stones that I had come to look at. Long story short, they were all beautiful, but I was especially struck by the Eighternity. I wanted to come home and discuss all of what I saw with my boyfriend. Jonathan offered to make a video comparing the three stones (which is now posted on the GOG website if anyone’s interested). I cannot stress enough what a great tool this was in order to be able to revisit at home what I saw in person, and also in order to try to convey that to the other half of this purchase decision!
While I was very taken with the Eighternity, I still was not totally certain that that was ‘it’. Jonathan researched all of the available stones that met our ‘ideal’ criteria (2.6 – 3.1, F-G, VS2-SI1) and sent me a list. He then asked us to choose five stones which he would call the suppliers to get more research on in order to make a recommendation. He recommended two – a 2.68FVS2 and a 3.00GSI1. My boyfriend and I were anxious to make this decision, and did not want the process to drag on over the holidays or until such time as some of the stones that we were considering were sold to others, therefore putting us back at square one. After some deliberations, we decided that it would be worthwhile for me to make a special trip back to GOG in order to see the two ‘new’ stones, compare them with the Eighternity, and ultimately make a choice!
I was back at GOG on Thursday, and again, Jonathan was great. He spent time with me looking ‘under the hood’ of the two new stones, and then we compared them in the diamond dock and in different lighting conditions. All three were exceptionally beautiful, although my heart is now set on the 2.68FVS2. If anyone has watched Jonathan’s video tutorial on the nature of scintillation (which I would highly recommend), the 2.68 has percentages similar to the last of the three ideal cut RB’s featured on the video. It has lots of pinpoint sparkles reminiscent of the Eighternity, however it retains the ‘classic’ look of the 57 facet RB. I will attach a photo or two.
Before I leave the topic of GOG’s video technology, I would like to add that in my experience this is a unique and extremely valuable tool that GOG offers. I don’t believe that there are any other online retailers who offer video tutorials or the option of video comparisons.
I used these videos in two applications. The first is the video that Jonathan made for my boyfriend and I in order to compare the first three stones. This really helped me describe to my boyfriend what my eyes had seen at GOG. If I were making a diamond purchase sight unseen, this would have been all the more valuable as a resource.
The second way that GOG’s video technology was extremely helpful to me was using the tutorials to ‘prime’ me for seeing stones in person. The more videos that I watched, the more I began to understand exactly what brightness, contrast, scintillation, etc. mean. By the time of my second visit to GOG, I noticed a significant difference in terms of how well my eyes had been ‘trained’ to pick up performance details of different stones. On my first visit, Jonathan took the lead in pointing out what I should be noticing and paying attention to. By my second visit, I wanted to look first, tell Jonathan what I was noticing, and then get his feedback to confirm it. It was cool to see that I was ‘learning the ropes’ and that my eyes were beginning to tune in to such details!
Apologies for the excessively long post, however I know from our experience how overwhelming a diamond purchase can be for the uninitiated, and I wanted to share some of my experiences with GOG and their video technologies, and try to convey how they went out of their way to make this purchase a fun and exciting one. Thanks for reading! I’ll attach a photo of the 2.68 FVS2 which I hope will soon be mine!
Happy Holidays!
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