Well after an all day trip to local diamond and jewlery showrooms (NOT mall jewelers... been there and hated that), i'm pretty sold on my opinions. So, like most people with an opinion, i'm going to give you mine regardless of the fact that no one asked. I'm not even qualified, so you know this is going to be good...
Seriously though, i've learned alot here and think it's only fair to give back the product of that knowledge; the conclusions i've come to in my specific case of dealing with GOG vs. the rest of the world. If you're a pricescope guru, this probably won't impress you. I'm just an average guy talking to other average guys (or gals i suppose) who happen to come across this website wondering what to make of the whole (expensive) mess.
Like i said, my case involves Good Old Gold, a real shop in Long Island, New York, with real people who just happen to have extended their busisness onto the net. I've posted a thread or two questioning them and their prices on here, being the "procede with caution" guy that i am. Well here's the rest of the story.
1st is Good Old Gold vs. the mall jewlers. No real comparison here. It's just important to face the facts about mall jewelwers in general. The prices are higher than what they "should" be. In otherwords, value isn't good. We're not talking "bargin-basement"-type value, but just regular "i'm getting something good for a fair amount of money" value: it's just not there with mall jewelers, in general and in my experience. From the very high-end ones like T&Co. and BB&B which can give you good quality but at outrageous prices, to lower end ones (often owned by the same companies, BTW) which give you poor quality at higher than deserved prices. Either way, you're not striking a good balance. (Then there's always the crap at a crap price, but really, who want's that?) I felt it was my responsibility to visit each one in the name of "research" and always left either appaled at what i saw or dumber for having gone in in the 1st place. IMHO, unless you're a bargan hunter with a lot of luck and the skills to sniff out and be sure of a good find (i don't even know if those exist), mall jewlers are not worth the time or effort. Don't bother. Seriously.
GOG wins by default. It's like the other team didn't even show up.
2nd is Good Old Gold vs. the showrooms. I'm not sure what to call them exactly, but these are places that you might have heard commercials for on the radio. They are generally free standing building stores that have ONLY jewlery, ie. (and these might be local... i have no idea) Jarrod's or the Shane Co. If employees asked you if they could get you a cold beverage on the way in or offered you an umbrella to assist your walk out, you're probably in one of these stores. Visiting these was a much more pleasant experience, and if you're looking to learn, browse, or whatever, i highly suggest starting here rather than in the malls. It was my experience that in places like these, you start to see "get what you pay for" pricing. Pretty balanced and fair. You can look at set diamonds, loose diamonds, and talk with educated people one-on-one about them. I found that loups and even microscopes were not uncommon in these places (for looking closely at diamonds). But let's get serious... (and some of the guru's may chuckle here but so-be-it)... none of us (remember we're average guys and gals) are really going to be able to do much with those tools. Using the loupe, i couldn't tell the difference between a VVS1 and a VS2. You're still relying pretty heavily on the sales person to be upfront and honest, (which i DID find them to be, usually). They'll point out what you're supposed to be seeing as inclusions, and you'll go: "oh yeah... i see it now" whether you really do or not. There's nothing wrong with that, though. At some point in any diamond purchasing situation, you're putting some ammount of your trust in SOMEONE that they know better than you do, whether it's the appraiser or salespeople. So bottom line here is that these "showroom" jewlers can offer fair pricing and usually trustworthy information. You can browse loose diamonds, and get the whole experience at prices that seem to have a connection to what you're getting (unlike at the malls).
One interesting thing that i did notice at one of these places was a special "line" of diamonds that basically consisted of inferior colored diamonds with extra facets cut into them to make them refract more light, thus somehow making up for the lack of color quality. Along with all of these "special line" diamonds came a Gemex brilliance scope analysis, which is a way of putting this (very important) quality of "sparklyness" into numbers so one can more accuratly and objectivly compare one against another. None of the regular diamonds had this analysis, only the "special" novilty ones. I also noticed that this seemed to raise the price of the diamonds over 1000 in most cases (i'm not making this up) to comparable or even better colored diamonds of ~equal carat weight & specs without this analysis. Now that's not to say that the analysis itself was worth that amount, but presumably the "regular" diamonds without that analysis would have measured somewhere in the medium to low range on the refracted light scale, while the specialty cut ones measured in the "high" range, sometimes "very high". So it's both the fact that they a) did the analysis and b) it presumably proves it returns more light than the other (untested) diamonds, that warrants the (IMHO) HUGE price increase. Seriously, i was looking at sub- .7 carat diamonds in an I color, VSish clarity for upper 3000's. To me, these seemed to break the standard "get what you pay for" rule that was observed in most of the rest of the diamonds. But i digress... and promise i'm going somewhere with this.
Now look at what Good Old Gold (website) offers as standard: objective color, clarity, and cut information from multiple sources/methods (inhouse, megascope, sarin, GIA / AGS lab, etc.), a copy of the lab certificate, microsope images pointing out inclusions, imagescope analysis, and low and behold, the SAME Gemex brilliance scope amalysis on every diamond. That's right... they own the friggin' machine, as well as many other expensive toys for giving you all you ever wanted to know about your diamond. Overall, the most comprehensive package you'll find anywhere. You might be lucky enough to find bits and pieces of this info at other diamond stores, such as the brilliance scope analysis on the special line of diamonds i talked about previously, but at GOG they really throw the whole book at you for each and every diamond they carry. Information-wise, they're top dog. I seriously doubt anyone will dispute that. Now how about pricing? Well, i'd estimate that GOG's diamonds are say 15% more expensive than the average showroom diamond (quick math... say $400 more on diamonds priced in the low to mid 3000's). However, they're not seling you average diamonds. What they're selling you is more comparable to the special cut diamonds with the analysis showing better light return, only GOG's have that light return naturally (no special non-traditional cutting) and are not "color defficient" as most of that special line was. GOG provides that analysis (and others) on all diamonds as a standard, and due to good quality screening, most have very high brilliance scope readings that meet or often surpass that which we saw as average for the showroom's special diamonds. GOG offers a more comprehensive analysis/spec package for each and every diamond. And how about price? Well i found on average that GOG's prices were well under the prices seen with these special showroom diamonds. That puts the pricing on these quality, naturally cut well identified and spec'd diamonds somewhere between the showroom's average diamonds (low end) and their color defficient weirdly cut but sparkely ones (high end), which tells me you're paying a bit of money for that information, but not as much as you easily could be elsewhere. All in all, i left those showrooms feeling very confidant and happy about GOG's very fair prices. GOG's same diamonds with the same analysis and info would certainly cost a TON more money if they were at one of those stores, bottom line, end of story.
Ok, but how important is this "brillance scope" stuff? Well like i said before, it puts into numbers just how "sparkely" a diamond is. With diamonds, sparkle=beauty, so it's basically quantifying the beauty of each diamond. Aside from sheer size, i'd argue that that is the most important and immediatly noticable factor.
So it is my opinion that GOG wins it over even the best showroom stores, and by a margin much larger than i had expected. If these "salvaged" diamonds with half the analysis GOG offers were being sold for prices well above what GOG sells their normal superior quality diamonds at with a full information package, i can be pretty happy about buying from them rather than a showroom store.
One last comparison is GOG's diamonds vs. other internet sites'. I can't really do a fair comparison here, because most other internet vendors don't give you near the information regarding their diamonds that GOG does. You're basically brokering a diamond based off of whatever specs you're given without much other information or assurance that they're even accurate, which BTW GOG claims they are capable of doing (sell a diamond just looking at the raw specs on paper, no analysis) at similar or lower prices. In other words, you're getting what you pay for. If you're happy buying a diamond from specs on paper, other internet sites as well as GOG can do this for you with similar (i'm guessing) pricing. If you want more info than that, you're going to pay more for it, and IMHO no one brings it to you like GOG. After looking far and wide, i've realized that they're really not charging a big markup for their extra sorting and quality assessment/analysis. They actually do it for a decent price. Yes you pay for it, but not unjustly. I've seen stores charge more for less, and that makes me very confident in GOG's pricing. Their quality and information leaves no question as to who is top dog, and after many hours over many days of shopping, it's apparent that their pricing is good to boot.
That's just my opinion, based off of my experiences. I apologise for the legnth, but do hope it helps some people in general, and in specific regarding Good Old Gold. BTW, the people there are very approchable, so don't take my word for this stuff... call or e-mail them and see for your self. Thanks for reading... now excuse me while i go choke on a few-thousand-dollar's purchase
RS
Seriously though, i've learned alot here and think it's only fair to give back the product of that knowledge; the conclusions i've come to in my specific case of dealing with GOG vs. the rest of the world. If you're a pricescope guru, this probably won't impress you. I'm just an average guy talking to other average guys (or gals i suppose) who happen to come across this website wondering what to make of the whole (expensive) mess.
Like i said, my case involves Good Old Gold, a real shop in Long Island, New York, with real people who just happen to have extended their busisness onto the net. I've posted a thread or two questioning them and their prices on here, being the "procede with caution" guy that i am. Well here's the rest of the story.
1st is Good Old Gold vs. the mall jewlers. No real comparison here. It's just important to face the facts about mall jewelwers in general. The prices are higher than what they "should" be. In otherwords, value isn't good. We're not talking "bargin-basement"-type value, but just regular "i'm getting something good for a fair amount of money" value: it's just not there with mall jewelers, in general and in my experience. From the very high-end ones like T&Co. and BB&B which can give you good quality but at outrageous prices, to lower end ones (often owned by the same companies, BTW) which give you poor quality at higher than deserved prices. Either way, you're not striking a good balance. (Then there's always the crap at a crap price, but really, who want's that?) I felt it was my responsibility to visit each one in the name of "research" and always left either appaled at what i saw or dumber for having gone in in the 1st place. IMHO, unless you're a bargan hunter with a lot of luck and the skills to sniff out and be sure of a good find (i don't even know if those exist), mall jewlers are not worth the time or effort. Don't bother. Seriously.
GOG wins by default. It's like the other team didn't even show up.
2nd is Good Old Gold vs. the showrooms. I'm not sure what to call them exactly, but these are places that you might have heard commercials for on the radio. They are generally free standing building stores that have ONLY jewlery, ie. (and these might be local... i have no idea) Jarrod's or the Shane Co. If employees asked you if they could get you a cold beverage on the way in or offered you an umbrella to assist your walk out, you're probably in one of these stores. Visiting these was a much more pleasant experience, and if you're looking to learn, browse, or whatever, i highly suggest starting here rather than in the malls. It was my experience that in places like these, you start to see "get what you pay for" pricing. Pretty balanced and fair. You can look at set diamonds, loose diamonds, and talk with educated people one-on-one about them. I found that loups and even microscopes were not uncommon in these places (for looking closely at diamonds). But let's get serious... (and some of the guru's may chuckle here but so-be-it)... none of us (remember we're average guys and gals) are really going to be able to do much with those tools. Using the loupe, i couldn't tell the difference between a VVS1 and a VS2. You're still relying pretty heavily on the sales person to be upfront and honest, (which i DID find them to be, usually). They'll point out what you're supposed to be seeing as inclusions, and you'll go: "oh yeah... i see it now" whether you really do or not. There's nothing wrong with that, though. At some point in any diamond purchasing situation, you're putting some ammount of your trust in SOMEONE that they know better than you do, whether it's the appraiser or salespeople. So bottom line here is that these "showroom" jewlers can offer fair pricing and usually trustworthy information. You can browse loose diamonds, and get the whole experience at prices that seem to have a connection to what you're getting (unlike at the malls).
One interesting thing that i did notice at one of these places was a special "line" of diamonds that basically consisted of inferior colored diamonds with extra facets cut into them to make them refract more light, thus somehow making up for the lack of color quality. Along with all of these "special line" diamonds came a Gemex brilliance scope analysis, which is a way of putting this (very important) quality of "sparklyness" into numbers so one can more accuratly and objectivly compare one against another. None of the regular diamonds had this analysis, only the "special" novilty ones. I also noticed that this seemed to raise the price of the diamonds over 1000 in most cases (i'm not making this up) to comparable or even better colored diamonds of ~equal carat weight & specs without this analysis. Now that's not to say that the analysis itself was worth that amount, but presumably the "regular" diamonds without that analysis would have measured somewhere in the medium to low range on the refracted light scale, while the specialty cut ones measured in the "high" range, sometimes "very high". So it's both the fact that they a) did the analysis and b) it presumably proves it returns more light than the other (untested) diamonds, that warrants the (IMHO) HUGE price increase. Seriously, i was looking at sub- .7 carat diamonds in an I color, VSish clarity for upper 3000's. To me, these seemed to break the standard "get what you pay for" rule that was observed in most of the rest of the diamonds. But i digress... and promise i'm going somewhere with this.
Now look at what Good Old Gold (website) offers as standard: objective color, clarity, and cut information from multiple sources/methods (inhouse, megascope, sarin, GIA / AGS lab, etc.), a copy of the lab certificate, microsope images pointing out inclusions, imagescope analysis, and low and behold, the SAME Gemex brilliance scope amalysis on every diamond. That's right... they own the friggin' machine, as well as many other expensive toys for giving you all you ever wanted to know about your diamond. Overall, the most comprehensive package you'll find anywhere. You might be lucky enough to find bits and pieces of this info at other diamond stores, such as the brilliance scope analysis on the special line of diamonds i talked about previously, but at GOG they really throw the whole book at you for each and every diamond they carry. Information-wise, they're top dog. I seriously doubt anyone will dispute that. Now how about pricing? Well, i'd estimate that GOG's diamonds are say 15% more expensive than the average showroom diamond (quick math... say $400 more on diamonds priced in the low to mid 3000's). However, they're not seling you average diamonds. What they're selling you is more comparable to the special cut diamonds with the analysis showing better light return, only GOG's have that light return naturally (no special non-traditional cutting) and are not "color defficient" as most of that special line was. GOG provides that analysis (and others) on all diamonds as a standard, and due to good quality screening, most have very high brilliance scope readings that meet or often surpass that which we saw as average for the showroom's special diamonds. GOG offers a more comprehensive analysis/spec package for each and every diamond. And how about price? Well i found on average that GOG's prices were well under the prices seen with these special showroom diamonds. That puts the pricing on these quality, naturally cut well identified and spec'd diamonds somewhere between the showroom's average diamonds (low end) and their color defficient weirdly cut but sparkely ones (high end), which tells me you're paying a bit of money for that information, but not as much as you easily could be elsewhere. All in all, i left those showrooms feeling very confidant and happy about GOG's very fair prices. GOG's same diamonds with the same analysis and info would certainly cost a TON more money if they were at one of those stores, bottom line, end of story.
Ok, but how important is this "brillance scope" stuff? Well like i said before, it puts into numbers just how "sparkely" a diamond is. With diamonds, sparkle=beauty, so it's basically quantifying the beauty of each diamond. Aside from sheer size, i'd argue that that is the most important and immediatly noticable factor.
So it is my opinion that GOG wins it over even the best showroom stores, and by a margin much larger than i had expected. If these "salvaged" diamonds with half the analysis GOG offers were being sold for prices well above what GOG sells their normal superior quality diamonds at with a full information package, i can be pretty happy about buying from them rather than a showroom store.
One last comparison is GOG's diamonds vs. other internet sites'. I can't really do a fair comparison here, because most other internet vendors don't give you near the information regarding their diamonds that GOG does. You're basically brokering a diamond based off of whatever specs you're given without much other information or assurance that they're even accurate, which BTW GOG claims they are capable of doing (sell a diamond just looking at the raw specs on paper, no analysis) at similar or lower prices. In other words, you're getting what you pay for. If you're happy buying a diamond from specs on paper, other internet sites as well as GOG can do this for you with similar (i'm guessing) pricing. If you want more info than that, you're going to pay more for it, and IMHO no one brings it to you like GOG. After looking far and wide, i've realized that they're really not charging a big markup for their extra sorting and quality assessment/analysis. They actually do it for a decent price. Yes you pay for it, but not unjustly. I've seen stores charge more for less, and that makes me very confident in GOG's pricing. Their quality and information leaves no question as to who is top dog, and after many hours over many days of shopping, it's apparent that their pricing is good to boot.
That's just my opinion, based off of my experiences. I apologise for the legnth, but do hope it helps some people in general, and in specific regarding Good Old Gold. BTW, the people there are very approchable, so don't take my word for this stuff... call or e-mail them and see for your self. Thanks for reading... now excuse me while i go choke on a few-thousand-dollar's purchase
RS
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