Good strategy for buying online? Igloo diamonds? And whose rings are these?

[blingergrrrl]

Hello everyone! I'll start with the typical "long time lurker, first time poster, and thanks for an awesome site!"!!

I am a Canadian lady and wishing to purchase a diamond online for my engagment. It seems that I got the duty of picking out the diamond and ring and my boyfriend just gets to pay for it and propose! ...HUGE bummer about the extra 10% "duty" tax on top of GST and PST we have to pay. In my province that comes out to 23% on top of the exchange rate!

But, I'm going off topic...

I have spent some time at PS and GOG learning about diamonds (thanks guys!). I then found diamonds.ca (Igloo diamonds). They seem to have reasonable prices for Canadian diamonds and you also donate ~40-50% of your purchase to clearing landmines in Africa. You also get certificates & papers to back this up and can check in to see the progress in Africa. On top of that, the CONSUMER receives the tax write-off and their diamonds are also certified. I realize that they are also affiliated with some other jewelry store and a Titanium company in Quebec that hasn't the best reputation, but I would only be purchasing the diamond and I can't seem to find anything wrong with what Igloo is offering. They are also willing to find a diamond to meet my specifications.

My Strategy:
So I am thinking I would like to purchase an GIA EX cut as opposed to an AGS IDEAL because GIA has a (for lack of a better description) "personal observer factor" meaning that the diamond must also be pleasing when you look at it, which is something I can't do because I am buying over the internet. With the new GIA certificates (which Igloo provides a scan of), they also include the %'s and angles of the diamonds so I can then plug this into the HCA and other calculators to make sure I don't get a Steep-Deep/Ring of Death diamond that can sneak into the GIA EX rating. So my question is, does this make sense? Do you think this is a good strategy/place to purchase a diamond from? What other things should I be cautious of?

My budget for the diamond is about 5-6K USD (preferably 5K) which should translate to ~7-8K CAD after exchange and taxes. I am looking for ~0.90's ct, D-F, VS2-SI1 (but eye clean), none to strong flour (LOVE flourescence!), and obviously (

) ideal cut. Oh yeah, and around here, most erings are mall stones, so I think that with your guys help I will literally ROCK this town! I am also in no hurry to purchase, he's still saving up for the ring. I'm just doing the preliminary research, and well, daydreaming.

I am also in LOVE with the following rings but I can't remember who owns them! I believe there are 2 or 3 ladies on here that have similar rings. Please post more pics if you can!

 

[blingergrrrl]

ring pics cont''d...

 

[blingergrrrl]

and one more ring pic...

 

[mrssalvo]

the rings you posted belong to milly. here''s her thread:

https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/im-long-overdue-for-these.37456/

I wouldn''t rule out AGS000''s because of the *pleasing to the eye factor*. if AGS give a stone a 000 that is about as good as a guarentee you''ll get that the stone is going to be a knockout.

as for a stone, did you see this one from Whiteflash? strong fluor. to boot

http://www.whiteflash.com/round_ideal_cut/Round-Ideal-Cut-cut-diamond-183735.htm#

 

[blingergrrrl]

mrssalvo: DARN yer quick! Thanks for the link to Milly''s rings! They are sooo pretty!

The reasons I was leaning to the GIA was because I thought that the AGS IDEAL could produce an IDEALLY cut diamond that didn''t necessarily have (althought most likely would) that "life" to a diamond that you have to see to know if it''s there. I also thought that the GIA EX may produce diamonds that were full of "life" but may not make the AGS IDEAL cut standards. Do the AGS certificates also provide the angles on their certs so I can plug the info into the HCA''s and other calculators to ensure the stone has "life"?

Thanks!

 

[mrssalvo]

Date: 2/1/2007 7:23:14 PM
Author: blingergrrrl
mrssalvo: DARN yer quick! Thanks for the link to Milly's rings! They are sooo pretty!



The reasons I was leaning to the GIA was because I thought that the AGS IDEAL could produce an IDEALLY cut diamond that didn't necessarily have (althought most likely would) that 'life' to a diamond that you have to see to know if it's there. I also thought that the GIA EX may produce diamonds that were full of 'life' but may not make the AGS IDEAL cut standards. Do the AGS certificates also provide the angles on their certs so I can plug the info into the HCA's and other calculators to ensure the stone has 'life'?


Thanks!

well, I haven't seen as many diamonds as many of the folks here but i've not seen an AGS000 stone that didn't have *life*. an AGS rating of 000 pretty much guarentees you won't have a dog of a diamond. If you've been on this forum you know there are strong AGS supporters as well as GIA supporters. Both are great and can be a super stone. however, Whiteflash for example sends all of the H&A branded stones to AGS so that tells me something

Not knocking GIA at all though. to answer your quesion, yes AGS provides all the numbers on their certs so you can run them through the HCA. you can use the numbers WF provided on the stone I just linked you to and the AGS report is there too.

 

[blingergrrrl]

Date: 2/1/2007 7:29:00 PM
Author: mrssalvo

well, I haven''t seen as many diamonds as many of the folks here but i''ve not seen an AGS000 stone that didn''t have *life*. an AGS rating of 000 pretty much guarentees you won''t have a dog of a diamond. If you''ve been on this forum you know there are strong AGS supporters as well as GIA supporters. Both are great and can be a super stone. however, Whiteflash for example sends all of the H&A branded stones to AGS so that tells me something

Not knocking GIA at all though. to answer your quesion, yes AGS provides all the numbers on their certs so you can run them through the HCA. you can use the numbers WF provided on the stone I just linked you to and the AGS report is there too.

Oh, yep, found those #''s. So many more pretties to choose from now! So using the HCA will give me the best indicator or is it an assurance that the diamond will have life?... and I can use either certificate now.

So what do you think about Igloo? I mean, they don''t seem to really mark up their diamonds for being Canadian (which is important to me not just for the conflict free and suposedly lower environmental impact mining, but also I AM Canadian), and there is the donation to Africa with the tax write-off. Why does it sound too good to be true? I did a search here and came up with 2 hits that were a couple of years old. 2 responses were positive and one was negative, although the negative response had not purchased from Igloo while the 2 positives had.

 

[blingergrrrl]

repost of ring #3:

 

[Finding_Neverland]

The HCA is a screening tool to use. The HCA is not going to guarantee you''ll get a diamond that performs the way you like. It just helps you weed out poor performers to narrow your field of candidates.

 

[mrssalvo]

the second ring you posted was made my Leon Mege and belongs to scintillating..

the third ring is butterfly 17's Ritani..

i haven't heard much about igloo but if you educate yourself on what stone you want and they can find one and the price is comparable to what you would find online then go for it.

link to scintillating's Leon ring


link to butterfly's ritani ring

 

[blingergrrrl]

Thanks for the quick responses! I feel a little better now, buying a diamond online is quite a scary procedure, but so is paying way more than I should be when I buy local!