I''m new to the "posting" part of this forum, although I''ve been looking through everyone else''s posts for the last several months. Please forgive me if this isn''t the right place to post this comment, but I had to write in and share my fantastic experience buying a diamond from James Allen.com. The quick background is that the diamond was going to be a 10 year anniversary present for my wife...her original diamond was a 1.05 Round Brilliant...no cert...thought it was an H (try really a K with strong fluorescence)...SI2. Needless to say I didn''t know anything about diamonds 10 years ago and got "beat." Enter Pricescope...this forum provided an incredible amount of knowledge and the ability to really understand what was going to be a large purchase.
Long story short(ish)....I narrowed my choices down to at least 2.00ct Round Brilliant....Excellent or Ideal Cut...H-I...and something eye clean. I narrowed my vendors down to Blue Nile (big, well known), GOG (lots of information), and James Allen (pictures of most stones). Blue Nile got eliminated first since they had no pictures on site nor would they have any taken and sent to me. They claimed that the photos weren''t a good indicator of what the stone would look like and that they could be photoshopped....since I was using photos purely to see how large the inclusions were (since I wanted something eye clean), I didn''t care about color representation on my monitor screen...I spoke with people from BN and they gave the stones "grades" as to whether they were eye clean, but still no photos...and therefore no purchase.
GOG was great, just a smaller inventory on their site, so I passed on that one too....
Which leads me to the James Allen experience...I worked with Jennifer Norbury (almost exclusively by e-mail while I was travelling) and she was FANTASTIC!!!!!!! I narrowed my choices from their web listing, sent questions to her regarding stones, and she was honest with me about whether I would see anything in the stone. She eventually started sending me suggestions, and when I mentioned that one of the photos for a stone she was recommending seemed a bit blurry, she had a new photo taken (magnified and idealscope) and e-mailed it to me right away. Bottom line...great experience (and according to appraisal once I got the stone...GREAT PRICE!!!).
So the winning stone was:
2.12 Round Brilliant GIA
8.14x8.18x5.11
color = I
clarity = SI2
cut = VG
polish = VG
symmetry = excellent
depth = 62.6
table = 56%
crown a = 33.5%
crown h = 14.5%
pav a = 41%
pav d = 43.5%
star = 55%
lower half = 80%
girdle = slightly thick to thick, faceted
culet = none
Thanks again for everything the Pricescope Forum has taught me...I knew I wasn''t buying a D, IF stone, but the forum showed me what was going to get the best result for the budget I was working within...I was much more prepared this time and I strongly recommend James Allen (and Stephanie in particular) to anyone looking to buy a diamond on line!
I''ll try and attach a few pics of the stone (I realize they''re not great pics, but hey...all that matters is how it looks on!)
Long story short(ish)....I narrowed my choices down to at least 2.00ct Round Brilliant....Excellent or Ideal Cut...H-I...and something eye clean. I narrowed my vendors down to Blue Nile (big, well known), GOG (lots of information), and James Allen (pictures of most stones). Blue Nile got eliminated first since they had no pictures on site nor would they have any taken and sent to me. They claimed that the photos weren''t a good indicator of what the stone would look like and that they could be photoshopped....since I was using photos purely to see how large the inclusions were (since I wanted something eye clean), I didn''t care about color representation on my monitor screen...I spoke with people from BN and they gave the stones "grades" as to whether they were eye clean, but still no photos...and therefore no purchase.
GOG was great, just a smaller inventory on their site, so I passed on that one too....
Which leads me to the James Allen experience...I worked with Jennifer Norbury (almost exclusively by e-mail while I was travelling) and she was FANTASTIC!!!!!!! I narrowed my choices from their web listing, sent questions to her regarding stones, and she was honest with me about whether I would see anything in the stone. She eventually started sending me suggestions, and when I mentioned that one of the photos for a stone she was recommending seemed a bit blurry, she had a new photo taken (magnified and idealscope) and e-mailed it to me right away. Bottom line...great experience (and according to appraisal once I got the stone...GREAT PRICE!!!).
So the winning stone was:
2.12 Round Brilliant GIA
8.14x8.18x5.11
color = I
clarity = SI2
cut = VG
polish = VG
symmetry = excellent
depth = 62.6
table = 56%
crown a = 33.5%
crown h = 14.5%
pav a = 41%
pav d = 43.5%
star = 55%
lower half = 80%
girdle = slightly thick to thick, faceted
culet = none
Thanks again for everything the Pricescope Forum has taught me...I knew I wasn''t buying a D, IF stone, but the forum showed me what was going to get the best result for the budget I was working within...I was much more prepared this time and I strongly recommend James Allen (and Stephanie in particular) to anyone looking to buy a diamond on line!
I''ll try and attach a few pics of the stone (I realize they''re not great pics, but hey...all that matters is how it looks on!)
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