HCA / Idealscope ?

[katrina_33]

I understand that a diamond could have a non-ideal HCA score and still be beautiful, but could a diamond have a below 2 HCA score, look great through an idealscope, have excellent polish and symetry, and still be a mediocre performer in person?

If so, why?

Why is is necessary to see stones in person if the angles check out and the idealscope image shows great symetry and no light leakage? What could make a stone like this ugly in person?

 

[katrina_33]

Follow up question: Why would you need HCA scores if you had an idealscope image? Doesn't the image show you the 2 factors that would effect beauty - symmetry and light return?

 

[Magnum]

In response to your first question, I would think there would be a very small chance that the stone was "ugly," or even a mediocre performer. Why then is it necessary to see it in person? Well, it might not be in all cases. I bought a stone from diamonideals without seeing it in person. I felt comfortable with the AGS report, magnified inclusion pictures, idealscope pictures, H&A pictures, and side-by-side comparison pictures with stones of different colors. I also considered the opinion of the vendor who was able to look at the stone in person. Now, granted, I had a 30 day return period where I could return the diamond if it didn't meet my expectations. But after all the research I had done on the internet, I was pretty confident that it would be a great looking stone. The reason why it's suggested that you still see it in person, in my opinion, is that there is no perfect technology to evaluate the beauty of the diamond, and may never be. The ultimate and probably most accurate evaluator of beauty is the human eye, so if you're able to see it in person, why wouldn't you want to? Once the diamond is on your finger, you're not going to look at it through an idealscope, you're going to look at it through your own eyes. You could have two stones with all the characteristics you noted above, but maybe your eye can pick out a difference betwen the two, so why not let your eyes tell you which one is more beautiful. The flip side is the fact that some of the best deals are on the internet, and shipping stones back and forth from internet vendors can become inpractical. That's where the HCA and idealscope become really useful. it may not be practical for you to actually look at the stone in person, and despite what some vendors (on the other forum) would want you to do, sometimes it's not easy to put 100% trust in just the opinion of the vendor, especially one that you've never dealt with before. so the HCA and idealscope give you a pretty good idea of how well the stone is going to perform without being able to look at it. It's not perfect, but for the money you save, I think it can be worth the inconvenience of not being able to see it in person first. And most times you do have a good return period and always have the option of using an independent appraiser.

As far as your second question, the HCA score becomes less relevant if you have an idealscope picture. But usually it's easier to get numbers on a stone than an idealscope picture, so the way it's supposed to work is that you get the sarin numbers for several stones, plug then into the HCA to narrow down the search, and then take the ones that had good scores and ask for further information like idealscope pictures to help you pick the one you want.

 

[katrina_33]

Thanks, makes a lot of sense!

 

[katrina_33]

One last version of this question - so, if I shop in a B&M store in the first place, see a stone that I like, and view it under the idealscope to verify that it isn't leaking light and the symmetry looks nice, is that enough cut info to go on to ensure that it's a good purchase?