HCA Values and prices

[jkruer01]

I recently entered two stones into the HCA calculator and one scored a .3 and the other scored a .9. Both of them had Excellent in all categories. There is only a $300 difference in the two stones and nearly identical in weight, color, and clarity(one is SI1 the other is VS2). What can I expect to be the difference in the two diamonds? I know that anything under a 2 is really good but is a .3 better than a .9 or is it based on opinion. Also I have heard about BIC, TIC, and FIC, do those have a range of values on the HCA that each one falls into? Any advice would be great. One more question. I don't plan to propose for a couple of months, 6 - year, so would it be better to buy a diamond now or wait? As far as price goes when would be the best time of the year to buy?

Thanks!

 

[pricescope]

Jkruer01,

Quote from HCA page:A score below 2 (Excellent) means you have eliminated known poor performers (more than 95% of all diamonds). Your own personal preference may be for a diamond with an HCA score of 1.5 more rather than one with a lower score of say 0.5.
I.e. once you've got HCA2,>

 

[jkruer01]

What other criteria would you recomend using to choose between the diamonds? Also I noticed that the Sarin reports on the diamonds have different values than the AGS cert has. Now the two diamonds score a .5 and 1 on the HCA. Also the .5 now has a very good for spread instead of Excellent. Which numbers are generally more acurate, AGS or Sarin? Anyone have any advice about when to buy the diamond?

Thanks!

 

[JayTee]

Let me see if I can address some of your questions:

To pass on information that I gained from people here in this forum (Thanks Mara!), if you have one stone which rates more highly in Spread than the other, it means that the stone will look bigger than its size. Mara's stone received an excellent rating for spread in the HCA, and I believe her 1.23 carat stone looks 0.13 carats larger than it actually is (correct me if I'm wrong).

As for time of year to buy, I don't believe that pricing fluctuates too much on a yearly basis at the quality level of the stones you are looking for. Mall stores usually have post-holiday blowouts, but for much worse stones. The one advantage to buying at this time of year, is that many jewelers stock up for the season and will have a wider variety of stones for you to select from.

I also cannot answer to the accuracy of AGS measurements vs. Sarin (I believe AGS actually uses Sarin machines too ) but what I did when I was plugging measurements into the HCA is whenever the values differed, I used all the Sarin values rather than mixing and matching. That way, if there is some margin of error, at least its consistent if you use numbers from the same report.

hope that helps.