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Help picking out engagement ring

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Seattleboy49

Rough_Rock
Joined
Sep 14, 2013
Messages
16
Hi everyone,

I plan on proposing to my girlfriend by the end of the year and could sure use some help finding the right engagement ring. My budget (setting plus diamond) is around $5,000 and I have been concentrating on diamonds from James Allen. I picked out a few from the true heart collection that I have posted below. They all look nice to me, but a few of the price differences are steep and I am too much of a novice to know why exactly. Here they are.

1.

http://www.jamesallen.com/loose-diamonds/round-cut/0.78-carat-i-color-vvs1-clarity-ideal-cut-sku-178845

This is my favorite so far as it seems at least to my novice eyes to be a really beautiful diamond, but it's also the most expensive. Is it worth it compared to the cheaper diamonds I will post below? Is there anything you all see that gives you any concerns about the ring?


2.

http://www.jamesallen.com/loose-diamonds/round-cut/0.74-carat-i-color-if-clarity-ideal-cut-sku-164405

Just a hair cheaper then thr ring above. Looks very nice as well, but for some reason I think the first ring is nicer


3.

http://www.jamesallen.com/loose-diamonds/round-cut/0.76-carat-i-color-vvs1-clarity-ideal-cut-sku-247271

Is a nice ring as well, but seems to be darker in the middle then the other rings. Am I just imagining that and if not is that a big deal?


4.

http://www.jamesallen.com/loose-diamonds/round-cut/0.80-carat-i-color-vs2-clarity-excellent-cut-sku-247824

This is the cheapest price of the bunch, but seems to be really nice. I assume one of the reasons it's cheaper then say ring number one is the difference in clarity? Would I be getting a lot more for the money if I went with any of the above more expensive rings or is this one fine as well?

Again, thanks so much in advance for any advice I receive. It will be much appreciated.

Kyle
 
Seattleboy49|1379135959|3520593 said:
Hi everyone,

I plan on proposing to my girlfriend by the end of the year and could sure use some help finding the right engagement ring. My budget (setting plus diamond) is around $5,000 and I have been concentrating on diamonds from James Allen. I picked out a few from the true heart collection that I have posted below. They all look nice to me, but a few of the price differences are steep and I am too much of a novice to know why exactly. .....
Click to expand...

YES! You are *seriously* overpaying for IF and VVS clarity when an eye clean SI1 will perform just as spectacularly all other factors being the same. You are literally paying a ton of money for something you literally cannot see, and that has absolutely no bearing of the light performance and sparkle of the diamond.

Drop you clarity down to VS and SI and you can get a much bigger stone with a better color for the same price.

Start with plugging in the crown and pavillion angles and the table and depth % here (on GIA XXX stones, it's not necessary on AGS 0 stones as they are already been proven to have spectacular light performance): https://www.pricescope.com/tools/hca It will give you a number - under 2 is best, but once you get under 2, lower is not better.

And don't focus just on the H&A labeled stones (unless it's important to you to have that designation) - there are plenty of spectacular stones that "just missed" the H&A mark by a smidge, and you'd never know it by looking at it unless you were a seasoned expert.

Once you get it narrowed down to 3 stones, put them on hold and contact JA - have them run idealscope images on them all and have their gemologist look at them for you.

You said your budget was $5,000 for the ring and setting - what setting have you chosen? That will let us have a better idea what your budget for the stone will be. There are a lot of people here who love to help find stones, and will be along shortly to help once we know what your stone budget is! :)
 
Thanks so much for the great advice! It should habe occurred to me to post the ring setting in my initial post, but this is the one my girlfriend and I really like. She is a fan of the halo setting as you can see.

http://www.jamesallen.com/engagement-rings/halo/14k-white-gold-0.39ct-diamond-halo-pave-engagement-ring-item-17422


As for the diamond itself, but girlfriend doesn't want a huge diamond so although I want to get her the nicest diamond I can afford, I also know she would feel uncomfortable wearing something huge. So a .075 - 1.0 crt is fine. I just want something that really sparkles though and I have been told they of the 4 C's the cut is what I should really be paying attention to. I thought that the $3,800 ring looked really nice, but I had a feeling I would be paying more then I really needed to for the clarity.

Anyway, thanks again for the great advice. If your or anyone else has any suggestions based on the setting I copied above then please let me know.

Thanks!

Kyle
 
That ring you posted is really nice! I just added it to my "wish list" on James Allen. I want to add somewhere around 5-10 diamonds and then make my decision. I really like the ring you found though and I like that it is an H color
 
You can short list as many as you want, but JA will only do idealscopes on 3.
 
Seattleboy49|1379166123|3520691 said:
...the ring setting in my initial post, but this is the one my girlfriend and I really like. She is a fan of the halo setting as you can see.

http://www.jamesallen.com/engagement-rings/halo/14k-white-gold-0.39ct-diamond-halo-pave-engagement-ring-item-17422
Click to expand...

That's a very nice setting - and if you stick with 14k it will free up more $ for the stone. The color of the stones in the melee of the ring says it is G-H in color, so I'd stick with a center stone somewhere in that color range. If you go down to an I-J-K range you'll see more contrast between the center and the halo.

There are several stones in that carat and $ range - we can help you narrow it down.
 
That would be really great. I would spend $3,900 on a ring if I decided it was truly nicer then any other option, but considering the ring setting is $2,200 I wouldn't mind finding a diamond in the $3-3,500 range. But I added the $3,900 diamond you suggested to my list and would definitely consider buying that one.

And thanks for the advice as to color. I will make sure to look for something in the H range from here on our. Thanks again for all the advice. It is really helping me narrow down the choices. I know my girlfriend will love whatever I give her, but since she is such a great girl I really want to get her something special
 
How can you determine the crown a no pavilion angles for purposes of the Holland cut advisor tool? If I click on a ring on the James Allen website I see the depth and table percentage, but crown and pavilion angles are left blank.

Thanks,

Kyle
 
click on the certificate (little GIA box to the left above the diamond description) - should bring up the actual cert and you can just read them off it
 
Oh, ok, I see it. Thanks
 
This one is nice - it's an AGS 0, SI1 but with the inclusions off to the side - I doubt they'd be visible, and may even be prongable.

http://www.jamesallen.com/loose-dia...arat-g-color-si1-clarity-ideal-cut-sku-249908

This one is a GIA excellent with an HCA of 1.6, inclusions off to the side, and icy white:

http://www.jamesallen.com/loose-dia...-d-color-vs2-clarity-excellent-cut-sku-239104

I like this one too - AGS 0:

http://www.jamesallen.com/loose-dia...arat-g-color-vs1-clarity-ideal-cut-sku-247262
 
I like all 3, especially that last one. Does it have inclusions off to the side as well? Thanks for taking the time to look these up for me. Much appreciated. I am going to make a final decision next week so you have given me a lot to work with
 
Thanks Quaddio. I am going to take a look at that thread now
 
Great advice!
 
Looks like it has a scratch on it?? but then again it could be my computer, I find when I look at James Allen diamonds I have to clean my screen.
 
Wow, I'm glad you all pointed that out! I didn't notice that at all until after reading your comments. One of the things I am now learning is to really look at the image of any particular diamond. With they being said, I am now seeing these marks on a lot of the diamonds I am looking at on James Allen. Are these the type of marks that show up on any diamond or only the slightly included diamonds? I also see a lot of thee types of marks to the side of the diamond so I wonder if in some cases it's not an actual mark on the diamond, but rather justin something with how the picture comes out?

What do you all think about these?

1.

http://www.jamesallen.com/loose-diamonds/round-cut/0.80-carat-h-color-vs2-clarity-excellent-cut-sku-245174


2.

http://www.jamesallen.com/loose-diamonds/round-cut/0.84-carat-h-color-vs2-clarity-excellent-cut-sku-228063


3.

http://www.jamesallen.com/loose-diamonds/round-cut/0.88-carat-h-color-si1-clarity-excellent-cut-sku-237819


4.
 
:)

Glad I could help. It really is very nice!
 
1. http://www.jamesallen.com/loose-diamonds/round-cut/0.80-carat-h-color-vs2-clarity-excellent-cut-sku-245174

Hmm. Looks nice in the video, but if the GIA cert is correct it only scores a 5.1 on the HCA - "good only if price is your main criterion"


2. http://www.jamesallen.com/loose-diamonds/round-cut/0.84-carat-h-color-vs2-clarity-excellent-cut-sku-228063

HCA - 1.7 But it has a visible inclusion right under the table


3. http://www.jamesallen.com/loose-diamonds/round-cut/0.88-carat-h-color-si1-clarity-excellent-cut-sku-237819

I don't like the looks of this one nearly as much. And it only scores a 4.6 on the HCA, again "good - only if price is your main criterion
 
Seattleboy49|1379227670|3521070 said:
I like all 3, especially that last one. Does it have inclusions off to the side as well? Thanks for taking the time to look these up for me. Much appreciated. I am going to make a final decision next week so you have given me a lot to work with
Click to expand...

Hi Seattleboy49 :wavey:

Kudos to you for not waiting til the last minute to make a decision -- I wish more guys would get educated and take their time like you're doing! :appl:

That is a really pretty setting you chose!!!

As far as worrying about any inclusions visible from the side... the setting you're getting won't show the side at all. You would have to literally turn the ring upside down to even catch a glimpse of just a small part of the side, so you're pretty safe as far as "side clarity" is concerned. :))

Also, I'm going to disagree about the possibility of the center stone clashing if not an H or better. The pave in the halo have smaller facets and will look brighter than any stone, even a D color will appear "less bright" next to the melee. That said, I think you'd be totally safe going with an I color (GIA Ex cut), especially given the style setting and size of the centerstones you're looking at. (...the larger the diamond, the more "tint" will show, i.e. a 3 ct H will show more tint than a 1 ct of the same color) I have a similar setting with G/H pave stones set with a 2.43 J and there are only very few bad lighting situations that I can see any tint whatsoever (see avatar). If it were me, I wouldn't totally write off I color... you could get more bang for the buck AND a bright, white stone! :bigsmile: And if you could happen upon an I with fluorescense, then SCORE!! ;)) :lol:

Would you consider this stone? It did score a 2.3 on the HCA, but that doesn't mean it couldn't be awesome -- you could have JA check it out for you. :))
http://www.jamesallen.com/loose-dia...-i-color-vs2-clarity-excellent-cut-sku-248545

This one is my favorite. It scores a 0.9 on HCA and I think it would be eye clean (JA could tell for sure), as the only inclusions mentioned on the cert were feathers. Table looks very clean, and the faceting looks good. It is great color and faces up like the 1.02, without paying the "one carat" premium. If it were me, I'd put this one on hold ASAP!!
http://www.jamesallen.com/loose-diamonds/round-cut/0.98-carat-g-color-si2-clarity-sku-243466
 
Hi msop04!

I have to admit that this process has been a lot of fun! I told my girlfriend I might want to put off buying the ring anytime soon as I am going to miss doing all this research! haha. I came into this as a complete novice (and now I am a slightly more educated novice) so the learning curve has been steep. I am getting there though. This forum has been extremely helpful though as I never would have known about the holland cut advisor otherwise.

I really like the diamonds you sent me so thanks so much for taking the time to do so. I am going to add them to my wishlist. I hope to make my final decision next week so I am almost there.

thanks again!
 
i dont know what kind of setting she would like, but this would allow for a nice % of your budget for the setting, so you could get something more than something basic

http://www.highperformancediamonds.com/index.php?page=view-id-diamond-infinity&id=943

or this, as his value select are fabulous still, and good deals

http://www.highperformancediamonds.com/index.php?page=view-id-diamond-default&id=10

color is not as strong in stones under 1 ct, an i dont think you would much notice any color in a J. For reference , here is my .84 ct K....

uploadfromtaptalk1376688256282.jpg
 
:bigsmile:
Seattleboy49|1379267135|3521237 said:
Hi msop04!

I have to admit that this process has been a lot of fun! I told my girlfriend I might want to put off buying the ring anytime soon as I am going to miss doing all this research! haha. I came into this as a complete novice (and now I am a slightly more educated novice) so the learning curve has been steep. I am getting there though. This forum has been extremely helpful though as I never would have known about the holland cut advisor otherwise.

I really like the diamonds you sent me so thanks so much for taking the time to do so. I am going to add them to my wishlist. I hope to make my final decision next week so I am almost there.

thanks again!
Click to expand...

You're so welcome! I know what you mean -- I, too, love to learn about diamonds!! PS is such a great place to get a good education, as there are so many here that are very experienced and more than willing to help with all things diamond. If I ever upgrade, you better believe I'll be stalking PS... oh, wait... err, more so than I already do! :lol: ;))

I'm very excited to see what they say about each of those stones you put on hold!! Are you going to do the halo setting if you decide to go with the more expensive stone? (I remember you said you were working with a budget, but I didn't know if you had some "wiggle room"...) :bigsmile:

I'm a little biased, but that 0.98 G VS2 would look great in it!! :naughty: <hehehe> ;))

Be sure to let us know what they say at JA and most definitely tell us which one you decide on!! :bigsmile:
 
I will definitely keep you updated and yes, I am still going with the Halo setting! If I go with the .98 crt you recommended, which I am leaning towards now, then this will put me way out of the budget I started out with, but oh well, she is worth it. :)

I talked to someone from JA regarding this ring and he thought it looked great and said from what he can tell it is eye clean. However, I did order the idealscope and asked that one of their gemologists look at it.

for anyone out there reading this thread for advice, you can put a diamond on hold with JA for one day. However, if you order the idealscope and ask for one of their gemologists to take a look at it, you can put the diamond on hold for 2-3 days, which is what I did. with that being said, I ordered the idealscope and asked for a review not to be able to put the diamond on hold for a few extra days, but because I really do want to make sure there are no issues with the diamond, especially if I am going to order one out of the price range I started with.

I will let you guys know the results. If everything comes back positive, which is what I expect, I will go with the .98 diamond.

so thanks a lot for finding this one! It really does look great. and thanks to everyone who has been commenting on this thread. I can't tell you all how much I have learned and how appreciative I am.

Kyle
 
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