Help researching per-carat pricing

[JP13]

I have been doing the "in house" searches, as well as at various online sites. I know that pricing can vary widely, and it seems to be extremely difficult to compare apples to apples since there are so many factors. It seems that the per carat prices is one good way to gauge pricing from one shop to the next. The problem is that those per carat prices are all over the place...

Let's say I was looking for a 1.0 carat, H VS2. Assuming other factors are pretty similar, it seems like the cut and lab could take that diamond from about $6,500 per carat to almost $9,000 per carat.

How in the world can I determine if the jump from $6500 to $7K is typical?
Is AGS Ideal worth a few hundred over GIA Excellent?
Are these "super ideal" cuts like Hearts & Arrows worth $1K more?
Safe to say that these large online shops (BG, WF, BN, JA) are all pretty competitive?

Thanks for helping me decipher this pretzel!

 

[ElizabethR]

I'm just learning about diamonds so I'm no expert, but from the responses I get from jewelers I'd say the ideal, H&As, S-ideals, are worth the extra money IF you want much more fire and brilliance from your stones. Every time I go into a jewelers the folk behind the counters always say, "Your rings are gorgeous!" I have Ideal cut Solitaire E-ring and 5 stone Eternity-ring. That said, I believe an excellent cut has lots of fire and brilliance too.

Like I said, just my opinion.

All the best with your search