Help with Radiant search/pricing

[spoogenet]

First post, thanks a bunch to the wonderful community that is PS. Please take it easy on me, I'm still on my way up the learning curve here.

The back-story. I did this more backwards than most, I went for the setting first. To me, the setting is an essential piece that can destroy even the nicest of diamonds, and can make the most average diamond beautiful as a total package. Lucky for me, my future wife considers the "total package" more impressive than any 1 feature.

I found a local jeweler carrying a setting that spoke to me. Samples ordered, upon seeing them I found that the one I figured I'd like least actually spoke to me louder than the first. This is important to me, any piece of jewelry should yell out "pick me, pick me!" or else I don't want it. Jewelry is a link in the bond between the giver and the wearer.

So...my setting is on its way and my search for the diamond continues. The essence here is, we don't like Emerald/Ascher cuts. We want a square stone, but not a Princess cut. We want something a little more unique. I turned to Radiants

Per the 1.5ct head on the setting, I'm limited somewhat in the dimensions of the stone, something close to ~ 6.5mm l/w is a pretty good target for the mounting. I'm sure this will rub some the wrong way, so please bear with me.

My jeweler has been getting stones in and this exact stone he has in hand (GIA report on that site):
http://www.abazias.com/database/NewDiamondInfo.asp?stock=62198164&flag=ps

Probably no surprise to you that he's asking for ~ $1500 above Abazias, good thing I'm not an impulse buyer. His price is inline with other prices of similar stones at BlueNile, etc. so needless to say I was a little surprised to see as significant a difference. I expected maybe $4-500 delta, not 3x that.

To me, the stone seems eye clean when top-lit ~ 10-12 inches away. Sure I can see lots of inclusions on the loupe. Not indicated in the report it has a fairly tall crown and is quite brilliant for a Radiant. I've been trying to find info to determine whether this is truly a "Radiant" cut or a cut-corner Princess.

I don't have an IS image or an IS available to me that I'm aware of.

Thoughts, comments, ideas, praise, criticism are all welcome and requested.

Thanks,
b

 

[Lorelei]

Date: 1/19/2010 6:46:09 PM
Author:spoogenet
First post, thanks a bunch to the wonderful community that is PS. Please take it easy on me, I'm still on my way up the learning curve here.

The back-story. I did this more backwards than most, I went for the setting first. To me, the setting is an essential piece that can destroy even the nicest of diamonds, and can make the most average diamond beautiful as a total package. Lucky for me, my future wife considers the 'total package' more impressive than any 1 feature.

I found a local jeweler carrying a setting that spoke to me. Samples ordered, upon seeing them I found that the one I figured I'd like least actually spoke to me louder than the first. This is important to me, any piece of jewelry should yell out 'pick me, pick me!' or else I don't want it. Jewelry is a link in the bond between the giver and the wearer.

So...my setting is on its way and my search for the diamond continues. The essence here is, we don't like Emerald/Ascher cuts. We want a square stone, but not a Princess cut. We want something a little more unique. I turned to Radiants

Per the 1.5ct head on the setting, I'm limited somewhat in the dimensions of the stone, something close to ~ 6.5mm l/w is a pretty good target for the mounting. I'm sure this will rub some the wrong way, so please bear with me.

My jeweler has been getting stones in and this exact stone he has in hand (GIA report on that site):
http://www.abazias.com/database/NewDiamondInfo.asp?stock=62198164&flag=ps

Probably no surprise to you that he's asking for ~ $1500 above Abazias, good thing I'm not an impulse buyer. His price is inline with other prices of similar stones at BlueNile, etc. so needless to say I was a little surprised to see as significant a difference. I expected maybe $4-500 delta, not 3x that.

To me, the stone seems eye clean when top-lit ~ 10-12 inches away. Sure I can see lots of inclusions on the loupe. Not indicated in the report it has a fairly tall crown and is quite brilliant for a Radiant. I've been trying to find info to determine whether this is truly a 'Radiant' cut or a cut-corner Princess.

I don't have an IS image or an IS available to me that I'm aware of.

Thoughts, comments, ideas, praise, criticism are all welcome and requested.

Thanks,
b

Greetings and welcome to Pricescope!

Don't worry, we will take good care of you! It is the usual case that jewellers are typically 10 - 15% thereabouts more expensive than online vendors, however the asking price of this jeweller is more than that. You could ask the jeweller if he would lower the price, certainly no harm in haggling as he might have some room for adjustment especially as this is a stone he has on memorandum and as such is available through other vendors.

If you could come to some agreement on price, you could order an ASET scope which would help you evaluate this diamond. They are simple to use and can be a real asset if you prefer to shop in brick and mortar stores where images aren't normally available.

 

[spoogenet]

Thanks for the reply. Being somewhat of a newbie on diamond pricing, one thing that is glaringly obvious is that for a 1.58ct G SI1 their price is on the very low end of what I''ve seen available in the near-square Radiants. It also has definitely been on the market for quite a while.

As such...short of a full appraisal, is there anything obvious to the experts that would inspire me to exercise caution with this stone? The feather doesn''t seem to me like it''s a high risk factor, though I''m not sure.

I''d very much like to keep my center stone under $10k and I want one that is brilliant and eye-clean.

Thanks,
b