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Help with specs for Tiffany ring

jenko88

Rough_Rock
Joined
Jan 28, 2020
Messages
5
Hello, I'm a newbie to diamond shopping. My boyfriend and I are shopping for an engagement ring and he decided he wanted to get Tiffany's. Since the markup is high I just wanted to make sure the diamond we are getting is a good one. Thank you so much!

IMG_1332.jpeg
 

Polabowla

Brilliant_Rock
Joined
Nov 15, 2019
Messages
1,866
Do you have pictures or videos of the diamond
 

distracts

Ideal_Rock
Premium
Joined
Oct 11, 2011
Messages
6,131
The HCA graded it this way:

Cut Advisor Score 3.2
FactorGrade
Light Return:Very Good
Fire:Good
Scintillation:Good
Spread:Very Good
HCA Score :3.2 - Very Good - Worth buying if the price is right

The comment says "Probably sparkles and looks a good size for its carat weight. If the HCA is less than 2.5, and you can see good Hearts and Arrows, it can be a nice diamond. Confirm with Ideal-scope, ASET scope or send to an appraiser."

Most PSers will only consider buying if the diamond scores under 2.

If you're paying Tiffany markup, tbh I would want to get superideal cut quality, but that's probably not going to happen. You will need to give the "cheat sheet" numbers to your sales associate and have them only pull diamonds within them, and then run all those through the HCA until you find ones that score well.

Also I don't know what the price is, but here's a comparable in specs superideal, and add around $2k we'll say for a solitaire and you have a comparison of what you would be paying for absolute top cut quality:

So basically if you were to get a superideal in a similar setting, you'd be paying around $11k. This diamond is not a superideal - similar diamonds are selling for 6-7k on other websites, so you could guess maybe a comparable ring would be, say, $7-9k depending on the cost of the setting.

Do you and your boyfriend want a Tiffany diamond - this Tiffany diamond - enough to tolerate whatever markup it is?
 

peas-and-carats

Rough_Rock
Joined
Jan 11, 2020
Messages
94
I'm by no means an expert, but I figured I'd give my advice. I plugged the measurements into the HCA calculator found on this site. That diamond scores a 3.2, when ideally you'd want a diamond to score 2 or below. This doesn't mean the diamond is garbage, but it may not have the very best light return, and with that Tiffany markup, you expect the best, am I right?

I also recently purchased a Tiffany diamond ring (but on eBay), and I used the HCA tool and also the AGA CUT Grading Chart found on this site under the Knowledge tab. Ideally, you want all the numbers to fall within the Class 1A range on that chart and at a 2 or below on HCA tool. Then you'd want to see the diamond in person and make sure it looks good to your own eyes -- beauty is subjective, of course. If you are buying directly from Tiffany, you can tell your sales associate that you are looking for diamonds within these cut measurement ranges, in whatever carat/color/clarity ranges you prefer, and they can pull from worldwide inventory and should be able to let you see more than one. If you are doing this via eBay or another such secondhand market, you would need to do this legwork yourself and make sure you have a nice return window available. I did this with success earlier this month actually; you can look at my post history to find it. Good luck!

1.26-tiff.jpg
 

distracts

Ideal_Rock
Premium
Joined
Oct 11, 2011
Messages
6,131
If you go back to the store to look at it again, get it away from the Tiffany lights. Take it over to a window, if there is one. Bring a white piece of paper or white shoebox to create your own sort of diffused lighting lightbox - shine your phone at it. Jewelry stores have lighting made to make everything sparkle and look good, but that doesn’t mean it’ll look amazing in every lighting environment.

Here is a picture of the interior of a diamond display at a jeweler I was at recently, to show you how many lights they put in this thing to make sure light is entering the diamond from every angle (picture taken from below the display - the lights aren’t visible from above/normal viewing angles):

849FFB23-02D5-41D9-ABEE-0435F45A9350.jpeg
 

OoohShiny

Ideal_Rock
Premium
Joined
Apr 25, 2014
Messages
8,228
As others have already stated, it might not perform as well as it could do if it had different angles - potentially it might have leakage under the table due to the steeper pavilion (I think).

As mentioned, try to block out all the direct lighting and view it in 'flat' or diffuse lighting - the stone should then be bright but not sparkling, and that will enable easier assessment of if there is any leakage issues.

There is a whole thread on 'the PS-recommended angles' that you might like to read (if you want to make your brain hurt a bit :lol:) - the angle/measurement ranges that I and others have been recommending are included within the thread, and you can use that for shopping if Tiffany (or whoever) are happy to pull stones out with different cut specs for consideration:

Post 30 in that thread discusses 'the sweet line', where crown and pavilion angles could perhaps be considered to work best together - you can see how increasing crown angle means decreasing the pavilion angle (and vice versa).

Posts 7 and 9 mention the 'PS-recommended' ranges that are under discussion.


Ultimately, an HCA score of 3.2 means it is not a bad stone and should perform pretty well - but perhaps not as good as it could do. Make sure to view it in a range of lighting environments, as mentioned, so you are entirely happy with it, and do ask to see other options as well, if they have any in stock.

If you and your other half are open to considering other options, we would be pleased to assist! But Tiffany is Tiffany - and sometimes nothing else will do. As long as you are buying in full awareness that you are paying a (potentially considerable) premium for that little blue box, that's all we can ask :)
 

jenko88

Rough_Rock
Joined
Jan 28, 2020
Messages
5
The HCA graded it this way:

Cut Advisor Score 3.2
FactorGrade
Light Return:Very Good
Fire:Good
Scintillation:Good
Spread:Very Good
HCA Score :3.2 - Very Good - Worth buying if the price is right

The comment says "Probably sparkles and looks a good size for its carat weight. If the HCA is less than 2.5, and you can see good Hearts and Arrows, it can be a nice diamond. Confirm with Ideal-scope, ASET scope or send to an appraiser."

Most PSers will only consider buying if the diamond scores under 2.

If you're paying Tiffany markup, tbh I would want to get superideal cut quality, but that's probably not going to happen. You will need to give the "cheat sheet" numbers to your sales associate and have them only pull diamonds within them, and then run all those through the HCA until you find ones that score well.

Also I don't know what the price is, but here's a comparable in specs superideal, and add around $2k we'll say for a solitaire and you have a comparison of what you would be paying for absolute top cut quality:

So basically if you were to get a superideal in a similar setting, you'd be paying around $11k. This diamond is not a superideal - similar diamonds are selling for 6-7k on other websites, so you could guess maybe a comparable ring would be, say, $7-9k depending on the cost of the setting.

Do you and your boyfriend want a Tiffany diamond - this Tiffany diamond - enough to tolerate whatever markup it is?

Thank you!
I'm by no means an expert, but I figured I'd give my advice. I plugged the measurements into the HCA calculator found on this site. That diamond scores a 3.2, when ideally you'd want a diamond to score 2 or below. This doesn't mean the diamond is garbage, but it may not have the very best light return, and with that Tiffany markup, you expect the best, am I right?

I also recently purchased a Tiffany diamond ring (but on eBay), and I used the HCA tool and also the AGA CUT Grading Chart found on this site under the Knowledge tab. Ideally, you want all the numbers to fall within the Class 1A range on that chart and at a 2 or below on HCA tool. Then you'd want to see the diamond in person and make sure it looks good to your own eyes -- beauty is subjective, of course. If you are buying directly from Tiffany, you can tell your sales associate that you are looking for diamonds within these cut measurement ranges, in whatever carat/color/clarity ranges you prefer, and they can pull from worldwide inventory and should be able to let you see more than one. If you are doing this via eBay or another such secondhand market, you would need to do this legwork yourself and make sure you have a nice return window available. I did this with success earlier this month actually; you can look at my post history to find it. Good luck!

1.26-tiff.jpg

I really appreciate your response. I will look into it :)
 

daisygrl

Brilliant_Rock
Joined
Dec 30, 2019
Messages
1,002
If you go back to the store to look at it again, get it away from the Tiffany lights. Take it over to a window, if there is one. Bring a white piece of paper or white shoebox to create your own sort of diffused lighting lightbox - shine your phone at it. Jewelry stores have lighting made to make everything sparkle and look good, but that doesn’t mean it’ll look amazing in every lighting environment.

Here is a picture of the interior of a diamond display at a jeweler I was at recently, to show you how many lights they put in this thing to make sure light is entering the diamond from every angle (picture taken from below the display - the lights aren’t visible from above/normal viewing angles):

849FFB23-02D5-41D9-ABEE-0435F45A9350.jpeg

How would a white piece of paper and a phone work? Would you roll the paper and look through it on the diamond? Can you elaborate? Thank you.
 
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