How much in price do B&M come down??

[The Gipper]

Local B&M has the following:

1.03K
F, SI1
Ran the numbers through the cut analyzer and it yields a 0.7 (E,E,VG,E). Excellent, but its $6800.

Goodoldgold.com has some similar (E-G, VS1-SI1) cut analyzer ratings for $5800-$6200.

IF the B&M comes down to this range including tax, I might do it since I've seen the B&M stone, and it gets a 0.7 on the analyzer. Is this unrealistic to think they'd come down $800-1000?

Thanks

 

[JayTee]

Based on my experience, it may be hard to get them to drop that much in price (that's about 11%). And if you do, you're going to get a lot of standard sales tactics, such as, "Will you be buying it today?" and "Here's my sales manager to give you our *best* price". . . It also depends on the B&M.

In my search, I have run through the whole gamut of experiences, but even in serious negotiating, no one was able to come down that much in price, even when I showed them internet prices for the same class of stone.

Would you definitely prefer a stone from a B&M? My final choice actually came down to a B&M stone and one from GoodOldGold, and the fact that GoodOldGold had so much information on its stone did assure me that I was getting an *excellent* stone. It doesn't replace actually seeing the stone in person, but it bridged the gap about as close as any online place can.

Also, keep in mind that anything under 2 on the HCA places it in an "ideal" cut category, and past that point, its personal preference as to which stone you would prefer.

Good luck.

 

[Colored Gemstone Nut]

I agree with Jaytee. The differences are of personal preference. I liked viewing the stone under the firescope (looking for light leakage), brilliance scope and the sarin data that what posted on this site. Along with close up shots of the clarity flaws under magnification. The stone may be priced around the same but, one stone might have more light leakage than the other and at least you know where the brilliance scope readings are of the stone your looking at on GoodOldGold's sight.

Good Luck-

Josh Rioux
Sitka, Alaska

 

[The Gipper]

Thanks for the responses so far. I do appreciate all the data that goodoldgold provides on each stone. Certainly more than any other site I've come across so far. It does make it the next best thing to seeing the stone. I am definitely not set on buying from a B&M, and certainly not interested in paying a large premium for their stone when there is a site like goodoldgold and others that provide good info (at least Sarrin reports- there's no excuse for an internet site not providing this IMO). But if the B&M matched a good internet site in price more or less, well then the B&M (which also has a Sarrin machine & thus a report) has an extra advantage of allowing me to actually see the stone.

In that case I might consider the B&M.

 

[DiamondOptics]

Fortunately, there are excellent information
avenues out there to be found.


Buy Informed!