i am about to make a purchase and desp need advice

[ScottishDiamondHunter]

Hi,
Don''t know much about diamonds but I love super sparkly white ones. I love the look of HOFs.

WF have suggested I look at these 3 and I really don''t know whatis the best value for money. One is an ACA (which i aspire to), the other is an ES and the other is round. The ACA is outwith my budget but I tried to negotiate iwth WF on price but I got an flat no. I read that you can negotiate is this true? also how do i get a discount mentioning pricescope?

what do you think of these?

http://www.whiteflash.com/hearts_arrows/A-Cut-Above-H-A-cut-diamond-1148587.htm

http://www.whiteflash.com/round_ideal_cut/Round-Ideal-Cut-cut-diamond-1181425.htm

http://www.whiteflash.com/round/Round-cut-diamond-46135.htm

Help me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

xxx

 

[Maisie]

Is there a reason why you are shooting for a D VVS1? If you were willing to get an E SI1 ACA you could half the price of the ACA.

http://www.whiteflash.com/hearts_arrows/A-Cut-Above-H-A-cut-diamond-1148644.htm#

E is only one away from D and will be colourless. As long as the SI1 is eyeclean you won''t see any of the inclusions at normal viewing distance.

 

[ScottishDiamondHunter]

No real reason. I want a stone between 0.8 and 1.00 DEF color and pref no less than VS2. I''m swaying towards the ES diamond. What do you think?

 

[Maisie]

I have an ES diamond and its beautiful. I have also had two ACA stones. I personally don''t see much difference between the two, although my ES stone might have missed out on being an ACA by a very slight margin.

If WF are recommending the ES diamond you can trust them. It scores 0.9 on the HCA which is great too. Have you seen the HCA? Its a tool for filtering your diamond choices ... https://www.pricescope.com/cutadviser.asp

 

[ScottishDiamondHunter]

what does 0.9 actually mean? do you think this would be a nice diamond?

 

[mercoledi]

Essentially anything scoring under 2 on the HCA is going to be a nice stone. Are you currently working with WF, or did you just pull these off of the website? If you need help quickly, I would call WF and ask them to evaluate the stones you've chosen or any other stones they may have within your parameters and recommend a winner. They have an advantage over us in that they can actually see the stones

. If you stick to ACAs and ES's you can't go wrong.

Good luck!

ETA: The idealscope on the 0.91 looks really wonky, I would pass on that one without more info. The .84 is a beauty.

Also WF offers a PS discount on top of the wire transfer discount. I believe it varies for ACA v ES stones.

 

[ScottishDiamondHunter]

does anyone know the answers to the questions i asked about wf and discounts?

 

[Maisie]

I think the ACA would get a 5% discount if paid by bank wire and the ES used to get 3% but I don''t know if this has changed.

 

[Maisie]

Date: 7/30/2008 5:02:39 PM
Author: mercoledi
Essentially anything scoring under 2 on the HCA is going to be a nice stone. Are you currently working with WF, or did you just pull these off of the website? If you need help quickly, I would call WF and ask them to evaluate the stones you've chosen or any other stones they may have within your parameters and recommend a winner. They have an advantage over us in that they can actually see the stones

. If you stick to ACAs and ES's you can't go wrong.

Good luck!

ETA: The idealscope on the 0.91 looks really wonky, I would pass on that one without more info. The .84 is a beauty.

Also WF offers a PS discount on top of the wire transfer discount. I believe it varies for ACA v ES stones.

Why do you think the IS looks wonky? I would expect the ES stone won't be as perfect as the ACA.

 

[Deelight]

WF does give discount for PS members I believe it is 5% on ACA''s if you wire them the money and 2% or 3% on ES stones

Other then that I don''t think they negotiate further

 

[ScottishDiamondHunter]

i too am concerned that you think it is wonky. how will this affect the look at the diamond?

 

[mercoledi]

Date: 7/30/2008 5:31:26 PM
Author: Maisie

Date: 7/30/2008 5:02:39 PM

Author: mercoledi

Essentially anything scoring under 2 on the HCA is going to be a nice stone. Are you currently working with WF, or did you just pull these off of the website? If you need help quickly, I would call WF and ask them to evaluate the stones you've chosen or any other stones they may have within your parameters and recommend a winner. They have an advantage over us in that they can actually see the stones

. If you stick to ACAs and ES's you can't go wrong.


Good luck!


ETA: The idealscope on the 0.91 looks really wonky, I would pass on that one without more info. The .84 is a beauty.


Also WF offers a PS discount on top of the wire transfer discount. I believe it varies for ACA v ES stones.

Why do you think the IS looks wonky? I would expect the ES stone won't be as perfect as the ACA.

There's imperfect and then there's whatever's going on in the middle of that stone. I've seen plenty of ES's with nice symmetry and that doesn't seem to be one of them.

SDH- are you in a rush? If you have a few more days I'd ask for more info on
This WF stone. It's hard to tell anything without the crown and pavilion angles but the other specs are in your range and the table/depth/spread look good. Maybe also this one.

 

[Maisie]

Date: 7/30/2008 5:37:31 PM
Author: mercoledi

Date: 7/30/2008 5:31:26 PM
Author: Maisie

Date: 7/30/2008 5:02:39 PM

Author: mercoledi

Essentially anything scoring under 2 on the HCA is going to be a nice stone. Are you currently working with WF, or did you just pull these off of the website? If you need help quickly, I would call WF and ask them to evaluate the stones you''ve chosen or any other stones they may have within your parameters and recommend a winner. They have an advantage over us in that they can actually see the stones

. If you stick to ACAs and ES''s you can''t go wrong.


Good luck!


ETA: The idealscope on the 0.91 looks really wonky, I would pass on that one without more info. The .84 is a beauty.


Also WF offers a PS discount on top of the wire transfer discount. I believe it varies for ACA v ES stones.

Why do you think the IS looks wonky? I would expect the ES stone won''t be as perfect as the ACA.

There''s imperfect and then there''s whatever''s going on in the middle of that stone. I''ve seen plenty of ES''s with nice symmetry and that doesn''t seem to be one of them.

SDH- are you in a rush? If you have a few more days I''d ask for more info on
This WF stone. It''s hard to tell anything without the crown and pavilion angles but the other specs are in your range and the table/depth/spread look good. Maybe also this one.

Thank you for explaining. I am learning as I go too

 

[mercoledi]

Hopefully someone else here will chime in because otherwise the numbers on that stone are nice, but it looks like they symmetry is off. It could still be a great, super fire-y stone, but there's no way to tell with the info we have.

SDH Did you pick out these stones, or were they recommended by WF? If Leslie/Brian have looked at the .91 and like it, it could still be ok.

ETA: If you aren't tied to WF this one looks like a beauty too.

 

[Maisie]

When I bought my ES diamond there were lots of lovely diamonds in that section. Now it looks like they aren''t so pretty. I am sure they look nice in person but I loved the old way they had of choosing what went in the ES area. I know they are trying to include diamonds that are more value for money - at least I think thats what Alison D said.

 

[ScottishDiamondHunter]

Date: 7/30/2008 5:48:57 PM
Author: mercoledi
Hopefully someone else here will chime in because otherwise the numbers on that stone are nice, but it looks like they symmetry is off.

SDH Did you pick out these stones, or were they recommended by WF? If Leslie/Brian have looked at the .91 and like it, it could still be ok.

I picked it out. Traci is helping me - she seems to think it is a nice stone and that it was a 0.9 but that was it.

 

[mercoledi]

It's numbers put the .91 as a contender for Fiery Ideal Cut which is a soft spot of mine. It looks like many of their ES stones are 60/60 (60% table, 60% depth) which will score poorly on the HCA but can be beautiful. I don't know enough to comment on those, we'd need Ellen or Lorelei or Storm, etc.

Did it sound like Traci just didn't love it? Or are you just searching for another opinion?

The price certainly is tempting! The niceice stone is about 1K more, I don't know what his PS discount is like but I haven't heard any complaints here about Infinity stones.

 

[ScottishDiamondHunter]

Date: 7/30/2008 6:00:36 PM
Author: mercoledi
It''s numbers put the .91 as a contender for Fiery Ideal Cut which is a soft spot of mine. It looks like many of their ES stones are 60/60 (60% table, 60% depth) which will score poorly on the HCA but can be beautiful. I don''t know enough to comment on those, we''d need Ellen or Lorelei or Storm, etc.

Did it sound like Traci just didn''t love it? Or are you just searching for another opinion?

The price certainly is tempting! The niceice stone is about 1K more, I don''t know what his PS discount is like but I haven''t heard any complaints here about Infinity stones.

She hasn''t really expressed any great preference for any of them. She picked out the ACA and the G VSS2 but I think it looks quite flat in teh idealscope.

You mentioned getting further information - what should I ask?

 

[mercoledi]

Well, the .93 VVS2 is a 60/60, I honestly don''t know if the darkness in the IS and ASET is due to that or something else. The symmetry looks great. I wish WF would do videos like GOG does, I think it would be cool to see the .93 (maybe dark) next to the .91 (fiery with so-so symmetry) next to the ACA. An ASET may help assess the light return on the .91.

Did you specifically ask Traci for her opinion? I know in the past sales associates have passed stones around the office and asked for opinions. I''m rapidly getting out of my depth here. Are you on a time crunch or could you have more stones brought in?

 

[Maisie]

I would ask if Brian would take a look. He is the man!

 

[rcrosier]

Date: 7/30/2008 4:09:29 PM
Author: Maisie
I have an ES diamond and its beautiful. I have also had two ACA stones. I personally don't see much difference between the two, although my ES stone might have missed out on being an ACA by a very slight margin.

If WF are recommending the ES diamond you can trust them. It scores 0.9 on the HCA which is great too. Have you seen the HCA? Its a tool for filtering your diamond choices ... https://www.pricescope.com/cutadviser.asp

This is true. There are many ES stones that only slightly miss out on the ACA label. However, you pay for what you get... You probably paid more for your "near ACA" symmetry than you would pay for an ES that isn't as near to ACA. Brian gives fair prices, whatever you pay is what you are going to get relative to the quality of the stone.

To the OP:
You have a budget, so you need to look for what you can find in your budget to best match your priorities. Symmetry is not required for a great stone. Proportions are more important than symmetry (on the whole). There are many diamonds that show less than perfect arrows through an IS that are still amazing performers. The IS is meant to look at light return. The diamond that looks "wonky" is still mostly showing red on the IS, suggesting good light return. The second stone has an off-center culet, and I don't know why the third stone has the darker color on the IS. However, lost light is not black in color on the IS, its white color that is bad. Like I said, the WF prices are fair, so be patient and find what you like. None of the ES diamonds are going to be poor performing diamonds...

 

[Ellen]

Hi SDH,

Since you said the ACA is out of your budget, I won''t comment on that one. (clarity was overkill anyway)

As for the other two. On the .91, among other things I''m not loving the crown/pavilion combo, I know you can do better.

On the .93, that is what we refer to as a steep/deep, meaning the crown and pavilion angles are going to cause some leakage (which shows in the IS), and the diamond may not be as bright as a better cut stone. Again, you can do better.

Merc found you a couple possibilities at WF you could ask for more info on, but I believe if you don''t care for them, you''d have to pay shipping on them. I would first try to find something somewhere else. The stone she found you at NiceIce is very nice. And they are a fine company to work with.

I couldn''t find exactly what your budget is in this thread, but I''ll throw out some stones I found. One other thing you might consider, is going to G in color. It is safe at almost any size (and definitely in this size), and will still be completely white.

This is another great company to work with. The bankwire price below the regular price is the discount.

http://www.goodoldgold.com/diamond/4510/

http://www.goodoldgold.com/diamond/4474/

http://www.goodoldgold.com/diamond/4727/

http://www.goodoldgold.com/diamond/4724/

HTH


And thank you to merc and Maise for being so helpful!

 

[mercoledi]

Ooh, I like the 0.83 F VS2!

All hail queen Ellen!