Lykame
Brilliant_Rock
- Joined
- Jun 1, 2018
- Messages
- 1,473
Hi hi! 
Short version of this:
I am buying a CBI diamond!!! Eeeeee!
Long (really long) version (you might want a cup of tea before you settle in):
So I originally posted this thread. Wow, all the way back at the beginning of June.
I'd had my ring for many years, but I was bothered by the setting. It wasn't ever what I had wanted. Also, after a long long time lurking on here, I was bothered by the fact that my central stone was not an ideal-cut diamond. It was pretty decently cut, yes, but I knew I could do better. It was also an SI1, and really I wanted a VS quality diamond.
So began these last few months, where I think I have basically exclusively only thought about diamonds and settings. My poor partner, mum, and one select friend!
Based on the recommendations in that thread, I realised that really I needed to concentrate on the central stone. But it was all going to hinge on me either being able to use my ring as a part exchange, or on me being able to sell my ring.
I started by contacting various vendors that are very well known and respected on here, and I was not disappointed. I contacted Whiteflash first, and they were lovely and offered a part exchange on my ring that was really decent I have to admit. However (and you'll note this is a running theme), I realised after some time that really to feel comfortable, I would have to fly from England to Texas, and that's not a cheap flight or experience. That was money I could be spending on diamond and setting. I mean, I was willing to do it, but still.
Then I contacted Good Old Gold, and I had lots of contact with David at Good Old Gold. He was absolutely amazing and wonderful, was happy to commission my ring for me and shared a few options with me about possible new diamonds. He understood I had Pricescope expectations and that things like the ASET result of a diamond were super important to me. I was really impressed by him. To be honest in some ways my experience was made easier as I don't live in America and therefore some of my choices were sort of forced on me - having to try and choose between all these awesome and wonderful people, I don't know how anyone else does it.
Anyway, again, I would have been super nervous sending my ring by post to America, and I wasn't particularly keen to commission my ring for an unknown period of time in America. I realised I really needed to sell my ring in England.
I also have to admit, I also went through a number of stages of feeling very uncomfortable with approaching all these different vendors. It honestly felt like I was cheating on all of them, and it did not make me feel good. They were all excellent and I'm sure they knew I was looking at various options, but it didn't make me feel like a good person. I emailed David recently, once I had made a complete decision, and thanked him profusely and apologised to him. If I'm ever in the New York area I'll be sure to visit.
I thought about Bluenile. I thought about local jewellery shops. I reached out to AGS in America and bought an ASET. The person I spoke to in AGS was lovely and really helped me out, I was so grateful and impressed at their customer service.
I bought my original ring from a jewellery shop down Hatton Garden in London. Lesson learnt, never again. I mean I already knew that, because their attitude after I bought the ring from them was never great. But I always held onto the fact that they would put 100% of the money I spent with them towards a new diamond, that at least I had that option.
Ugh. To get the SAME SIZED stone (1.65 carats) in a G (mine was an F) but without fluorescence (mine had medium blue), and with VS quality (mine was an SI1), with angles that I wanted, they wanted to charge me like £11,000 EXTRA!!! I mean!!!
It wasn't even like they could give me options to choose from. Their customer service was rubbish. It made me feel sick. I wanted to escape their clutches.
In fact, after going down all of Hatton Garden and into most of the shops, the price they would have given me for a part exchange was just... really upsetting, honestly. And usually it was on the basis of getting one diamond in that had the correct numbers, but most jewellery shops in England have not even heard of the term ASET. The amount of blank looks. The idea that a customer would reject a stone after they called it in was just so foreign to them. And the disgust at fluorescence! It was painful. It was like the stone that they had sold me was just the dirtiest thing because of the fluorescence. They had sold it to me!!!
Honestly I had no issue with the fluorescence, it was a beautiful stone and the fluorescence did not affect it negatively at all. But I would find someone who would be totally up for trying to sell it on my behalf, and then discover the fluorescence and be like 'no sorry, I can't sell that'.
Equally, armed with my pocket ASET scope, I realised I didn't trust myself. Yes I could look at a stone under the ASET scope - but the result was meaningless to me. Stones I knew weren't great looked pretty great under the scope. I was seeing a lot of red and not a lot of green. When I really thought about it, I could see different shades of red - so okay, I could see something wrong with the stone. But was it because I had overdone the backlighting? Was it slightly tilted? Was it because there was actual leakage? I was clueless. Like, it's all well and good that we suggest to people about buying their own scopes to use, but I realised it's so much more complicated than that. I became sure that no stone I found and tried to assess mysef with an ASET scope was going to be good enough for me. That ruled out most of my English options.
After some agonising, I approached CBI diamonds. In my dreams, I thought. They clearly have a mark-up against them even compared to ACAs, and it's not a cheap mark-up. However, I had been doing a lot of reading on here, and I was being swayed by it. I know there are a lot of controversial threads on here comparing ACAs to CBIs, and having never seen ACAs in person, I cannot comment. But as I said, I was being swayed.
I know there are many people here who love love love their ACAs. I'm sure they're awesome and I have no hesitation recommending them, but the sense I get from reading about CBIs is that there's something 'extra' or 'different' about them. I really started to like the idea of the best of the best of the best. I think ACAs fall into that category too, but I wanted to look into CBIs. I felt like, if I were going to go through all this effort, I had to know I had looked at all my options.
Bring on my relationship with HPD in America. I initially approached @Wink, and asked about his stock. He was great (as we all are well aware) and put me into contact with Melissa @Winks_Elf.
The customer service I have received since my first contact with them has been amazing. It sets a certain standard and really really helped me with trust.
The thing about Melissa is that she really really encourages you to think outside your comfort zone. I went in with a certain set of criteria and wishes, but the reality was that those wishes were outside of my budget for CBI diamonds. Rather than giving up on me, she showed me lots of videos of various different stones and really spent a lot of time with me. I think that plus a lot of things I was reading on Pricescope really helped me to stretch myself outside of what I would have said I was comfortable with beforehand.
Of course I understand that there's a sales strategy there - encouraging me to change what I could accept means I was more likely to buy a CBI stone, whereas if I couldn't be flexible that's a purchase I wouldn't have been able to make with them. However, whilst I could see that strategy it didn't bother me because I trusted so much in the brand of CBI and the quality of the stones, and more importantly Melissa is awesome.
It turns out there were at least a couple of places in London that can source CBIs, and Melissa was happy to help coordinate me with them so that I could see some CBIs in person. I was also still looking into the part exchange option.
The first company I approached I really was unimpressed by. Again the fluorescence of my stone was an issue. By now I had obviously realised that really I needed to look into selling my stone more privately, but I was willing to take a small hit for the 'ease' of part exchange. I just wasn't expecting... the response I got and I was put off. Like, I know I was trying to sell my ring, but there were many years where I loved it, and I was really feeling offended on its behalf.
Also I had been spoilt by Melissa's customer service, and I wasn't getting that, and for such an expensive purchase.... Yes.
I felt a bit gloomy about it all. Gloomy and a bit stressed. By now it was the beginning of August and it seems as if the diamond industry goes to sleep during August, at least in Antwerp. However luckily in England that didn't happen, and with the support of Melissa, I got into contact with @Durham Rose, who also sell CBI diamonds.
Durham Rose were great. I semi-randomly pitch up to their shop in London to just get a feel for them. There were no CBI diamonds to see but it was just nice to speak to people who knew what they were talking about in person. An awesome lady called Faye spent a really decent amount of time with me to just talk through things and talk about settings. It was lovely, and a very powerful experience.
Around the same time, I found someone to buy my ring for a really amazing price, and I was super happy about it. However, organising to meet with them was a pain in the bottom because of how much I work, and then two days before I was meant to meet with them to go through with it, they withdrew their offer. That was awful. I started to look into auctioning my ring. I wasn't brave enough to eBay it.
I found a company in England to auction my ring through, and they were amazing. Again I spoke with them a lot, asked a lot of questions, was very mistrustful, etc. They were really great. In the end I didn't sell my ring through them, but I think if I had had more time it would have been successful. They were honestly great, I was sad to not sell my ring through them.
In late August I went abroad for a couple of weeks. I agonised about it all again and held off on the auction during that time (because I was meant to be selling my ring through that other seller, and then that fell through). On returning back I auctioned my ring and then also searched for more buyers in case the auction didn't happen.
The stress.
However, some positive things were coming to light. As I had been working quite a lot with Melissa, I had been thinking I would really need to buy the diamond through HPD, which would mean going to America. Although again, flight costs etc were a bit of a thing. However, and this was a massive selling point for CBI, I wasn't 'cheating' on Melissa by buying from Durham Rose. So, in hope, and between Melissa, Durham Rose and myself, we organised for two diamonds to come to Durham Rose for me to at least see. Bearing in mind the 'mark-up' for CBI diamonds, I had been having a small wobble at the idea and wondering whether I should consider ACAs again. However, the reality was that with CBI, I could see the stones and buy the stones in England, and not spend extra money on trips to America. Also the customer service I was receiving was worth it.
I feel like I should do a separate entry about the two diamonds I ended up seeing, and the diamond I'm actually getting at some point, because I feel like that information will get lost in all my journal-like blurbling here. But the two diamonds I saw were absolutely amazing. Honestly. Crazily beautiful, so much better than I was expecting. The light performance of them is unreal, it's like the light 'walks' through the stones like lightning. I have no other way to describe it.
And then! I found someone who would buy my ring! Not through the auction, but outside of it. They weren't going to pay as much as the first person I had found who had pulled out, but they were going to pay enough that I didn't feel completely terrible about it. I wondered whether if I had waited longer I might have received a touch more from the auction, but I wasn't convinced about that really and I also wasn't guaranteed a sale, anyway.
I could have put them off until the auction was finished, but by now I was fed up and this all has taken SO LONG. I felt like... what do I really gain through waiting? My partner said to me... as a Native American saying... if you chase two rabbits you'll lose both. And it really felt like that. I could have tried chasing the auction, but likely then I would have lost the buyer that I had found AND I would have not sold the ring in auction. So I decided to accept that there might be a loss for me, and I sold my ring.
The relief. The relief. So today I have been able to put a deposit down on the stone that I want. Whoop whoop!!! And you know, I trust in the company so much I haven't actually seen the stone I'm going for. Haha. Eep?
Next I just have to figure out the setting.
Faye has been very patient and awesome about my setting struggle.
Anyway, I just wanted to document my journey here, it likely interests very few people, but if you stuck through this, thanks for listening.
Short version of this:
I am buying a CBI diamond!!! Eeeeee!
Long (really long) version (you might want a cup of tea before you settle in):
So I originally posted this thread. Wow, all the way back at the beginning of June.
I'd had my ring for many years, but I was bothered by the setting. It wasn't ever what I had wanted. Also, after a long long time lurking on here, I was bothered by the fact that my central stone was not an ideal-cut diamond. It was pretty decently cut, yes, but I knew I could do better. It was also an SI1, and really I wanted a VS quality diamond.
So began these last few months, where I think I have basically exclusively only thought about diamonds and settings. My poor partner, mum, and one select friend!
Based on the recommendations in that thread, I realised that really I needed to concentrate on the central stone. But it was all going to hinge on me either being able to use my ring as a part exchange, or on me being able to sell my ring.
I started by contacting various vendors that are very well known and respected on here, and I was not disappointed. I contacted Whiteflash first, and they were lovely and offered a part exchange on my ring that was really decent I have to admit. However (and you'll note this is a running theme), I realised after some time that really to feel comfortable, I would have to fly from England to Texas, and that's not a cheap flight or experience. That was money I could be spending on diamond and setting. I mean, I was willing to do it, but still.
Then I contacted Good Old Gold, and I had lots of contact with David at Good Old Gold. He was absolutely amazing and wonderful, was happy to commission my ring for me and shared a few options with me about possible new diamonds. He understood I had Pricescope expectations and that things like the ASET result of a diamond were super important to me. I was really impressed by him. To be honest in some ways my experience was made easier as I don't live in America and therefore some of my choices were sort of forced on me - having to try and choose between all these awesome and wonderful people, I don't know how anyone else does it.
Anyway, again, I would have been super nervous sending my ring by post to America, and I wasn't particularly keen to commission my ring for an unknown period of time in America. I realised I really needed to sell my ring in England.
I also have to admit, I also went through a number of stages of feeling very uncomfortable with approaching all these different vendors. It honestly felt like I was cheating on all of them, and it did not make me feel good. They were all excellent and I'm sure they knew I was looking at various options, but it didn't make me feel like a good person. I emailed David recently, once I had made a complete decision, and thanked him profusely and apologised to him. If I'm ever in the New York area I'll be sure to visit.
I thought about Bluenile. I thought about local jewellery shops. I reached out to AGS in America and bought an ASET. The person I spoke to in AGS was lovely and really helped me out, I was so grateful and impressed at their customer service.
I bought my original ring from a jewellery shop down Hatton Garden in London. Lesson learnt, never again. I mean I already knew that, because their attitude after I bought the ring from them was never great. But I always held onto the fact that they would put 100% of the money I spent with them towards a new diamond, that at least I had that option.
Ugh. To get the SAME SIZED stone (1.65 carats) in a G (mine was an F) but without fluorescence (mine had medium blue), and with VS quality (mine was an SI1), with angles that I wanted, they wanted to charge me like £11,000 EXTRA!!! I mean!!!
It wasn't even like they could give me options to choose from. Their customer service was rubbish. It made me feel sick. I wanted to escape their clutches.In fact, after going down all of Hatton Garden and into most of the shops, the price they would have given me for a part exchange was just... really upsetting, honestly. And usually it was on the basis of getting one diamond in that had the correct numbers, but most jewellery shops in England have not even heard of the term ASET. The amount of blank looks. The idea that a customer would reject a stone after they called it in was just so foreign to them. And the disgust at fluorescence! It was painful. It was like the stone that they had sold me was just the dirtiest thing because of the fluorescence. They had sold it to me!!!
Honestly I had no issue with the fluorescence, it was a beautiful stone and the fluorescence did not affect it negatively at all. But I would find someone who would be totally up for trying to sell it on my behalf, and then discover the fluorescence and be like 'no sorry, I can't sell that'.Equally, armed with my pocket ASET scope, I realised I didn't trust myself. Yes I could look at a stone under the ASET scope - but the result was meaningless to me. Stones I knew weren't great looked pretty great under the scope. I was seeing a lot of red and not a lot of green. When I really thought about it, I could see different shades of red - so okay, I could see something wrong with the stone. But was it because I had overdone the backlighting? Was it slightly tilted? Was it because there was actual leakage? I was clueless. Like, it's all well and good that we suggest to people about buying their own scopes to use, but I realised it's so much more complicated than that. I became sure that no stone I found and tried to assess mysef with an ASET scope was going to be good enough for me. That ruled out most of my English options.
After some agonising, I approached CBI diamonds. In my dreams, I thought. They clearly have a mark-up against them even compared to ACAs, and it's not a cheap mark-up. However, I had been doing a lot of reading on here, and I was being swayed by it. I know there are a lot of controversial threads on here comparing ACAs to CBIs, and having never seen ACAs in person, I cannot comment. But as I said, I was being swayed.
I know there are many people here who love love love their ACAs. I'm sure they're awesome and I have no hesitation recommending them, but the sense I get from reading about CBIs is that there's something 'extra' or 'different' about them. I really started to like the idea of the best of the best of the best. I think ACAs fall into that category too, but I wanted to look into CBIs. I felt like, if I were going to go through all this effort, I had to know I had looked at all my options.
Bring on my relationship with HPD in America. I initially approached @Wink, and asked about his stock. He was great (as we all are well aware) and put me into contact with Melissa @Winks_Elf.
The customer service I have received since my first contact with them has been amazing. It sets a certain standard and really really helped me with trust.
The thing about Melissa is that she really really encourages you to think outside your comfort zone. I went in with a certain set of criteria and wishes, but the reality was that those wishes were outside of my budget for CBI diamonds. Rather than giving up on me, she showed me lots of videos of various different stones and really spent a lot of time with me. I think that plus a lot of things I was reading on Pricescope really helped me to stretch myself outside of what I would have said I was comfortable with beforehand.
Of course I understand that there's a sales strategy there - encouraging me to change what I could accept means I was more likely to buy a CBI stone, whereas if I couldn't be flexible that's a purchase I wouldn't have been able to make with them. However, whilst I could see that strategy it didn't bother me because I trusted so much in the brand of CBI and the quality of the stones, and more importantly Melissa is awesome.
It turns out there were at least a couple of places in London that can source CBIs, and Melissa was happy to help coordinate me with them so that I could see some CBIs in person. I was also still looking into the part exchange option.
The first company I approached I really was unimpressed by. Again the fluorescence of my stone was an issue. By now I had obviously realised that really I needed to look into selling my stone more privately, but I was willing to take a small hit for the 'ease' of part exchange. I just wasn't expecting... the response I got and I was put off. Like, I know I was trying to sell my ring, but there were many years where I loved it, and I was really feeling offended on its behalf.
Also I had been spoilt by Melissa's customer service, and I wasn't getting that, and for such an expensive purchase.... Yes.
I felt a bit gloomy about it all. Gloomy and a bit stressed. By now it was the beginning of August and it seems as if the diamond industry goes to sleep during August, at least in Antwerp. However luckily in England that didn't happen, and with the support of Melissa, I got into contact with @Durham Rose, who also sell CBI diamonds.
Durham Rose were great. I semi-randomly pitch up to their shop in London to just get a feel for them. There were no CBI diamonds to see but it was just nice to speak to people who knew what they were talking about in person. An awesome lady called Faye spent a really decent amount of time with me to just talk through things and talk about settings. It was lovely, and a very powerful experience.
Around the same time, I found someone to buy my ring for a really amazing price, and I was super happy about it. However, organising to meet with them was a pain in the bottom because of how much I work, and then two days before I was meant to meet with them to go through with it, they withdrew their offer. That was awful. I started to look into auctioning my ring. I wasn't brave enough to eBay it.
I found a company in England to auction my ring through, and they were amazing. Again I spoke with them a lot, asked a lot of questions, was very mistrustful, etc. They were really great. In the end I didn't sell my ring through them, but I think if I had had more time it would have been successful. They were honestly great, I was sad to not sell my ring through them.
In late August I went abroad for a couple of weeks. I agonised about it all again and held off on the auction during that time (because I was meant to be selling my ring through that other seller, and then that fell through). On returning back I auctioned my ring and then also searched for more buyers in case the auction didn't happen.
The stress.
However, some positive things were coming to light. As I had been working quite a lot with Melissa, I had been thinking I would really need to buy the diamond through HPD, which would mean going to America. Although again, flight costs etc were a bit of a thing. However, and this was a massive selling point for CBI, I wasn't 'cheating' on Melissa by buying from Durham Rose. So, in hope, and between Melissa, Durham Rose and myself, we organised for two diamonds to come to Durham Rose for me to at least see. Bearing in mind the 'mark-up' for CBI diamonds, I had been having a small wobble at the idea and wondering whether I should consider ACAs again. However, the reality was that with CBI, I could see the stones and buy the stones in England, and not spend extra money on trips to America. Also the customer service I was receiving was worth it.
I feel like I should do a separate entry about the two diamonds I ended up seeing, and the diamond I'm actually getting at some point, because I feel like that information will get lost in all my journal-like blurbling here. But the two diamonds I saw were absolutely amazing. Honestly. Crazily beautiful, so much better than I was expecting. The light performance of them is unreal, it's like the light 'walks' through the stones like lightning. I have no other way to describe it.
And then! I found someone who would buy my ring! Not through the auction, but outside of it. They weren't going to pay as much as the first person I had found who had pulled out, but they were going to pay enough that I didn't feel completely terrible about it. I wondered whether if I had waited longer I might have received a touch more from the auction, but I wasn't convinced about that really and I also wasn't guaranteed a sale, anyway.
I could have put them off until the auction was finished, but by now I was fed up and this all has taken SO LONG. I felt like... what do I really gain through waiting? My partner said to me... as a Native American saying... if you chase two rabbits you'll lose both. And it really felt like that. I could have tried chasing the auction, but likely then I would have lost the buyer that I had found AND I would have not sold the ring in auction. So I decided to accept that there might be a loss for me, and I sold my ring.
The relief. The relief. So today I have been able to put a deposit down on the stone that I want. Whoop whoop!!!
And you know, I trust in the company so much I haven't actually seen the stone I'm going for. Haha. Eep? Next I just have to figure out the setting.
Faye has been very patient and awesome about my setting struggle.Anyway, I just wanted to document my journey here, it likely interests very few people, but if you stuck through this, thanks for listening.
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