In Search of More Bling and the Lost Weekend

[P-WHIPPED]

Hey Folks-

This is my first post. Up until a week ago, I thought I had the whole engagement ring process done with as I was about to put an order in with BN for a 1.2-ish, Signature Cut, F, VVS2 ditty...... but that was until I discovered Pricescope. So thanks to you..... kind supporters and forum participants, I didn''t not get to attend any BBQs or get to hang out with friends at the shore this Memorial Day. But instead, I spent the entire 3-day weekend hunched over my laptop reading, cutting and pasting from multiple explorer windows, filling in excel spread sheets, and checking HCA and AGA numbers.
By Monday morning, I was back in my comfort zone of having performed my due dilly prior to a major purchase. All was right in the world for about an hour, until I encountered a thread about ''modified'' rounds..... namely Eight Star, Star 129 and Eighternity. Just when I thought things were making sense again, you guys have to thrown in these amazing, highly unique gems into the mix. Thank you, again.

But don''t worry, I''m not mad at ya...... and to prove it, I''m giving you wonderful people of PS, the opportunity for make up for my lost weekend by simply providing some guidance as to which YOU would choose and what I can expect with these modifieds, given a budget of $10k to $12K to spend on the girl your heart melts for.

Thanks everyone. This is truly an awesome community.

 

[chrono]

You are one swell guy and your GF be absolutely delighted with your purchase given all this homework you are doing to buy the best that you can. You cracked me up with your post as I imagined you hunched over your laptop, eyes glued to the screen as you made comparisons and crunched numbers on the HCA.

8*
I've seen them and given the pricetag, I prefer to get an ACA

Star 129
Lots more facets. Some like it, some don't. You have to see if this is something that she will like. Too busy for me.

8ternity
I haven't seen it in person so I can't comment on it.

 

[neatfreak]

Honestly? I don''t think the modifieds are worth the premium. There''s a reason that the classic H&A cut is called Ideal.

 

[mercoledi]

Have you seen the Gabrielle? Bluekeet has one, and it's truly a beautiful, unique cut without being too busy.

BlueKeet's Gabrielle e-ring thread

ETA: picture of the 'star' or 'flower' pattern associate with that cut

 

[P-WHIPPED]

Neatfreak/Chrono-

That''s kinda my question. Given my budget, how much diamond will I be getting compared to the 1.2 vvs that I originally wanted to buy? Will the added premiun only allow me to afford a .75ct, a .6ct or smaller? If so, I think a traditional signature piece will be the better way to go. As far as the 129 being busy.... I do agree. But since I have little experience looking at 57-58 facet stones, the busyness of a 129 may not look too strange since I haven''t spent the last 30 years observing traditional cuts. I''m trying to set up an appointment to view the 129 and will let you know what I see.

 

[neatfreak]

Date: 5/29/2007 4:07:38 PM
Author: P-WHIPPED
Neatfreak/Chrono-


That''s kinda my question. Given my budget, how much diamond will I be getting compared to the 1.2 vvs that I originally wanted to buy? Will the added premiun only allow me to afford a .75ct, a .6ct or smaller? If so, I think a traditional signature piece will be the better way to go. As far as the 129 being busy.... I do agree. But since I have little experience looking at 57-58 facet stones, the busyness of a 129 may not look too strange since I haven''t spent the last 30 years observing traditional cuts. I''m trying to set up an appointment to view the 129 and will let you know what I see.

I think it totally depends on which modified you choose and who is selling them. If you can''t get them at a PS vendor, you will probably pay significantly more at a B&M for a branded cut. Most, but not all, women would prefer the standard round in a bigger size. Also remember that tools like the HCA won''t work for these fancy cuts, so you''re at the mercy of the jeweler to provide you ASET''s or Idealscope images so that you can try and determine light return.

I think the regular round is much prettier than most of these modifieds, and I wouldn''t go with something like the Gabrielle if I were you. As pretty as the pattern is in the middle, in a lot of those pictures, the stone looks like the center is dead, or has a serious fisheye. Not a look I would pay extra for personally...

 

[chrono]

I don''t know about pricing for the other 2, but 8* carries a hefty premium. I don''t think given your specs of $12K, D VVS you can get anything remotely close to 1 carats.

 

[P-WHIPPED]

Date: 5/29/2007 4:00:12 PM
Author: mercoledi
Have you seen the Gabrielle? Bluekeet has one, and it's truly a beautiful, unique cut without being too busy.

BlueKeet's Gabrielle e-ring thread

ETA: picture of the 'star' or 'flower' pattern associate with that cut

Wow. that's nice.
Ok, so I'll open my discussion up to include the Gabrielle as well. But that's it..... otherwise I think a case of paralysis by analysis will set in shortly. So anyone with experience with a similar budget and history with these 4 lines, please chime in. All insight will be appreciated.

Chrono / Neatfreak, your newer comments about the fisheye look and ct. size for the money have been noted. Thanks.


Has anyone ever seen this page? Great reference.
http://www.diamond-portal.net/diamonds.asp

 

[Gypsy]

HI! Personally I''d get an ACA G-H eyeclean SI1 or VS2. You have a good budget and will get a much larger diamond if you stick with ACA then if you go with branded. And honestly... most people would prefer a larger H&A ideal cut to a smaller ideal and branded cut.

Does your budget include the setting or is it just for the stone?

What setting do you have in mind, BTW?

WELCOME and GOOD LUCK!

 

[kcoursolle]

Personally, I prefer the look of a traditional round brilliant. I like the larger facets because they have bigger flashes of light. Stones with extra facets look really busy and actuallly *not* as sparkly to my eyes at least. However, in a huge stone larger than 3 carats I might like one of these cuts because the facets are getting so big that it could handle additional facets.

In addition, I think if I were you I would drop down in clarity and color. There is basically no visual difference between two identical stones with one that is FL and the other that is an eye-clean SI...but there is a huge price difference. In addition, a G color is still icey white...and colors beyond this are still white looking, but not as icey white.

 

[enbcfsobe]

Though I don''t qualify as an "expert" by far, I thritto Gypsy and kcoursolle''s comments about color/clarity. Unless there is a strong cultural attachment to these items, they are by far the best way to get more bling for your buck, especially if you''re looking at ideal or specialty cut stones. I had a similar experience in terms of stumbling on PS and being glued to the computer (except I''m the researcher and had to convince then-BF that PS was for real), but it wasn''t until I actually started looking at diamonds in person that it became apparent that better cut means a whiter look to the stone and greater brilliance -- both of which make color and clarity less of an issue. I went with a G, and it''s only an AGA 1B non-H&A (ie: not a super-ideal by PS standards) but it looks VERY white, and by going for an eye-clean SI1 we were able to get a much larger stone than we anticipated and still afford to go for a custom platinum setting.

I also concur with those above that said these specialty modified brilliant cuts are a very personal decision. Its really something you and GF have to take a look at. I haven''t personally seen the cuts you mentioned, so I can''t say, but I was definitely more interested in having something that sparkled like crazy and looked bigger than it really is than having extra facets. I was also wary of getting in over my PS-newbie head with too many variables. I don''t think either HCA or AGA is much help for these specialty cuts, and I needed some tools to help narrow things down. I guess that makes it funny that I didn''t end up with a super-ideal cut, but I couldn''t be happier for having let my eyes be the final judge.

Ok, done babbling now. Good luck -- whatever you choose you''re miles ahead of some 95% of ering buyers just for having asked!!

 

[Ellen]

Date: 5/29/2007 3:21:48 PM
Author: Chrono
You are one swell guy and your GF be absolutely delighted with your purchase given all this homework you are doing to buy the best that you can. You cracked me up with your post as I imagined you hunched over your laptop, eyes glued to the screen as you made comparisons and crunched numbers on the HCA.

Me too! lol

I agree with those that say ixnay on the modifieds. Just get a regular killer round and she''ll love ya forever.

 

[angeline]

just a by the way... the 8* isn''t a modified round, it''s the regular 57/58 faceted cut. It''s just cut to give very high edge-to-edge light return.

They are beautiful, but carry an approx 40% premium. I have compared an 8* with a WF stone cut to give similar return (Wf''s New Line) side by side and I couldn''t see the diff. They both looked amazing. HTH.

 

[neatfreak]

Date: 5/29/2007 6:27:52 PM
Author: angeline
just a by the way... the 8* isn''t a modified round, it''s the regular 57/58 faceted cut. It''s just cut to give very high edge-to-edge light return.


They are beautiful, but carry an approx 40% premium . I have compared an 8* with a WF stone cut to give similar return (Wf''s New Line) side by side and I couldn''t see the diff. They both looked amazing. HTH.

Holy Cr*p! That is crazy and TOTALLY not worth it IMO.

 

[angeline]

Date: 5/29/2007 6:30:15 PM
Author: neatfreak

Date: 5/29/2007 6:27:52 PM

Author: angeline

just a by the way... the 8* isn''t a modified round, it''s the regular 57/58 faceted cut. It''s just cut to give very high edge-to-edge light return.



They are beautiful, but carry an approx 40% premium . I have compared an 8* with a WF stone cut to give similar return (Wf''s New Line) side by side and I couldn''t see the diff. They both looked amazing. HTH.

Holy Cr*p! That is crazy and TOTALLY not worth it IMO.

Don''t quote me on it - but that was the price diff when I was looking for my stone around the carat mark. I truly couldn''t see the difference, they both looked beautiful to me.

 

[diamondseeker2006]

I would also advise getting a hearts and arrows round. F color is lovely, but you really don't need VVS. You usually can't see inclusions with a 10x loupe on a VS1 and most VS2's are nice. Here's a 1.4 F VS2 H&A:

http://www.goodoldgold.com/diamond/3066/

 

[P-WHIPPED]

Ok, so I had a chance to see a 1.53 ct. G SI1 Star 129 up close and personal this afternoon. For contrast, I was able to compare it to what I originally wanted to purchase, a slightly smaller 1.2 ct. EX cut F color VVS2 diamond...... I have to admit the Star 129 had noticably more ''life'' and sparkle to it. And as far as it being too busy? Not at all. If I didn''t know which was which, I think I would pick the 129 over the other based soley on visual observation........ but its not so simple. The problem lies in the fact that the sensible part of me has a hard time justifing the purchase of this particular Star 129 (for example) when I can purchase slightly smaller 1.2 ct. Signiture cut F color VVS2 diamond for the same price or a similiar ''normal'' 1.53 ct G SI1s for approx. 30% less. What would you do?

Now, if I can only find a dealer who also sells the Eighternity and Eightstar to really mess with mind.

 

[Ellen]

Date: 5/30/2007 4:07:59 AM
Author: P-WHIPPED

Ok, so I had a chance to see a 1.53 ct. G SI1 Star 129 up close and personal this afternoon. For contrast, I was able to compare it to what I originally wanted to purchase, a slightly smaller 1.2 ct. EX cut F color VVS2 diamond...... I have to admit the Star 129 had noticably more ''life'' and sparkle to it. And as far as it being too busy? Not at all. If I didn''t know which was which, I think I would pick the 129 over the other based soley on visual observation........ but its not so simple. The problem lies in the fact that the sensible part of me has a hard time justifing the purchase of this particular Star 129 (for example) when I can purchase slightly smaller 1.2 ct. Signiture cut F color VVS2 diamond for the same price or a similiar ''normal'' 1.53 ct G SI1s for approx. 30% less. What would you do?

Now, if I can only find a dealer who also sells the Eighternity and Eightstar to really mess with mind.

As I suggested before, I personally would by a excellent cut H&A''s G SI1. But that''s just me.

Do what makes you mentally comfortable, whatever that is. You''re only going to do this once.

 

[jaz464]

If you have done a comparison IRL and liked the star 129 better, that is what I would get (assuming it fits into your budget). Most people here prefer the good old H&A ideal cut but many have also not compared it with different rounds. If you loved it, I say go for it!

 

[neatfreak]

I think we''ve all made clear what we would do. But that''s us, not you.