Is it worth all the pain?

[k-man]

So I''ve spent countless hours educating myself about diamonds - wwaaayyy beyond the "4 c''s". What this has done is made me want to purchase a much more expensive (and superior) diamond than I had anticipated. Now, I know when I give this superior ring to my soon-to-be fiance, she will really only know (and care) about:

1) the size
2) the sparkle (I know ... made up of all those factors)

That being said, is it REALLY worth it to go through all this hair pulling, nerve-racking analysis into details she will never care/know about? We are not conisseurs or experts in diamonds and probably won''t ever be. Will she really be able to tell if the depth and table %s are a little off? Is it worth those extra hundreds/thousands of dollars? I think so (piece of mind down the road) but will anyone else?

 

[Mikesgirl]

Hi, k-man. I think it's worth it, for several reasons.
1) For me, a diamond is an heirloom in the making. I want my children and my children's children to have something worth keeping, not something that is appraised as inferior and "not worth keeping".
2) I always buy quality when I buy something "for life". My diamond was purchased by budget, then quality. Size was the last concern. I know the budget would be the same no matter what, and I know I got the best for the money. But I place a value on quality over size.
3) Today, with all of the technology, things are going to keep improving. I feel like I'm getting in on the ground floor of a good thing by learning how to sort through all of the "AGS 000" stones, or for that matter, even being able to sort out the best among the signature cuts. The internet makes this even more possible because all the specs are given to you. I can't think of any jeweler that would let you sit for hours and run through the certs and the numbers like you can on the net.
4)diamond are common, quality diamonds are not (kind of like people). A quality diamond represents a labor of love - something that should matter to your girlfriend. It does for me.

Last of all, when you're girlfriend is comparing rings with her friends, her's is going to sparkle in a way that many of them might never have seen before. Even if only you know why, THAT's worth it.

I suspect you won't find many people who go through this process that will think quality isn't important, though their priorities will differ.

 

[GVS2]

I'm right there with ya! I know the "sparkle" is made up of many factors, but most of the diamonds I see from reputable jewlers seem the same to my eye. Is it worth the money, time, and aggrevation? Especially when all she will care about is the sparkle and size? (truth is she wont' care about any of that, she just wants to get engaged, even its its from a crackerjack box!)

Remember, I won't be holding her diamond up to H&A, etc, all the time... I just want it to look nice. I think I opened a Pandora's box, and learned too much for my own good!

 

[Rhino]

Hey Kman,

As a buyer and seller of diamonds for 23 years, YES IT IS WORTH IT. I have 1/2ct diamonds in my inventory that'll blow away many 1ct stones (not that you'll have to sacrifice that much in size, just making a point). We demonstrate these differences to our clients and NEVER ONCE do we pressure anyone into a sale. In this relaxed atmosphere 99% of the time, once people can *see* the differences under all various types of light conditions for themselves and with their own eyes, just about every single client chooses beauty over size.

Many times the sacrifice is really no sacrifice at all too. The person who was going to get a common 1ct stone who instead goes to a .9xct super ideal is (most of the time) getting a diamond with THE SAME DIAMETER as the 1ct stone only they now have a .9xct with far superior optics. We've had clients who were looking at blase' 1ct stones who after seeing .8xct stones were MORE THAN HAPPY with both size and optics when walking into their purchasing decision educated.

The homework pays off for you Kman. Now and forever.

Peace,
Rhino

 

[JC]

K-man. I can totally understand what you are going through. I recently got engaged, and I also went through a similar process. We all want to get the person that we love the best. However, sometimes our wallet does not agree. Although, after much education we find out just what makes a diamond beautiful. So once we start to find out just how much cut, color, and clarity really matter than we want to buy the best possible diamond. I do believe that the cut of a diamond is very important. However, I also believe that you have to feel comfortable with regard to what you spend. I would have to say that I have a split opinion. Even though she most likely won't know the difference between what is a good cut and what's not, she will still know what looks beautiful and what does not. I allowed my ego to get involved when I bought my fiance's ring. I thought that was a bad thing, until I saw the look on her face. She loved it! My advice would be for you to not go overboard, but still get her a diamond that she will love for years to come. Consider that "cut" is the most important. So as long as you have a nice cut and the diamond is also white in appearance as well as eye-clean than I'm sure that she will love what you have purchased for her. Hopefully this helps. Good luck.

 

[niceice]

It's worth it or at least our clients seem to think so. When we were first introduced to 'ideal cut diamonds' we were holding about $400K in 'fine make' non-ideal cut round brilliant cut diamonds and we could see a distinct difference in the overall brilliance and dispersion of the diamonds we compared... At that time, we had a decision to make: forget that we ever saw an ideal cut diamond -or- introduce the diamonds to our clients and let them make the decision for themselves based upon what they saw... The dilemma being that we knew we'd never be able to sell off our existing inventory if we did so because the difference is distinct... We elected for the latter and eventually sold off our existing non-ideal cut inventory to the trade and through insurance replacement services for non-ideal cut diamonds... To this day, the difference in visual performance between our ideal cut diamonds and the non-ideal cut diamonds that we provide people with for comparitive reasons is distinct. We often receive email from clients who 'caused quite the problem' amongst their friends after going out to dinner together and discovering that the other ladies in the group noticed a difference in how their diamonds compared from a visual perspective of brilliance and dispersion and scintillation to the diamond which they had purchased... Comments like 'Thanks a lot, Bud!' delivered with a bit of sarcastic scorn seem to be common...

We like to think that the buyer of one of our ideal cut diamonds is a bit of a diamond connoisseur who is more interested in quality than size... The odds are that there will always be somebody in the room who is wearing a larger diamond, but we hope that the ideal cut diamond that you purchase will be the most beautiful and attract the most attention as it blinks at people from across the room

 

[Hest88]

And why wouldn't she know? Lovers always like rehashing every minute detail, so why can't you, after your proposal say, "I'm so glad you like it. You wouldn't believe everything I went through to find the perfect diamond. When I first started I thought it was going to be simple, but do you know that you practically need an advanced degree to understand how all the angles and proportions make up really sparkly diamond?" Then she'll say, "Really?" and you can go into a condensed explanation, so at the end of it she'll see her diamond in a whole new light--so to speak.

 

[fire&ice]

Once again, I dissent & digress.

I think one needs to quantify *exactly* how much more one will pay or *exactly* how much smaller in carat weight one needs to go to obtain that "ideal" stone & meet budget.

Would I pay 5-10% more for an "ideal" stone? - perhaps. Would I sacrifice a minimal amount of carat weight? - perhaps. Would I spend double on a HOF stone? - absolutely not.

I sincerely doubt that the average consumer will see a discernable difference between a super louper ideal & a 1b/2a stone. The eye will not be able to discern Ex polish & sym vs Very good polish & symetry. For that matter, I doubt one will see a dif. between Ex polish & good polish. Why pay for something you really can't see if, in your own words, you are not a "connoisseur".

Without a doubt, cut is important. It is the art of the stone. If one gets a fine make stone, you are still going to wow the average engagement ring.

On this forum there seems to be the notion that:

small = good quality
large = poor quality

The truth lies somewhere in between.

In fact, size *does* matter. Again, that Las Vegas bet - for the normal person - the larger nicely cut stone in a near colorless eye clean stone will always have a better *wow* factor than a small colorless super louper ideal cut stone.

K-man stated his goal. All that matters is size & sparkle. This is the bottom line. Most people want a pretty & sizable stones. The specs should not bog you down.

Should you take care in selecting a stone? Of course. Should it become painful? No. At the end of the day, from your initial post an eye clean stone w/ a very good make in the near colorless range will be a good fit. BUT - the only person who can determine that is you & your eyes.

Good luck.