Is upgrading worth it?

[kath1969]

I have been a visitor for awhile and have really enjoyed the posts. I love the pics! Anyway, here is my dilemma and I thought I would gather opinions from those who are more educated than I when it comes to diamonds.

10 years ago my husband took me to LA to purchase my e-ring. Needless to say we were paying for a wedding and buying our first home so budget was important. We ended up with an EGL (Los Angeles) certified diamond with the following information

I color
SI1 clarity
1.075 weight
6.57 - 6.66 X 4.01 mm

This summer I was back in the area and we went to visit the same jeweler (still working in LA!). I ended up buying a new setting. I started thinking about maybe upgrading my diamond. The jeweler is willing to give me what I spent 10 years ago ($3,500) towards a new diamond and he really prefers to deal in GIA certified (although he would be willing to get me another EGL). I would have an additional 2,500 - 3,000 to spend (on top of the trade for a total of about $6,000 - $6,500) and would be looking probably at the following range:

1.10 size, G-H color, VS2-SI1 clarity, Ideal cut (GIA certified). It seems like this is possible for my price range based on what I''ve seen on the internet.

So the big question is: is it worth the money to upgrade? Will I really see a difference in my ring? I do wish my stone was a little whiter and would like a little more sparkle. The ring looks eye clean to me. If I can''t see a visible difference, maybe I''ll spend the money on an anniversary band!

Thanks for your insight! I tried attaching a picture but they are apparently too big to load.

 

[jstarfireb]

For me it would depend on how well cut the stone is. I probably wouldn''t upgrade just for color and a 0.1ct difference. But if your old stone is not ideal cut and you have a chance to get an ideal, that''s what would seal the deal for me.

 

[kcoursolle]

What is it about your current stone that you are dissatisfied with? Do you think it's too warm, not well-cut enough? You mention these issues, but we can't tell from the specs if it's well-cut or not. In addition, did you look at higher color grades to see if you think it is worth it? If there is an obvious thing that is bugging you about your stone than it may be worth it, but personally I think you are spending a lot to get very little here. I would wait until you can get more of a change since you really aren't going larger here.

 

[UCLABelle]

Personally, I am a "mind clean" person. If you feel (or think rather) that your ring is not perfect (warm, not eye-clean, poorly cut), and that you can afford to upgrade it, then go ahead.

 

[Deelight]

Depends on what exactly you want to get out of this upgrade

Size wise you most likely will not notice a major difference

Cut wise if you upgrade to a super duper tightly cut by PS standards depending on the cut of your old diamond you should notice a difference

Colour wise, depending on what EGL lab graded the diamond it might be likely that the colour could be off so upgrading to a G-H colour super duper sparkle bomb should look noticeably whiter


If you can afford the upgrade and it makes you love your ring more then go for it.

 

[Dancing Fire]

i would do it if the GIA stone is well cut.

 

[kath1969]

Thank you so much (all of you) for the thoughts. I think my issue with the diamond is that I really do love a whiter diamond. I guess it just looks so good to me when it''s set! My new setting is really created for a diamond of my current size, so larger isn''t really an option at this time. I tried to play with the pictures of my ring to make them a smaller size so that I could put them up, but I am going around in circles!

Regarding my diamond, I just have the smaller card with the basic information and stone#. The cost at the time I bought the stone for the full certification was over $100. I tried to recently retrieve the full document from Los Angeles (where the stone was certified) but EGL told me they don''t carry information from 10 years ago (previous to going computerized). I guess I would have to have the stone recertified to know the actual cut.