IYO...what is a BRANDED stone?

[debi1960]

What about Good Old Gold''s own collection?

I think the Octavia that I just bought would be considered a branded stone. ???

 

[Todd Gray]

I''ve been in the diamond business since 1985 and the majority of that time has been spent in the role of diamond buyer... One of the interesting things that I''ve noticed over the years is that the majority of branded diamonds lack what I would consider to be a consistent level of consistency. We were one of the very first authorized dealers for a rather well known brand of "Hearts & Arrows" diamond and we dumped their line because there was too much variation from diamond to diamond. Then we picked up another branded version of H&A production and it was exceptional in the beginning, but as demand increased, their production quality decreased in an effort to keep up with the demand. So what I''d like people to realize is that they should consider every diamonds on its own merits, regardless of whatever brand name may be assigned to it, because most brands lack consistency - and thus each brand is perhaps defined on a stone-by-stone basis and in my opinion facet-by-facet.

One of the things that I really enjoy about the people who spend some time researching diamonds here on PS is that they are not easily swayed by swaggering marketing slogans... Gimmicky marketing slogans and incredible claims made by certain brands (and web sites) might fool consumers in the early stage of the search process (and I suppose it results in a reasonable amount of sales) but I believe they are less likely to be effective, in fact, they may even be extremely detrimental, as a marketing technique for the more informed consumers who reside here on PS.