JewelryZone and price matching

[cheetahman]

I haven''t been able to find many posts on this board from someone purchasing from JewelryZone. Their website looks a little amateur-ish and even when signing up as a customer, it didn''t initially record my password.

However, they seem to have a few stones that are of interest to me. I can only say of interest, because it seems like vendors leave out the crown and pavilion values making it impossible to use the Cut Advisor Tool.

I''ve noticed that Abazias has a price match guarentee - http://www.abazias.com/wholesale_diamonds_c.html. This would be good, but where as each stone is different, how is it possible to have a price match guarentee? They could easily just say that this minute difference means that it''s not an apple to apple comparison.

As it''s my first post, I''m a noob, but I''ve been doing some reading on this site and in the forums over the last week. Thanks for any advice you can give.

 

[belle]

hey cheetahman

welcome to ps!
perhaps you have not found much about jeweryzone because they mainly use virtual stones and drop-ship them. this means that they sell diamonds that they don''t actually have in their posession and have never or will never see shipped to your door. the price is usually less because there are no value added services or guarantees. most people here make the decision to pay a little more to go with a vendor that actually keeps selected stones in stock and offers extra services and guarantees.

 

[cheetahman]

Thanks Belle, that''s what I figured bout JewelryZone. I do like some of the prices for some stones - though without full information on the stones it''s hard to say if the prices are really any good.

However, if it''s possible to use another vendor''s service with JewelryZone''s prices (via a price match) and if the cut turns out okay, I would think I could buy more for my buck.

 

[belle]

what are you looking for?

 

[cheetahman]

My girlfriend - perhaps fiancee post purchase

 

[belle]

what kind of stone are you looking for? do you have any ideas yet?

 

[cheetahman]

Lots of ideas, definitely round brilliant. It''s a surprise, so she''ll have no input, but her expectations are pretty low, so I''m pretty sure I''ll surpass them.

I''m thinking that I''ll go with the largest I, SI1 that I can get. I can''t really tell the difference between that and G, VS1 without a loop. That''s somewhat a hard statement to say because the local jewelers don''t really let you look at two side by side. Still, I feel 95% confident in them being close enough to eye-similar. It''s close enough that I can go for the biggest with at least a premium or ideal cut in my price range.

 

[belle]

you can''t go wrong with a well cut round. i think the i/si combination is a great value. there are many here who have j colored stones as well. with a good cut, these lower color stones will face up very white. i see absolutely no reason to pay for vs clarity, unless you find the perfect stone and it happens to be a vs. otherwise you can definitely find ''eye-clean'' si stones and they happen to be my preference. have you used the diamond search tool at the top of the page to locate some potential stones?

 

[cheetahman]

I have and I have found about 5 potential diamonds that I *think* I would be happy with. I have to contact the vendor to get the crown and pavilion to plug into the cut advisor tool. However given just the table and depth that Price Scope seems to return in most of the search results, it''s impossible to determine whether the cut is any good.

Of course, I could ask to see the diamond, but I don''t trust my eyes much in this purchase. My eyes are terrible and my g/f with her contacts in is pretty good. Still she drinks a lot of coffee and a local jeweler said that caffeine affects the ability to distinguish color detail. He said that in gem school (I forget which certification he had), you couldn''t have caffeine when grading stones. Even if I did trust my eyes, I could have them send 5 stones to my home for evaluation. I have much more confidence in the cut advisor tool than I do my own eyes.

This comes to the root of my original question. Some of the stones that I''ve found that match my criteria (without counting cut because I currently lack that data from the stones), seem like they''d be cheaper on JewelryZone. Or if I go that route, I''d be able to jump up to a higher carat weight. Now, given that in my opinion, they don''t seem to match up with other vendors, is there a way that I can utilize the price matching feature at some vendors, to get that extra value from a vendor that I feel comfortable with.

I feel like I can do well with just the prices that come back from the engine. I''m at the point now, where I''m looking to get just a little bit more diamond for the buck.

 

[belle]

i do not know anything about the stipulations of price matching offered by certain vendors. without information on cut, how did you narrow down your choices?

 

[cheetahman]

Mostly by carat size, color, and clarity. Once I find that, I go to the vendor and look to see what the cut if rated (sometimes they say it''s ideal, premium, etc.). If it''s one of those two, I then ask for the crown and pavilion values and plug them into the cut advisor and go from there. I''ve only gotten one vendor''s values for those. I hope to get a lot more of those values on Monday when the vendors are open.

 

[cheetahman]

To follow up on my last message, I don''t really know how to determine cut from the search otherwise. If pricescope searches gave me all the values necessary for the cut advisor, I could use that, but it doesn''t. Thus I''m reduced, by the tools available, to not consider cut #1 as I generally would.

 

[belle]

you can you the search tool and click on ''cut quality search'' instead of the ''search all'' this will narrow your search down to those stones with a known cut quality.

 

[Regular Guy]

Though I agree with Belle, you can also use the db you''ve been using and ask for only AGS0 options to appear, to increase your chances of a well cut stone.

To review, there''s 2 different databases here, and the link below my signature reviews strategies for using both.

 

[cheetahman]

I''ve tried the cut quality search, but in searching by this criteria it seems to eliminate 80+% of the available diamonds. Those 80% might be perfectly great diamonds, so I''d probably not want to eliminate them based on lack of information. I can probably find something that way, but it seems I''ll have to settle for a very low carat weight, which isn''t going to work. I feel much better searching through the entire list of everything available and then doing a Cut Advisor search.

The one that I did get the pavilion and crown for, came out with a very good cut with the cut advisor. I think I''d rather have that than have find out that I can get a perfect cut at a really, really small carat weight.

 

[Regular Guy]

I don''t think you''ve read yet what I wrote at that link. I agree with you, and the diamond I bought was from that much bigger list.

The idea is to have perhaps two good choices, maybe one from each list, at the same vendor, and get their assistance, from away if necessary, picking the best one for you.

 

[cheetahman]

Sorry, Ira, I was composing my response before I saw your response. I will look at the AGS0 options, but I feel I''ll have to deal with a significantly lower carat weight than I''m willing to consider if I check that. That''s been my experience with looking at AGS rated stones in general. I think it would be a miracle of sorts if there''s a similar carat weight at AGS0 that''s equal to the carat weight than I feel I can get from the larger database. $/ct. weight has been a key sort criteria for me when searching from the larger DB.

 

[cheetahman]

Upon review of that link there are a couple of think that don''t help me. Location isn''t particularly useful because my eyes can''t decern anything useful in person, at any magnification. It might just be my experience of knowing what to look for, but I''d need to find a retailer willing to throw out their whole inventory on the table at once for me to compare what looks best. That isn''t going happen.

The cut search at "excellent" (I found "very good" according to the cut advisor already), found exactly 4 diamonds. All are bigger than I was looking for and about 2-3 times the price of the "very good" I found. The cut search at "very good" only had 2 diamonds when I expanded the criteria significantly. Also, I lost the ability to sort by $/ct weight. It''s a great idea in theory, but doesn''t seem to work out for my situation.

 

[Regular Guy]

Date: 10/22/2005 8:26:52 PM
Author: cheetahman
Upon review of that link there are a couple of think that don't help me. Location isn't particularly useful because my eyes can't decern anything useful in person, at any magnification. It might just be my experience of knowing what to look for, but I'd need to find a retailer willing to throw out their whole inventory on the table at once for me to compare what looks best. That isn't going happen.

The cut search at 'excellent' (I found 'very good' according to the cut advisor already), found exactly 4 diamonds. All are bigger than I was looking for and about 2-3 times the price of the 'very good' I found. The cut search at 'very good' only had 2 diamonds when I expanded the criteria significantly. Also, I lost the ability to sort by $/ct weight. It's a great idea in theory, but doesn't seem to work out for my situation.

I'm sympathetic, and it sounds like you have found the controls. I know the $/ct weight is missing, but it's a construct that isn't all that from my point of view. Also, although I too feel I did get a doppelganger that was a low hanging apple, it's really hard to beat the system (of getting a good value for below cost). I'll share that on close study for at least a few options, the lowest cost diamond for a set of characteristics still turned out to be the one in the search by cut database.

Share specifics if you like, and we can look with you. Alternately, a tool like the price stats may be ideal for you, and you can drill up the size, drill down the cut quality, and watch the $/carat all the while.

P.S. And re the price match thing, that's going to work for the virtual diamonds that are in fact identical among several vendors, with charateristics you can see more closely by looking at things like the width and depth dimensions to compare them.

 

[cheetahman]

That makes sense about the price match. I''m not sure if I''ve run across one vendor offering what seems to be the same diamond.

I have used that tool and it''s a pretty good for my purposes. I still like the standard for the most part, but I think I''ll start using the one you pointed out more.

Yesterday, I had pinpointed the URLs of 3 diamonds that I liked from 2 different vendors. I was planning to e-mail the vendors on Monday morning, but it seems like they are gone today. Does it seem like the inventory always moves this fast? ...on a weekend when I thought they''d be closed?

 

[cheetahman]

I forgot to mention, but I agree that I''m probably not going to super steal. It seems that the pricescope is a fairly mature marketplace and the vendors definitely know their diamonds more than I do. If they could get more for their diamonds they would.

I''m seeing a diamond that''s:
1.70 carats
I color
VS2 (better than I hoped)
Ideal cut rating (by vendor, it''s EGL certified)
7.58 x 7.54 x 4.71
62.3% depth
55 table
Thin Girdle
It''s about $8000 even

Everything that I''ve been looking at is 1.70-1.80, I, SI1 and under 9K in general. The whole JewelryZone came up because it seems they have some 2+ carats, I, SI1, under 9K.

I''m actually finding that if find a few vendors that come up consistently in my pricescope search, and search on their sites, I can get their cut grade. That seems to be a good start because I don''t have the crown and pavilion numbers to use the cut advisor until I talk to them.