Looking for jeweler recommendations in the NYC area

[hoff9811]

Long time lurker here looking for some much needed help on buying a diamond engagement ring. I'm far from unique in what I'm looking for - I want to maximize the quality of the ring for what's in my budget. I'm based out of NYC so I've shopped around at a few of the big name boutiques - Tiffany's, Cartier, HW, among others. My significant other and I knew we weren't going to buy there given the mark-up but wanted to look at some of the styles we like.

Now that I'm closing in on the big date, I need severe help on how to proceed. I'm just not sure who I should go to in terms of a jeweler that would provide both good price and quality. My budget is around $50-60k, so my expectation is around 2.5-3 carats in either an Emerald or an Oval shape. The style I'm looking for is very traditional - an elongated stone, most likely emerald cut, with tapered baguette side stones.

I'm open to pretty much any vendor in the NYC/Long Island vicinity, but I was hoping to get recommendations from folks on this forum in terms of who they would turn to given my budget and desired style. I've attempted to shop around online a bit, with little success thus far, so any help you could provide me would be much appreciated!

 

[OECrystal]

Steven Kirsch and Good Old Gold!

 

[arkieb1]

Good Old Gold could probably find you something, Victor Canera is in CA but also can find lovely stones for people or if you want max for your budget give IDJ a call make an appointment tell them what you are looking for & tell them you are from P/S, they usually have a large inventory of stones. Links;

http://idjewelry.com/

https://www.goodoldgold.com/

https://www.victorcanera.com/

 

[Queenie60]

I highly recommend ID Jewelry. They are away for the remainder of the week as it's Passover. However, I would suggest you leave a message for Yekutiel - I am most certain that he can help you to find a beautiful stone within your budget. Good luck!

 

[ac117]

I also highly recommend IDJ, especially for fancy cuts - Yekutiel will do everything he can to find you the perfect stone. He will provide you with light return images that you could also post here and get feedback on.

As others have said, Good Old Gold out on LI is another vendor that will call in stones for you but I personally prefer IDJ since they have access to so many distributors and could call things in right away since they're in the heart of the diamond district.

 

[Diamondz1]

In NYC, I'd also recommend Leon Mege (https://www.leonmege.com/) and Brilliantly Engaged (https://www.brilliantlyengaged.com/).

They're both capable of executing classic designs and both are located in midtown. If you're just starting your search and trying to get a sense of what's out there and pricing, they could be useful to meet with.

Leon is known for his incredible craftsmanship and difficult personality.

Brilliantly Engaged also has a lot of happy customers on the forum, though they caused some consternation recently by making a change to their upgrade policy. Just make sure you know your vendor's upgrade policy backwards and forwards if there's a chance you'll ever use it.

Old World Diamonds is also located in midtown and has a large selection of diamonds not listed on their site (http://oldworlddiamonds.com/) - they don't really include fancy shapes on their webpage so you'll have to reach out. Note that they specialize in antique diamonds which are a different animal and perhaps not what you're looking for.

You have a great budget and vendors will probably bend over backwards to help you. Feel free post a lot of pictures for us to drool over as your search progresses!

 

[hoff9811]

Wow - taken aback at the helpfulness of this forum! Thank you all for the great suggestions. I'll spend some time reviewing each of the suggested jeweler and be sure to update as a progress in my search.

In terms of pricing, I've been perusing Blue Nile to see how much loose stones go for and I wanted to ask about how those prices compare to what I should expect from a jeweler. Say a Blue Nile diamond is $40k. If a jeweler did their thing and sold me a ring with a comparable stone, what should I expect in terms of price? $45k? Or would the jeweler mark up both the stone and the setting, so the all in cost would be over $50k?

 

[BlingDreams]

You can't compare stones like that. You can have two stones with seemingly the same specs, say 1.5 carat, G color, VS2 clarity, EX symmetry and polish, very good cut, and no fluorescence. One sells for $15,000 and the other for $25,000. Does that mean one is a great deal or one is overpriced? Not necessarily. Those specs don't tell you how the diamond "performs" - fire, scintillation, light leakage, etc. That is a HUGE factor in price.

I was actually just browsing for a stone for myself and there was a $20k difference in price for nearly the exact same listed specs (and one of the more expensive stones was two color grades lower!). Take a look.


From here, I'd ask to see ASET images and videos (not just a rotating table, but in several light environments and angles). That's where the true value will be noticeable.

Good luck with your search!

 

[WillyDiamond]

+1 for BE, call Chris

 

[PintoBean]

Vendors I have worked with and would recommend are IDjewelry, brilliantly engaged, and good old gold.

 

[Diamondz1]

Regarding the pricing on Blue Nile vs. physical vendors, I'm not sure. I don't know if anyone is transparent enough with their pricing for that to be knowable. However, the vendors recommended again and again on the forum, are so popular because they excel at a combination of desirable things, primarily value.

Most, if not all, vendors recommended here are going to have competitive pricing.

As for using Blue Nile as a pricing gauge, it can be a useful tool! But as ILikeShiny noted, it's difficult to draw a direct comparison between two diamonds. Fancy shapes in particular are not graded for cut - the only test of a well cut fancy is to see it with your own eyes. If you find a $40K oval on Blue Nile with the exact same specs as a more expensive oval that you saw at a vendor, the $40K oval could be poorly cut, or have an inclusion in an undesirable place, or many other unknown things so, just keep that in mind. (Blue Nile doesn't post pictures of their stones.)

Also, if you find the pricing on a certain stone wildly out of line, there's no harm is just asking the vendor why. In fact you should ask a lot of questions! A good vendor will have honest answers for you.