Hello PS'ers. Fairly new to the forum, but have had a load of help from the diamond guys (and gals). I was hoping to get some feedback from the more colorful part of the community.
After spending a good amount of time trying to figure out diamonds, I thought I had found a nice ring for my GF, but then after we looked around a bit together, she mentioned colored stones. Originally I had proposed that to her, more as in a 3-stone ring with colored stones on the side (I like contrast, so does she). Wanting to make sure I found something she would like, I started browsing here to find out about colored stones. I figure then I can weight the tradeoffs of a diamond ring (maybe get some colored stones in the band?) versus an engagement ring with a different stone.
Some background; I want to find something for her, be it colored stone or diamond, that is good quality and looks nice, but I am trying to keep the entire ring under $4,000. Also, I was hoping to propose probably within about the next 1-2 months. She likes to do a lot of crafts and the such, she I know she'd rather something that isn't too large (I was looking at about a 0.6 or 0.7 ct. diamond). I've looked at the newbie guide, read up about a lot of the stuff to pay attention to and looked at the rings of other posters and they do look very nice. Neither of us wear or own much jewelry, so while I definitely want something that is nice and valued well, I don't think we need it to be a perfect stone.
From what I can gather, it seems like the amount of information for colored gems online is much less than diamonds? I was browsing through James Allen (I liked how they displayed their diamonds, with the panorama view, so I started there) and noticed basically no information besides a James Allen certificate. I think I found one other site that did have more information, but their Sapphires were something like $4,000 a piece, which is well beyond my budget. From reading, it sounds like the general expectation is that finding a quality colored stone takes a lot longer than a diamond (buy them, examine them in person for a few days, return if you don't like, repeat, send off for grading if you do... then find someone to set it, mail it, etc.).
Is finding a colored stone, in particular probably a Sapphire, something that can be done in such a short period of time? Are there vendors (probably online) that provide enough, honest information on their website to make a purchase without having to do iterations of buy, examine, repeat? In particular, vendors that also sell/make the rings?
Thanks in advance.
After spending a good amount of time trying to figure out diamonds, I thought I had found a nice ring for my GF, but then after we looked around a bit together, she mentioned colored stones. Originally I had proposed that to her, more as in a 3-stone ring with colored stones on the side (I like contrast, so does she). Wanting to make sure I found something she would like, I started browsing here to find out about colored stones. I figure then I can weight the tradeoffs of a diamond ring (maybe get some colored stones in the band?) versus an engagement ring with a different stone.
Some background; I want to find something for her, be it colored stone or diamond, that is good quality and looks nice, but I am trying to keep the entire ring under $4,000. Also, I was hoping to propose probably within about the next 1-2 months. She likes to do a lot of crafts and the such, she I know she'd rather something that isn't too large (I was looking at about a 0.6 or 0.7 ct. diamond). I've looked at the newbie guide, read up about a lot of the stuff to pay attention to and looked at the rings of other posters and they do look very nice. Neither of us wear or own much jewelry, so while I definitely want something that is nice and valued well, I don't think we need it to be a perfect stone.
From what I can gather, it seems like the amount of information for colored gems online is much less than diamonds? I was browsing through James Allen (I liked how they displayed their diamonds, with the panorama view, so I started there) and noticed basically no information besides a James Allen certificate. I think I found one other site that did have more information, but their Sapphires were something like $4,000 a piece, which is well beyond my budget. From reading, it sounds like the general expectation is that finding a quality colored stone takes a lot longer than a diamond (buy them, examine them in person for a few days, return if you don't like, repeat, send off for grading if you do... then find someone to set it, mail it, etc.).
Is finding a colored stone, in particular probably a Sapphire, something that can be done in such a short period of time? Are there vendors (probably online) that provide enough, honest information on their website to make a purchase without having to do iterations of buy, examine, repeat? In particular, vendors that also sell/make the rings?
Thanks in advance.