MRB 3 carat hunt is ON. Help...please?

[diamondseeker2006]

Aww, too bad about the 2.75. I think the AGS stone's cut would bug me because in that size, I think I could see the cut issues. The thing is, she may not know the diffference at all. But after I have lived with ACAs, I can see the difference. So seeing a few is definitely the way to go!

 

[LLJsmom]

Aww, too bad about the 2.75. I think the AGS stone's cut would bug me because in that size, I think I could see the cut issues. The thing is, she may not know the diffference at all. But after I have lived with ACAs, I can see the difference. So seeing a few is definitely the way to go!

I am sure you can. Just knowing there is leakage bugs me. Now it's a kind clean thing for me. But she may not care. And if it wows her who am I to say anything. The color may still be an issue. She likes higher color so if it's a high G and a lower H she may go for the G if it is eyeclean and no snow globe effect. Or she may love the size of the H. the price difference is about $5k with the H being higher. Do you think that sounds reasonable?

If neither of these work, then I may need to get a little less strict. Sigh...

 

[mrs-b]

I think to appreciate the cut of a diamond, you have to know how to look at them. People generally don't know how to look at a diamond - ie what to look for, what's better than something else, and so on. If this is the case with your friend, I'd probably relax my parameters a bit. Cut is still important - but I'd probably put more weight than usual on color and clarity and size. This makes things a little easier, as it's fairly straight forward to say to the jeweler "we want this size, color, clarity".

I'm not sure if it's just the way that AGS stone was scanned, but I thought the arrow heads lined up poorly as well. Unless it's something that's a photographic problem, I would probably have stayed away from that anyway. On the other hand, if this is not something your friend could see, then neither misaligned heads or a missing arrow is going to be a problem.

I'm sorry I'm only catching up on this thread now. When are you heading out to look at stones 'in the flesh'? It will be interesting to hear what appeals to her.

 

[LLJsmom]

So I saw the AGS H and the GIA G. My immediate gut reaction to the H was WOW. Arrows, arrows, arrows. My SA liked it because it was really clean. I used my ASET and the arrows are there. Phew. The G is really clean for an SI1. Very pretty too. If I never saw the H I would be totally impressed by the G. For the price the G is great. Spread is decent too. 9.1. The H is 9.23. Now its a matter of just what she prefers, prioritized. If she wants to hit the 3.0 then it will be the H. If not, the G is really nice. I really suck at getting these pics.

 

[BlingDreams]

Sounds like she's going to get a winner either way. She's lucky to have a friend like you to help her with this search!

 

[rockysalamander]

It's so nice for her to have two great choices! Nice work.

 

[LLJsmom]

I went back again and looked at the stones a second time, this time bringing my friend. I tested some things. I wanted to make sure the H AGS grade was reasonable so we looked at a GIA H to compare. The AGS H was right in line with the GIA H. See the pic below. Can you tell which one is the G?

When I was there the first time, I and both the SAs liked the H but both were for the G, maybe because the G was GIA or maybe a reverse psychology ploy. They felt the G was a better deal. I ran comps on the H VS2 and the price we got on the H was the lower end of H VS2 in the 3-3.05 range. The G on the other hand was on the higher side. She had no trouble with seeing the size difference. Face up my friend liked the look of the H better. Face down she liked the whiter G. And it is very interesting to me that although she clearly sees the color difference upside down, and I know she prefers a whiter stone, she is leaning toward the H.

This has been a very interesting experience for me. If I had to buy from a local B&M I would have done this. Even though I had to really push them to get the AGS stone in, they had to admit that the stone was beautifully cut. And everyone that looked at it did prefer the H, although the G was really really beautiful. I can see how some people would not necessarily feel the need to spend extra on a super ideal cut. After all you don't wear two diamonds next to each other and compare them regularly.

If it was me, I would scheme for a way to swing the H because there are specific aspects of "performance" that I look for. Lots of edge to edge flashes, lots of clear arrows, lots of the center of the stone lighting up. I can see that this one had some minor leakage in the center (or that could have just been my head obstructing the ASET and idealscope). I have never seen a big super ideal which be even more amazing. I bet I would totally love a 2 plus carat ACA or VC super ideal. Like I said before, if I had never seen this I would have been very happy with the G. But anal me pushed them to bring in the AGS stone and I cost my friend an extra $5k.

 

[LLJsmom]

Here are some pics for fun.

This one is outdoors.

 

[LLJsmom]

This pic shows a lot of distinctive fire from the arrows in the middle that I saw a lot.

 

[Dancing Fire]

Tough choice!...

 

[LLJsmom]

So we went back for a third time and finally committed. AGS was the winner, for a variety of reasons. It hit the 3 carat mark, really clean and she just didn't like the idea of the twinning wisps, and just by the naked eye, she preferred it over the GIA. I still maintain that the G SI1 was a beautiful stone and looked very nice under the ASET. However, since she was about to commit I felt I had to study the stones and the sparkle patterns of each very carefully. I saw an area toward the center of the GIA that just wasn't lighting up as much as other parts of the stone. I placed the stones next to each other, not knowing which was which, and I could identify the AGS every time. So it got me thinking, are super ideals for the truly anal? And for sure this is just an AGS 000, not at all a super ideal. A super ideal in this size would probably blow my mind.

It's interesting that I looked at the GIA on three separate occasions and I didn't notice the darkness until the third. I never mentioned this to her. I didn't want it to affect her decision. She is not one to focus and study a diamond intently. She just enjoys it, and if she got the GIA, she would probably never notice it. I didn't want to ruin it for her in case she chose it.

However in the end, she chose the AGS, which means that in the end, maybe she did notice it, but just didn't need to focus on the details like I do, didn't need to understand the whys and wherefores...

Makes me think...who are the people who want the super ideals? Maybe a topic for another thread...

 

[Karl_K]

Talking to people that show others diamonds a lot and my own experience you will often find people who prefer one diamond over another but cant really say why.
Someone one more familiar with diamonds and the terminology can put it into words but a huge part of it is that "we" look at diamonds differently quicker.
We get past the wow shiny stage quicker and look more closely at the various aspects.
Then go back to wow shiny after it passes the test if we are lucky!