- Joined
- Sep 1, 2009
- Messages
- 41
I''ve been a lurker on this forum for the past month, and I wanted to thank everyone for all their insight and sharing of info. It has helped me tremendously in my diamond education, particularly for cushions. I have been wanting an upgrade for some time now, and hinted to my DH that our 10-year would be the right time. I decided on a cushion since I have had a RB and wanted a fancy shape. My oh my how these stones vary. I must have looked at close to 100 stones in search of "the one". I came across some very diligent (and borderline pushy) people as well as some unsavory characters trying all sorts of tricks (another post another day) We finally got in touch with Mark T at ERD on recommendation from all of you Pricescopers. He did the research for us once I told him my parameters and the type (chunky faceted) cushion I wanted. I can''t tell you how frustrating it was to have dozens of other jewelers bring out various stones and have me shake my head because I would just know it wasn''t the look I wanted.
I cannot tell you how impressed I was with Mark Turnowski''s professionalism and experience. I would recommend him to anyone here or any of my friends and hope I have the opportunity to do so. Mark knew exactly what I wanted and researched stones to find 3 that were of the style and specs that I wanted. I must tell you that I fell in love with one stone and the other was so close a runner up that if I didn''t see the other one, I wouldn''t have hesitated a moment to select it. The problem was that the one was 60% more in price than the other. When you get into 4+ carat, it is certainly not pocket change and the difference could buy a pretty nice new car.
We flew to NY last week to meet Mark and see the stones. In trying to be level headed (I won''t say "practical since obviously anything in this size isn''t), I chose the less expensive stone. It had tremendous fire and character and unless the two were right next to each other, one would never even notice much of a difference. I should mention that the entire time (2 hours) I was staring at them, my husband very vocally was reiterating the price difference and how he preferred the ..ehem...less expensive stone. My husband ran out on an errand while I spoke about the setting with Mark. Maybe reverse psychology really works or maybe my husband just loves me so much he''ll do anything to make me happier, when he came back he insisted we choose the more expensive stone
. I really am so lucky to have someone that puts me on a pedestal and is willing to do this. We are not independently wealthy and although my husband does well, he works very hard for his money.
So here is a pic and specs of my dream stone (It looks a ton better in person...its on fire)
4.21 Carat
Color: F
Clarity: VS2
Flour: None
VG/VG
Table: 59%
Depth:68.1%
Medium Culet
I cannot tell you how impressed I was with Mark Turnowski''s professionalism and experience. I would recommend him to anyone here or any of my friends and hope I have the opportunity to do so. Mark knew exactly what I wanted and researched stones to find 3 that were of the style and specs that I wanted. I must tell you that I fell in love with one stone and the other was so close a runner up that if I didn''t see the other one, I wouldn''t have hesitated a moment to select it. The problem was that the one was 60% more in price than the other. When you get into 4+ carat, it is certainly not pocket change and the difference could buy a pretty nice new car.
We flew to NY last week to meet Mark and see the stones. In trying to be level headed (I won''t say "practical since obviously anything in this size isn''t), I chose the less expensive stone. It had tremendous fire and character and unless the two were right next to each other, one would never even notice much of a difference. I should mention that the entire time (2 hours) I was staring at them, my husband very vocally was reiterating the price difference and how he preferred the ..ehem...less expensive stone. My husband ran out on an errand while I spoke about the setting with Mark. Maybe reverse psychology really works or maybe my husband just loves me so much he''ll do anything to make me happier, when he came back he insisted we choose the more expensive stone

So here is a pic and specs of my dream stone (It looks a ton better in person...its on fire)
4.21 Carat
Color: F
Clarity: VS2
Flour: None
VG/VG
Table: 59%
Depth:68.1%
Medium Culet