mad_cartographer
Rough_Rock
- Joined
- Jul 28, 2006
- Messages
- 13
Hello,
I am new here, and I have been browsing through the forum over the past couple of days. I saw a few threads that triggered me to register and post. This will be long, so please bear with me.
I am planning on proposing to my girlfriend of 2 years in early september. I have been looking online for a while to find the perfect engagement. About 9/10 months ago, I causally brought up diamond conversation, in attempts to find the cut that she''d like. I mention the word "asscher", and she thought I was making something up. I ran a pic by her, and she fell in love "ooohh I really like that!" Mission accomplished.
Much like my older brother, I looked toward Blue Nile as my primary resource for information. Their site was very helpful in ALL aspects...ranging from education, to judging the market prices. I had it all picked out! While I know their products are really good, I wanted to at least get a first hand look in stores. I am originally from New York, and wanted to give 47th St a look before buying online, just to see if anything caught my eye. In the weeks prior to going to NY, I did as much research as possible, knowing how things can go in such an environment. I was ready, and off we went!
If I went into every detail of my trip, it''d take too long to read this. But there were some good deals. I guess a lot of people don''t do their homework before they got up there, because a lot of the jewlers were impressed with what I knew. One lady called me "professor" after conversing for a few minutes and cleaning her loube before looking at her stones....made me chuckle. She had a decent modern asscher (.77ct, H SI2) for a reasonable price. However, it had an inclusion that was kinda turning me off. I was on a quest for perfection, this wasn''t quite it.
There were several dealers that would show me something other than what I asked for....like traditional emralds...radiant...or cushion cuts. I found it entertaining to tell them "thats not what I asked for"...and eventually walk out.
Then we made it to the OTHER side of the street, where the jewlers had a more...."jewlery store" type feel, opposed to the flea market feeling. Most of these stores required them to unlock the door for entry. After a quite a few stores, I came upon Firenze Jewelers. The sales associate, Ron, was by far the best jewler I''ve dealt with throughout the entire day. We actually spoke for about 5 minutes before he even looked into his inventory. There were some tests of my knowledge...and he realized that I had a clue as to what I was doing. He was asking me what some of my previous offers were from other dealers on the block, and I told him the specs and prices that I was offered. He did some calculations (using those sheets that they all have) and showed me that they weren''t the great deals that they made ''em out to be, but at the same time, I wasn''t getting ripped off either. (by the way, I had a good feel on pricing based on what I would research while searching for stones on Blue Nile).
So to make a long story short, I bought from him after finiding the PERFECT stone, according to my personal prerequisites.
Shape: Square Cut Emrald (Modern Asscher)
Size: .80 ct
Measurements: 5.25 x 5.24
Color: F
Clarity: VS2
Certification: GIA
Table: 50%
Depth: 67.2%
Culet: none
Polish: Excellent
Symmerty: Excellent
Girdle: Medium-thick
Flouresence: none
It is a solitaire, white gold band setting. It was by far the best diamond within my range that I''d seen all day. Although I was nervous about shopping in this area, I found exactly what I was looking for. After spending over 3 hours on the block, I felt comfortable in my ability to kinda discern the good dealers, from the not so good dealers.
One thing I found amusing was the "how much are you looking to spend?" question. That question was rather irrelevant to me, because I already knew that what I was asking for should have already been in my price range.
I will be sharing pics of this ring in a few days. It is locked in my safe, and I am taking her on a surprise weekend trip to celebrate our 2 year anniversary. (Proposal scheduled for when we go to Miami for my birthday weekend, Labor Day weekend)
Thanks for readin...I know it was longwinded...sorry!
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