my diamond buyer story (happy ending)
I decided to propose to my girlfriend after dating her two years. I wanted a simple Lucida style setting with a round diamond. I wanted something as close to 1.5 carat but wanted to stay under it to avoid the extra premium for diamonds in that size. I wanted colorless and good cut, didnt care too much about clarity, meaning SI1 or better. The setting must be platinum and with tax be under $10 000.
I live in New York and after checking out Tiffany, Zales and FortuneOff I started working the 47th street, so called diamond row. Shopping there is a horrible experience that I don¡¦t think can be compared to any other market in US at least. However, since its much cheaper there compared to the chain stores it's worth it.
Most shops or booths there will try to trick you so you can't trust the way you can trust Zales for example. If you enquire for something that looks weird on a diamond they will always tell you its OK and in fact their wife's diamond have such a thing so so its harmless. I dont know how many times I heard that.
I started reading everything on www.goodoldgold.com/. If you read and understand that stuff you will know more than most people working on 47th street. Usually only the manager of the store knows this stuff, while the other workers in a store dont know more than the very basic of diamonds.
If they ask you what it will take for you to buy a diamond right at that moment, dont even bother answering them. There¡¦s something wrong with the diamond and they are only trying to hurry you so you make a (costly) mistake. Diamonds are expensive so theres nothing wrong with thinking over the purchase for a day or so. This will give you time to check out all details on the GIA report.
Another sales trick is to say it will be gone by tomorrow. Some diamond convention or something like that starts tomorrow they will say and most likely the diamond will be gone tomorrow. Dont fall for that, there¡¦s usually no stress, just them trying to create stress and make you buy their diamond without checking out competition.
If you buy an expensive diamond with a good gut, make sure you get a sarin (AGS) report. This is the only way to know you actually getting a good cut. The GIA report don't grade cut.
If the shop is serious you should get a copy of the GIA report. There¡¦s no reason for them not to give you a copy, unless there¡¦s something wrong with the diamond they don't want you to see and be able to consider in peace and quiet.
After checking out a few diamonds, you should now what kind of cut, size, color and so on you are looking for and is within your budget. Don't forget to check around for settings at the same time. Try to find 2-3 similar diamonds that you like so you have a few to choose and compare. Usually it's hard to find these diamonds in the same store.
Theres an excellent web service available, which will check the data on the GIA report. I found it to be very useful: http://www.diamondhelpers.com/fivesteps/diamond-price-form.shtml. It can only check that the price given matches the GIA report.
Most of stores and booths on 47th street were bad experiences, but two were very professional. One was www.davidsdiamonds.com/. The other was Peter J Germano Inc on 50 W 47th Street. I ended up buying the diamond at the last mentioned store, mainly because they offered a diamond with a little better cut, almost ideal cut according to AGS. Both stores were very good to work with, experienced personal and never stressed you or asked you to do a purchase.
I choose a Lucida style setting with a round diamond: (tiffany lucida). I added two some small diamonds (0.08 C) that I had emburnished in the setting close to the big diamond to make the setting a little more unique. The diamond is 1.33 C, D color, SI1 clarity and cost $8100 not including tax. The cut is on the AGS scale a 1. The diamond and the setting look amazing.
The proposal was pretty smooth. I picked her up after school on Saturday (Valentines Day). We were supposed to go to dinner and on the way we passes Rockefeller Center, where the ice rink is, nice place. I told her I had brought my camera and asked if I could take a picture of her. I went down on one knee to get a better angle and asked her to look to the side away from the camera. I quickly switched the camera for the box with the ring and popped the question. I got a "yes" back!
To summarize this, if you want to do some shopping on 47th street, you must read up and know your stuff otherwise you will likely be tricked. A GIA certificate is no guarantee that the diamond is anything good, so you must be able to understand the certificate and learn to appraise the diamond from that. You can save a lot of money compared to chain stores so it is worth it.
/Patric
I decided to propose to my girlfriend after dating her two years. I wanted a simple Lucida style setting with a round diamond. I wanted something as close to 1.5 carat but wanted to stay under it to avoid the extra premium for diamonds in that size. I wanted colorless and good cut, didnt care too much about clarity, meaning SI1 or better. The setting must be platinum and with tax be under $10 000.
I live in New York and after checking out Tiffany, Zales and FortuneOff I started working the 47th street, so called diamond row. Shopping there is a horrible experience that I don¡¦t think can be compared to any other market in US at least. However, since its much cheaper there compared to the chain stores it's worth it.
Most shops or booths there will try to trick you so you can't trust the way you can trust Zales for example. If you enquire for something that looks weird on a diamond they will always tell you its OK and in fact their wife's diamond have such a thing so so its harmless. I dont know how many times I heard that.
I started reading everything on www.goodoldgold.com/. If you read and understand that stuff you will know more than most people working on 47th street. Usually only the manager of the store knows this stuff, while the other workers in a store dont know more than the very basic of diamonds.
If they ask you what it will take for you to buy a diamond right at that moment, dont even bother answering them. There¡¦s something wrong with the diamond and they are only trying to hurry you so you make a (costly) mistake. Diamonds are expensive so theres nothing wrong with thinking over the purchase for a day or so. This will give you time to check out all details on the GIA report.
Another sales trick is to say it will be gone by tomorrow. Some diamond convention or something like that starts tomorrow they will say and most likely the diamond will be gone tomorrow. Dont fall for that, there¡¦s usually no stress, just them trying to create stress and make you buy their diamond without checking out competition.
If you buy an expensive diamond with a good gut, make sure you get a sarin (AGS) report. This is the only way to know you actually getting a good cut. The GIA report don't grade cut.
If the shop is serious you should get a copy of the GIA report. There¡¦s no reason for them not to give you a copy, unless there¡¦s something wrong with the diamond they don't want you to see and be able to consider in peace and quiet.
After checking out a few diamonds, you should now what kind of cut, size, color and so on you are looking for and is within your budget. Don't forget to check around for settings at the same time. Try to find 2-3 similar diamonds that you like so you have a few to choose and compare. Usually it's hard to find these diamonds in the same store.
Theres an excellent web service available, which will check the data on the GIA report. I found it to be very useful: http://www.diamondhelpers.com/fivesteps/diamond-price-form.shtml. It can only check that the price given matches the GIA report.
Most of stores and booths on 47th street were bad experiences, but two were very professional. One was www.davidsdiamonds.com/. The other was Peter J Germano Inc on 50 W 47th Street. I ended up buying the diamond at the last mentioned store, mainly because they offered a diamond with a little better cut, almost ideal cut according to AGS. Both stores were very good to work with, experienced personal and never stressed you or asked you to do a purchase.
I choose a Lucida style setting with a round diamond: (tiffany lucida). I added two some small diamonds (0.08 C) that I had emburnished in the setting close to the big diamond to make the setting a little more unique. The diamond is 1.33 C, D color, SI1 clarity and cost $8100 not including tax. The cut is on the AGS scale a 1. The diamond and the setting look amazing.
The proposal was pretty smooth. I picked her up after school on Saturday (Valentines Day). We were supposed to go to dinner and on the way we passes Rockefeller Center, where the ice rink is, nice place. I told her I had brought my camera and asked if I could take a picture of her. I went down on one knee to get a better angle and asked her to look to the side away from the camera. I quickly switched the camera for the box with the ring and popped the question. I got a "yes" back!
To summarize this, if you want to do some shopping on 47th street, you must read up and know your stuff otherwise you will likely be tricked. A GIA certificate is no guarantee that the diamond is anything good, so you must be able to understand the certificate and learn to appraise the diamond from that. You can save a lot of money compared to chain stores so it is worth it.
/Patric
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