My (not so) short list. Looking for help

[a_mug]

In reference to the previous thread I made, it basically comes down to Mondera and WhiteFlash for me. I have pretty much narrowed down my short list as below.

As you may have noticed, I''m primarily looking for round, and ideal cuts. My budget is $3000 absolute max, preferrably a couple hundreds lower as I found out I''ll be tagged 20% VAT (for shipping to Austria), plus about $150-200 duty as well according to FedEx. I''m looking to keep the ring AND the diamond at $3000 if possible. Size doesn''t really matter. Ring size is 4.5, either white gold or platinum, solitaire.

Right now, I am leaning towards E, F and G (on the list, not color). But I would appreciate if any of your seasoned veterans and experts to give some inputs on those stones and your preference. Thank you very very much.


A.

 

[diamondseeker2006]

I wouldn''t consider an SI2 unless the vendor has the stone in-house and can confirm how eye-clean it is (and have pictures). Have you asked WhiteFlash about their SI2''s?

 

[JulieN]

Too lazy. Mondera site is not easy.

F or G. If both eye-clean and equally beautiful, I like the F color for just a little more, though H is a good color option, too.

 

[a_mug]

Yeah, Mondera's website is really hard to navigate, which really annoyed me when I was trying to set my search criteria. Anyway, I e-mailed WhiteFlash about the eye-cleaniness on the 2 stones but haven't heard from that yet. Hopefully soon.

For Stone G:

For Stone F:

For Stone A (no picture available at its site):

Color: H
This diamond is considered nearly colorless, even though not of the specific quality of a diamond graded G. It will look completely colorless when viewed face-up, and what slight color exists will not be noticeable to the untrained eye. For a customer who wishes to have a top quality diamond but still stay within a budget, an H color diamond is an excellent choice.
Learn More >>

Clarity: VS2
This diamond contains inclusions that are difficult to see with 10x magnification. Under magnification, the trained eye will find them, but to the untrained observer they will be difficult to find. A diamond of this grade is clean to the naked eye.


For Stone C (again, no pictures):
Doesn't sound all that eye-clean at all for this one

Color: F
This diamond, though below the diamond grades of D and E, is still considered completely colorless, and of exceptionally rare and high quality. It is indistinguishable from a grade D or E diamond to anyone but a trained gemologist using a set of masterstones, in the proper lighting conditions, for comparison.
Learn More >>

Clarity: SI2
Under 10x magnification, this diamond contains inclusions that are very easy to see, even to the untrained eye. However, when mounted and worn as jewelry, these inclusions will usually not be visible to the naked eye.


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I know that I will be hard-pressed to find a kick-butt diamond with this budget but unfortunately, this is already my max and there isn't any more room to wiggle.

Again, many thanks for your help!!

A.

 

[coda72]

Both F and G look eyeclean to me, and the magnified images look pretty clean. I recently inquired about an SI2 that looked similar to these, and they told me it was eyeclean from both 10 inches and 3.5 inches away. I doubt it if anyone will be closer than 3.5 inches to your fiancee''s ring. But you will have to wait to hear from Whiteflash to be sure. I know you can''t go wrong with an A Cut Above diamond. I know nothing about Mondera''s diamonds though, so I can''t advise you there.

 

[the other Jake]

I vote F or G (if eyeclean), those are great stones... but mostly because they are AGS which is a better indicator of the cut. Can''t go wrong with an A Cut Above. Just so you know...If you ordered today you would get 5% towards your setting in addition to 5% off the list price for mentioning you are a pricescope user. The 5% towards setting only applies to WF A Cut Aboves purchased in november (which on $2,750 would be somewhere near $140 saving) The pricescope 5% discount always applies. I don''t know if thats material or not to you but it might help some of the taxes and what not. I got all this info from purchasing my own stone/setting from them earlier this month.

 

[the other Jake]

this is kinda off topic but does anyone know how to post mutiple pictures to a reply like that? it only lets me attach one file...

 

[a_mug]

Date: 11/30/2006 8:10:29 AM
Author: the other Jake
I vote F or G (if eyeclean), those are great stones... but mostly because they are AGS which is a better indicator of the cut. Can't go wrong with an A Cut Above. Just so you know...If you ordered today you would get 5% towards your setting in addition to 5% off the list price for mentioning you are a pricescope user. The 5% towards setting only applies to WF A Cut Aboves purchased in november (which on $2,750 would be somewhere near $140 saving) The pricescope 5% discount always applies. I don't know if thats material or not to you but it might help some of the taxes and what not. I got all this info from purchasing my own stone/setting from them earlier this month.

Thanks a lot the other Jake. Wasn't aware of the Pricescope discount. How would one go about that?/ Does it apply to phone order only? Can both discounts be stacked (for a total of 10%)? Still waiting for a reply from WF, hopefully it'll be soon.

Regarding posting multiple pictures, I just clicked on the attach picture button when I post. It didn't give me any restrictions

 

[jaz464]

Date: 11/30/2006 8:10:29 AM
Author: the other Jake
I vote F or G (if eyeclean), those are great stones... but mostly because they are AGS which is a better indicator of the cut. Can''t go wrong with an A Cut Above. Just so you know...If you ordered today you would get 5% towards your setting in addition to 5% off the list price for mentioning you are a pricescope user. The 5% towards setting only applies to WF A Cut Aboves purchased in november (which on $2,750 would be somewhere near $140 saving) The pricescope 5% discount always applies. I don''t know if thats material or not to you but it might help some of the taxes and what not. I got all this info from purchasing my own stone/setting from them earlier this month.

I don''t believe this is always true. I think that sometimes the amount is less than 5%.

 

[belle]

Date: 11/30/2006 12:25:08 PM
Author: jazmine

Date: 11/30/2006 8:10:29 AM
Author: the other Jake
I vote F or G (if eyeclean), those are great stones... but mostly because they are AGS which is a better indicator of the cut. Can't go wrong with an A Cut Above. Just so you know...If you ordered today you would get 5% towards your setting in addition to 5% off the list price for mentioning you are a pricescope user. The 5% towards setting only applies to WF A Cut Aboves purchased in november (which on $2,750 would be somewhere near $140 saving) The pricescope 5% discount always applies. I don't know if thats material or not to you but it might help some of the taxes and what not. I got all this info from purchasing my own stone/setting from them earlier this month.

I don't believe this is always true. I think that sometimes the amount is less than 5%.

jazmine is right. you can see what the discount is when you do the search through ps (pricescope your diamond)
and no, you can't combine discounts. they will give you the highest discount available at the time of purchase.

i like the 'f'!

 

[socalmatt]

I was recently looking for stones around this same price/size. I ended up with a ACA from WF, but I was looking seriously at this one, they said it was eyeclean and nice:

http://www.whiteflash.com/round_ideal_cut/Round-Ideal-Cut-cut-diamond-136241.htm

 

[a_mug]

Ok. Down to two...

F, or G? Hopefully I can get some majority answer by the end of the day.

But really, thank you all for helping out on my previous questions

 

[a_mug]

Sorry for bumping. Just called WhiteFlash and spoke with Chris (very helpful btw). Was told that both are eye-clean... hmmm

 

[Midway]

Don''t mean to hi-jack your thread but is this true about the 5% discount with WF for being a pricescope user? I called WF yesterday and mentioned that I found out about them through PS but they didn''t mention a 5% discount at that time. Do I have to buy through pricescope for the discount?

 

[jaz464]

You need to mention that you are a pricescope user. But the 5% as mentioned is not accurate (at least not all the time). The discount depends on the vendor and on the purchase. 2-5% is the pricescope discount I believe.

 

[a_mug]

There''s no turning back now. I changed my mind though after browsing through WF a little more and found out about the PriceScope discount

This is the ultimate final decision

https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/my-not-so-short-list-looking-for-help.54113/

After the PS discount, it was at 2993, right on the edge of my budget. And the 5% off ACA diamonds towards the setting helped as well.

Thank you all for the help. Now the stage is set. Time to start planning to the main event.

A.