First, thanks to everyone here at Pricescope. I can''t believe how helpful this group of people has been during the ring buying process. I can only hope this message helps out someone else the way others have helped me. For those of you who don’t want to read this extremely long story, just jump to the end of the last message for my summaries.
As background, I don''t know jack about diamonds. Two months ago, I knew less. The only thing I knew was that I wanted to get a ring and they were pretty costly – about 2 month’s salary as far as I could tell. I had also heard about the 4 C''s, but I didn''t know what the other 3 were (I knew that carats->size). So I was pretty stuck, not knowing what to do or even how to START the process. I live near the diamond district in Philadelphia, but was a little worried about going in there with such little knowledge. I had a rough idea of what I wanted to spend, figured that I wanted around 1 carat, and wanted something of "high quality", although I had no way to measure it.
Now, I''m an internet geek in a big way and I knew there had to be information on diamonds somewhere. I had heard of Blue Nile, so I went there first to look at their information. It was ok, but I didn’t feel like I knew that much more than I did before. I was happy about the fact that their prices were online. I figured even if they weren’t great prices, they would serve as a good benchmark.
About this time, I find out my girlfriend has the following preferences for rings: doesn’t like princess cut, likes the Tiffany Lucida, likes platinum/white gold setting, doesn’t know about round cuts. I’m somewhat confused by someone not liking princess cuts, but liking the Lucida, especially if the princess cut’s corners are covered by prongs. But I digress. She also knows how I prefer to buy most anything online vs. going to a store and indicated that she would be appalled by me purchasing her ring online.
Now I have an idea of what the ring should look like: the Lucida (http://www.tiffany.com/shopping/lucida.asp?). I know there’s a 0% chance that I will buy this thing from Tiffany’s. I admire the business and it appears that they sell a good product, but I can read financial statements and I know that they’re making some pretty high margins. So Tiffany’s is out, but I figure I can get a similar looking ring from somewhere else.
At about this time (December), I somehow come across pricescope.com. I was immediately hooked – I think I read about 4 months worth of posts in a week. During this time, I learned that cut is the most important of the 4 C’s, and also the one that’s least likely to be captured by numerical measures. I also learned that radiants tend to be not-so-great quality cuts, which left me in a bind if I wanted to get a ring like the Lucida. I think the best thing that happened from me reading the message boards is that I got a real comfort level about the idea of buying a stone online. I read enough messages about various different establishments and enough horror stories about B&M stores that I really got comfortable with the idea of getting the stone through an online merchant. I was also directed to www.goodoldgold.com to read through their online diamond education, which I found REALLY worthwhile. I think it’s a fantastic resource for inexperienced buyers.
So finally I took the plunge, a really minor plunge. I sent an email to GOG with my rough parameters (D-F, IF-VS1, .9-1.2c), general price range and also a note that told him about the Lucida, anti-princess thing. The next day (I think), Jonathan sent a link to a Lucere diamond he had scanned in, which was right in the parameters: http://www.goodoldgold.com/lucere__91ct_f_vs1.htm. From my understanding, Lucere equaled well-cut radiant, so it seemed like the perfect solution. So I thought it over for a couple of days and I finally decided to go ahead with it. (Keep in mind this was the week before Christmas, I’m trying to do all this over email on my cell phone so my girlfriend doesn’t find out.) After emailing another question about the ring, Jonathan says he can get it called in and shipped so I have it before Christmas, but he needs to know ASAP. At this point I felt really good about how it seemed Jonathan was working with me, but I also felt that he was being realistic about the deadline – I thought it was entirely appropriate given the holiday rush.
Finally, I called GOG for the first time to order the stone. I got Jonathan on the phone and talked to him a bit about the stone. I said I was unsure about the size - my girlfriend has never really craved the diamond and didn’t really care too much about the size, but I wanted hers to compare favorably to those of her friends. To help me appreciate the size, Jonathan emailed me a picture (while we were on the phone) of 3 stones: the one I was looking at, a 1 ct. round brilliant, and a larger Lucere. That’s the picture I’ve attached. Based on the picture, I was pretty unhappy with the size of the stone I was looking at. It is noticeably smaller than a 1 ct. round. I asked about the Lucere on the right and found out that it was out of the price range I had requested. The sad thing is, I knew that the range I had sent in was not as high as I felt I would pay. But for some reason, I tried to find a ‘bargain’ stone. Realistically, the larger stone in the picture was at the top end of my range, but still inside. Once I saw the size comparison, I knew there was no way I’d be happy with the smaller stone, even if my girlfriend would be. So I put a deposit down and had this stone sent to Dave Atlas: http://www.goodoldgold.com/lucere_1_13ct_f_vs2.htm. Jonathan – sorry about how nervous and indecisive I was on the phone and I thank you for being patient.
Here, I’d just like to point out that Jonathan had a larger stone in stock, but didn’t offer it as an option initially because it was out of the price range I specified. Obviously he was happy to have me buy the larger stone, but didn’t try to sell it to me when it was outside of what I told him I wanted to spend initially. I REALLY liked this.
As background, I don''t know jack about diamonds. Two months ago, I knew less. The only thing I knew was that I wanted to get a ring and they were pretty costly – about 2 month’s salary as far as I could tell. I had also heard about the 4 C''s, but I didn''t know what the other 3 were (I knew that carats->size). So I was pretty stuck, not knowing what to do or even how to START the process. I live near the diamond district in Philadelphia, but was a little worried about going in there with such little knowledge. I had a rough idea of what I wanted to spend, figured that I wanted around 1 carat, and wanted something of "high quality", although I had no way to measure it.
Now, I''m an internet geek in a big way and I knew there had to be information on diamonds somewhere. I had heard of Blue Nile, so I went there first to look at their information. It was ok, but I didn’t feel like I knew that much more than I did before. I was happy about the fact that their prices were online. I figured even if they weren’t great prices, they would serve as a good benchmark.
About this time, I find out my girlfriend has the following preferences for rings: doesn’t like princess cut, likes the Tiffany Lucida, likes platinum/white gold setting, doesn’t know about round cuts. I’m somewhat confused by someone not liking princess cuts, but liking the Lucida, especially if the princess cut’s corners are covered by prongs. But I digress. She also knows how I prefer to buy most anything online vs. going to a store and indicated that she would be appalled by me purchasing her ring online.
Now I have an idea of what the ring should look like: the Lucida (http://www.tiffany.com/shopping/lucida.asp?). I know there’s a 0% chance that I will buy this thing from Tiffany’s. I admire the business and it appears that they sell a good product, but I can read financial statements and I know that they’re making some pretty high margins. So Tiffany’s is out, but I figure I can get a similar looking ring from somewhere else.
At about this time (December), I somehow come across pricescope.com. I was immediately hooked – I think I read about 4 months worth of posts in a week. During this time, I learned that cut is the most important of the 4 C’s, and also the one that’s least likely to be captured by numerical measures. I also learned that radiants tend to be not-so-great quality cuts, which left me in a bind if I wanted to get a ring like the Lucida. I think the best thing that happened from me reading the message boards is that I got a real comfort level about the idea of buying a stone online. I read enough messages about various different establishments and enough horror stories about B&M stores that I really got comfortable with the idea of getting the stone through an online merchant. I was also directed to www.goodoldgold.com to read through their online diamond education, which I found REALLY worthwhile. I think it’s a fantastic resource for inexperienced buyers.
So finally I took the plunge, a really minor plunge. I sent an email to GOG with my rough parameters (D-F, IF-VS1, .9-1.2c), general price range and also a note that told him about the Lucida, anti-princess thing. The next day (I think), Jonathan sent a link to a Lucere diamond he had scanned in, which was right in the parameters: http://www.goodoldgold.com/lucere__91ct_f_vs1.htm. From my understanding, Lucere equaled well-cut radiant, so it seemed like the perfect solution. So I thought it over for a couple of days and I finally decided to go ahead with it. (Keep in mind this was the week before Christmas, I’m trying to do all this over email on my cell phone so my girlfriend doesn’t find out.) After emailing another question about the ring, Jonathan says he can get it called in and shipped so I have it before Christmas, but he needs to know ASAP. At this point I felt really good about how it seemed Jonathan was working with me, but I also felt that he was being realistic about the deadline – I thought it was entirely appropriate given the holiday rush.
Finally, I called GOG for the first time to order the stone. I got Jonathan on the phone and talked to him a bit about the stone. I said I was unsure about the size - my girlfriend has never really craved the diamond and didn’t really care too much about the size, but I wanted hers to compare favorably to those of her friends. To help me appreciate the size, Jonathan emailed me a picture (while we were on the phone) of 3 stones: the one I was looking at, a 1 ct. round brilliant, and a larger Lucere. That’s the picture I’ve attached. Based on the picture, I was pretty unhappy with the size of the stone I was looking at. It is noticeably smaller than a 1 ct. round. I asked about the Lucere on the right and found out that it was out of the price range I had requested. The sad thing is, I knew that the range I had sent in was not as high as I felt I would pay. But for some reason, I tried to find a ‘bargain’ stone. Realistically, the larger stone in the picture was at the top end of my range, but still inside. Once I saw the size comparison, I knew there was no way I’d be happy with the smaller stone, even if my girlfriend would be. So I put a deposit down and had this stone sent to Dave Atlas: http://www.goodoldgold.com/lucere_1_13ct_f_vs2.htm. Jonathan – sorry about how nervous and indecisive I was on the phone and I thank you for being patient.
Here, I’d just like to point out that Jonathan had a larger stone in stock, but didn’t offer it as an option initially because it was out of the price range I specified. Obviously he was happy to have me buy the larger stone, but didn’t try to sell it to me when it was outside of what I told him I wanted to spend initially. I REALLY liked this.
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