Someone's e-signature poignantly says: "Life is short, eat dessert first." Hewing to that line of philosophy, I'm posting the pictures first.
The Pictures:
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This is the best my point-and-shoot camera could manage.It took many, many tries to capture even this level of details.The camera seems to have great difficulty focusing on shiny objects at close range.I had to resort to placing a magnifying glass between the ring and the camera lens. As a result, I think the magnifier distorted the 1st image a tiny bit.
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The Diamond:
certificate: GIA
Shape: Round Brilliant
Measurements: 6.56x6.59x4.09mm
carat: 1.10
color: F
clarity: VS2
Polish: Excellent
Symmetry: Excellent
Girdle: Medium, Facted
Fluorescence: None/www.pricescope.com/idealbb/images/smilies/3.gif[/img]/www.pricescope.com/idealbb/images/smilies/3.gif[/img]
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It scores a 0.9 on the HCA./www.pricescope.com/idealbb/images/smilies/3.gif[/img]/www.pricescope.com/idealbb/images/smilies/3.gif[/img]
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The Ring:/www.pricescope.com/idealbb/images/smilies/3.gif[/img]/www.pricescope.com/idealbb/images/smilies/3.gif[/img]
Manufacturer: Lazare Kaplan
Metal: 950 platinum
Details: For those of you wondering how close this setting is to the original Tiffany 6-prong solitaire, the arches in the crown are at a sharper angle than the Tiffany’s.Personally, I think Superbcert’s rendition is a closer replica.
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The Story:
My search for an engagement ring started in the local B&M jewelry shops.Although I knew virtually nothing about diamonds at the time, I had enough common sense to avoid the “mall jewelers” all together.I went to four local shops that were recommended by friends to get a feel for things like how big a one-carat diamond looks in real life and the color differences between a D colored and F colored diamond etc.After that I went straight to Google.It actually took me three days to find PriceScope, quite slow considering how much info this site puts on the web.I’ve yet to go to another diamond site ever since.
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I decided on a round cut because it’s the only shape that allows one to judge the quality of a diamond using only specs and w/o looking at the stone in person.Of course, experts may beg to differ.Since I was on a self-imposed count down to proposal day, I quickly finalized on the specs of the diamond that I wanted to purchase.I’m very comfortable with buying on-line.I once bought a brand new car on-line and had it shipped to my house on a flatbed truck.But I had to admit that I was a bit apprehensive about this particular purchase.The more I learned about diamonds, the less comfortable I felt.It seemed to me that there were a million ways an unscrupulous vendor could cheat a customer.But I realized that no matter how careful you are, you’ll have to make a leap of faith at some point in the buying process and trust an individual whom you’ve never dealt with before.So I took the plunge.PS’ search engine narrowed down the choices to about a hundred of so. I manually narrowed the list down to two. And I went with the vendor who secured either one of the diamonds first. The vendor was USACertedDiamonds.Martin handled my transaction.He was very professional and easy to deal with.When I mentioned that the price on PS was lower than the one listed on his site, he immediately agreed to honor the PS price. In a matter of 48 hours, the diamond was shipped to Richard Sherwood, a PS recommended independent appraiser in Florida.The diamond checked out just fine.I wired the money to Martin and two days later the diamond was FedExed to me safe and sound.
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Now that I had the rock, my attention shifted to the setting.Thanks to our very own Derekinla who posted a wonderfully detailed account of his ring shoppingexperience, I was able to do a lot less work.I really like the Tiffany 6-prong solitaire setting.But Tiffany does not sell its setting separately.After a long and arduous search, I found that there were only two 3rd-party replicas that were worthy of serious consideration: one by Lazare Kaplan and the other by Superbcert.I was one click away from ordering the one from Superbcert but opted out at the last second.I really wanted to see the diamond being set in person.That left me with only one choice: buy the Lazare Kaplan setting from a local store.There was this one miner problem: Lazare does not sell the setting alone either!That’s where Derek’s intel came in handy.He was able to convince a local jeweler to sell him the very same Lazare setting.So I went to the only local store that carried Lazare.The store manager was an impeccably dressed asian women covered from head to toe with designer cloth and sports a diamond ring the size of my finger nail (the diamond that is).She was not happy at all about the fact that I had the audacity to walk into her upscale store with a diamond bought else where and had the nerve to ask her to break Lazare’s company policy and sell me the setting alone.But I’m a persistent guy.After enduring a long-winded lecture about the danger of buying on-line and those feathers at the edge of the girdle on my diamond were really “cracks” (Oh Geee, I wonder why Richard Sherwood didn’t mention that?!?), she agreed to sell me the setting alone.
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On the day of the appointment, I showed up with a stack of pictures.They were a series of “good-vs-bad” setting examples that I collected off the internet.I requested that the setter follow the “good” examples.I also wanted the inside of the prong polished to possibly reflect back any light leakage.After reviewing my requests, the manager informed me that she’ll have to triple the price that she quoted me the other day because of these additional works I wanted done.I said it was fine as long as I get to watch the whole process in person.So for the next two and half hours or so, I sat behind a glass shield, watching the company setter working on my ring on the other side.It’s nerve wrecking to see him handle the diamond and the setting with all these power tools.It just reminded me the last time I was at the dentist’s.After like 6 cups of tea and a trip to the restroom, it was finally done.The store manager placed the ring under a gemologist’s microscope for me to review.The setter did an excellent job!I was very pleased with his work.Then the manager asked me if she could keep the photos that I brought.She said that she’s hiring another setter and she would like to use these pictures in her next interview.
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Ok, that’s my entire e-ring shopping experience.I hope it’ll help someone in his or her search for that perfect ring.I’ve received plenty of info/advice from the generous members of this forum.This is the least I can do to say thank you.
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Oh, I will write up another post to “shameless brag” about my proposal story.
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