Hi all,
I have been lurking on here for a while and have done a lot of reading, you guys are amazing by the way, but I was wondering if anyone had any advice for my particular situation. My partner and I are in the market for my engagement ring. We are looking for a pear-shaped diamond approximately 0.5 carat in size, G colour (or similar), clarity-wise VS2 preferably but SI1 is fine, really it just needs to be completely eyeclean. The cut is particularly important to us, needs to be minimum of very good if not excellent cut. A good shape is important too, we don't want it too long and skinny, so a length:width ratio of around 1.5:1 would be good. I know 0.5 carat is very small by pricescope standards, but I have very small fingers (approx size 4-4.25) and prefer delicate styles of jewellery. Setting-wise we are looking for a simple solitaire with as fine a band as possible. We are not sure on platinum vs 18k white gold yet.
We are not swimming in cash by any means (still yet to buy a house etc.) so are looking to fit the whole thing into a budget of $3,500 if at all possible. Living in Australia we don't seem to get quite as good deals as those of you in the US. I was strongly considering buying on-line (which we could quit easily achieve within our budget), but have recently decided that it will just be too hard to buy a pear without seeing it in person (much harder to go off specs, worries about bow-tie, etc). I also have a feeling we are going to be very picky about the setting and don't think we can get the detail/customization we will likely need on-line. This is a particular issue with pears as I really dislike them when the claws are too big or there are too many of them, etc. So likely we are looking at getting it made.
Part of the problem is that there isn't a great deal of selection of pears in this size range, from what I can tell anyway. I dropped into a few jewellers in my city (Melbourne) last week to enquire about stones, and they were quoting around $4000-4500 for a half carat G VS2 (set in white gold). Whether this is their rock bottom price I don't really know, and they didn't give me specific information about the cut etc of the stones. I left my desired specs with one jeweller to see what he could find, and got a call back this afternoon to say he tracked down a stone which he has called into the store but can hold no longer than a week. He said it is an absolute beauty, but of course he would haha. My partner and I are going in on the weekend to have a look. However it is quite differently spec'd to what I was after.
I don't have all the specs yet but it is a 0.39 carat D VS1 with length:width of 1.52:1, very good polish polish and symmetry. It measures 6.37 x 4.15mm and it has a nice depth of 60.1%. He said it came up to around $4000 (mounted), but because I gave a hard-line budget of $3500 he has discounted it to that for the stone mounted in an 18K white gold setting. Of course I will have to see how it looks, I'm just a bit worried about the reduction in size (though in all reality the measurements shouldn't be too different from a half carat) and the paying for the D colour when I was happy to go lower. On the other hand, I don't mind taking the D if I am getting a good deal and not actually paying the premium for the colour. I have emailed another jeweller we are interested in to see what he can do, but I don't know if they will have anything for us to look at before this stone gets sent back to the supplier.
What would you do? Is there anything else I should consider? Thanks in advance!
I have been lurking on here for a while and have done a lot of reading, you guys are amazing by the way, but I was wondering if anyone had any advice for my particular situation. My partner and I are in the market for my engagement ring. We are looking for a pear-shaped diamond approximately 0.5 carat in size, G colour (or similar), clarity-wise VS2 preferably but SI1 is fine, really it just needs to be completely eyeclean. The cut is particularly important to us, needs to be minimum of very good if not excellent cut. A good shape is important too, we don't want it too long and skinny, so a length:width ratio of around 1.5:1 would be good. I know 0.5 carat is very small by pricescope standards, but I have very small fingers (approx size 4-4.25) and prefer delicate styles of jewellery. Setting-wise we are looking for a simple solitaire with as fine a band as possible. We are not sure on platinum vs 18k white gold yet.
We are not swimming in cash by any means (still yet to buy a house etc.) so are looking to fit the whole thing into a budget of $3,500 if at all possible. Living in Australia we don't seem to get quite as good deals as those of you in the US. I was strongly considering buying on-line (which we could quit easily achieve within our budget), but have recently decided that it will just be too hard to buy a pear without seeing it in person (much harder to go off specs, worries about bow-tie, etc). I also have a feeling we are going to be very picky about the setting and don't think we can get the detail/customization we will likely need on-line. This is a particular issue with pears as I really dislike them when the claws are too big or there are too many of them, etc. So likely we are looking at getting it made.
Part of the problem is that there isn't a great deal of selection of pears in this size range, from what I can tell anyway. I dropped into a few jewellers in my city (Melbourne) last week to enquire about stones, and they were quoting around $4000-4500 for a half carat G VS2 (set in white gold). Whether this is their rock bottom price I don't really know, and they didn't give me specific information about the cut etc of the stones. I left my desired specs with one jeweller to see what he could find, and got a call back this afternoon to say he tracked down a stone which he has called into the store but can hold no longer than a week. He said it is an absolute beauty, but of course he would haha. My partner and I are going in on the weekend to have a look. However it is quite differently spec'd to what I was after.
I don't have all the specs yet but it is a 0.39 carat D VS1 with length:width of 1.52:1, very good polish polish and symmetry. It measures 6.37 x 4.15mm and it has a nice depth of 60.1%. He said it came up to around $4000 (mounted), but because I gave a hard-line budget of $3500 he has discounted it to that for the stone mounted in an 18K white gold setting. Of course I will have to see how it looks, I'm just a bit worried about the reduction in size (though in all reality the measurements shouldn't be too different from a half carat) and the paying for the D colour when I was happy to go lower. On the other hand, I don't mind taking the D if I am getting a good deal and not actually paying the premium for the colour. I have emailed another jeweller we are interested in to see what he can do, but I don't know if they will have anything for us to look at before this stone gets sent back to the supplier.
What would you do? Is there anything else I should consider? Thanks in advance!
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