need help please on diamond pricing...

[snowflakeluvr]

hi all,
i went to my jeweler this weekend, ordered inside out hoops 5.5 ct tw D/E .12pointers-i am very excited and feel he gave me a good price. i have tried the ''same" roberto coin hoops on at several jewelers and i am bumping up in color from g/h and getting ideal stones. his earrings are about $1500 less than roberto coins, and 12pointers as opposed to 10 pointers.
now, here''s my pickle-i am looking to have a 5 stone band made(to represent my five children-like a super blingy mother''s ring

) and he showed me both .60 and .70 point stones.(he had a wax made and i fell in love with the 70 pointers on my size 7 finger) these will also be D/E, ideal cut, but we agreed i''d take eyeclean SIs and he''ll take his time matching the stones. so he quoted me several thousand higher than i expected. online, here, whiteflash, gog, etc show stones like this at less than $3500 (per stone) he is quoting me at 27,000-28,000 for this ring in 18k wg, a fairly low basket setting, nothing too fancy. seems much too high, i dunno.
i have to say i have a band and earrings from this jeweler already-they are like LIGHTNING-the most white, flashy diamonds i have EVER seen. but i am really wondering WHY his price is, in my belief, several thousand over what i thought i''d be paying fo this ring.
we are busy planning to move to another state and i told dh i''d scrap the project till i could investigate a little more-i don''t understand the huge difference in overall price.
anyone have a thought? as i said i LOVE his diamonds-he has an awesome cutter in antwerp and my best friend has princess stones like i''ve never seen before, but for the life of me, i can''t see paying so much more if i can find the same stones elsewhere. what do you think? tia!!!

 

[kcoursolle]

28k does sound a little high for that design, but it really depends on the color/clarity combos of the stones. Here is a .60 stone for example that is only 2400 and it is on the higher end of color/clarity combo: http://www.whiteflash.com/hearts_arrows/A-Cut-Above-H-A-cut-diamond-912962.htm. A five stone ring with five of those stones and say 2500 in platinum would be about $14,500. However, 70 pointers could be almost double in price depending on the color/clarity combo. I would get some other quotes from WF, GOG, etc. and see what they tell you. I think you could definitely do better than 28k. When you get quotes I would be specific on what clarity/color combos you want.