Need help with engagement ring search

[aadiamond]

Hello everyone,

I recently started my research for the perfect engagement ring and came across Pricescope which has been plenty resourceful. I am completely new to this and clueless but with help from the tutorials and forums on here I have been able to at least narrow down as to I am looking for.

My budget is around 3-3.5 k for the diamond and am looking for G-I color with VS1-SI1 clarity. The cut which I am giving more priority to should be excellent to ideal with a size between 0.8-0.9

With the large number of online vendors out there with so many choices I am pretty confused as to how to make the right choice. I have been generally looking at ERD, Eternity, James Allen, BGD and Whiteflash but I see a large price variance for some diamonds with similar characteristics on one website to another (Cut, Size, HCA etc). Generally I see that Eternity is priced lower for an equivalent diamond as compared to one from Whiteflash or BGD for example. Am I missing something here or is it because Whiteflash, BGD have in house signature cuts ?

Any tips or suggestions that would help me with my decision would be awesome.

Thanks in advance guys.

 

[dangr]

You're right about pricing. I think it is because places like BGD/WhiteFlash/GoG can provide you with so much information about the diamonds they have in house. From IS images to Sarin reports, etc. Places, such as Eternity, do not have stones in house, but can inspect any stone you're interested in and provide you with idealscope images to help with your decision-making, it's just not all up and ready to go for you like GoG.

Many of these Pricescope vendors have access to the same virtual inventory (you'll notice the exact stone listed by both BGD and Eternity, for example). In addition, places like ID Jewelery will match any price you see on Blue Nile, etc.

 

[aadiamond]

Thanks for replying. So from Eternity, JA is requesting Idealscope/Sarin reports enough to get a good idea about the diamond or would you recommend working with GOG, Whiteflash who can actually inspect the diamonds in house for better analysis

 

[Christina...]

I'm not sure about Eternity, but JA can also physically see and assess the diamond for you. They aren't the physical holders of the diamond, but are within walking distance of the holders, so when you ask them to assess a stone for you, they are actually viewing the stone. BN for instance can only call the holder of the stone and verify it's eye cleanliness, the person actually reporting back is the owner of the diamond and wants to sell it so you need to consider his opinion as likely biased. We recommend first finding a stone that scores under 2 in the HCA and then obtaining an idealscope image of the stone. If the idealscope is good then you would purchase the stone and evaluate it with your own eyes. It's not necessary to work with places like GOG and BGD because they have all the information at your fingertips and can make video comparisons and such, but its valuable and important information and offers an added measure of assurance, but again at the end of the day it's YOUR eyes that are going to determine if the diamond is beautiful. I'm comfortable purchasing sight unseen with a good HCA and IS, you may need more assurances.

Often price differences reflect not only the available information on the stone but also what type of policies accompany your purchase. Do you have a upgrade policy? buy back? trade in? These are important and valuable policies and are reflected in the price of the stone, so you should consider them as well if you think that you may want to sell or upgrade you diamond in the future. NEVER buy a diamond without a good return policy in writing.