Need some help regarding diamond appraisal/analysis

[soontobe_do_ob]

Hello just wanted to introduce myself and ask for some help. A huge thank you in advance for all of the help this forum has been (as a lurker) and decided I needed to take the plunge with my first post.

So here is the predicament I am in. I have been educating myself on diamonds and have been shopping for quite a while (>6 months). I decided to email some online vendors and get their input on picking out a stone that fit my needs and my budget. I have been going back and forth with one so far (has been great all around and always quick to reply). The stone I am looking at is a GIA certified EX cut VG polish VG symmetry. I have some concerns because I was only given two mediocre photos of the stone. The vendor states that it is a great stone optically but he does not actually have the stone in his possession. He sent me the information for an appraiser that he has used in the past and said that he should be able to get ASET/H&A/Ideal scope images and verify the light performance of the stone. I contacted the gemologist and his response was (more or less) that it would be a waste of time to do such analysis (what he called pointless mathematical exercises). I am a bit nervous to post this on here but such a statement seems to contradict everything I have researched online. I thought that there is quite a wide variance in what is considered GIA excellent cut, and to top it off the HCA score is only very good (2.4). While I am aware that the HCA score is a general guideline that helps to rule out stones and is only approximate, it seems to me that I do not have enough information to comfortably go ahead with the purchase. It also seems odd that an appraiser would say that there is little value in light performance testing/imaging if the stone received an excellent cut score. Should I look into having the stone sent elsewhere, just stay away completely, or am I overthinking this whole thing.

Sorry for the long winded explanation. Looking forward to any help!

 

[denverappraiser]

Appraisers do not all offer the same services and the services are not all equally useful for all situations. The message is clear enough. He can’t/won’t answer your questions, and he doesn’t know what an ASET is (there isn’t even a tiny amount of math involved in that part although in other pieces of a typical appraisal assignment there are). Find a different appraiser.

Additional not. It’s ususual for a VG symmetry stone to show much in terms of H&A. If the vendor is claiming H&A symmetry, THEY should be supplying you with images to defend it. On the other hand, if they’re not even making the claim, why do you want to pay for images to ‘prove’ it?

 

[soontobe_do_ob]

Thank you for the reply! Yes the supplier is not claiming H&A and I see that it would indeed be a waste of money for such imaging. I am just trying to verify/quantify the light performace before purchasing the stone and found it odd that the person the supplier referred me to did not seem interested in examining the stone (rather looking for a fee to confirm the GIA report which seems useless to me). I will look into finding another gemologist/appraiser to take a look!

 

[ringo865]

Or post your budget and wish list and some of the prosumers could recommend a great performer for you.

 

[Diamond_Hawk]

Or post your budget and wish list and some of the prosumers could recommend a great performer for you.

^^^ This seems to be the most often successful method on this forum.

Happy Hunting!