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need to buy a diamond ring in a week - very confused -

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M

meric

Rough_Rock
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Jul 19, 2008
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hello there

I need to buy a diamond ring ASAP and pretty confused
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I have read many online docs about 4Cs and everything.. got more confused as I got deeper..

I first started shopping online and was thinking of getting a.. D to F color, IF to VVS2 clarity, 0.75 carat, ideal/good cut diamond... just thought getting a smaller but better diamond would make my girl happy..

then I thought she wouldn''t care much about the clarity, will never take a loupe and look at it for a long time... so I started looking for a bigger diamond..so she would feel more special as bigger is better :)

stepped out for the first time to the nearest jewelery store.. it was my first time.. I compared a D color with an G-H-I color... I ''ve seen a huge difference.. claritywise I checked some SIs and Is..

in my online searches I noticed princess cut is cheaper than round cut which would give me more Carat for my budget so I leaned on the Princess cut..

today I went to another diamond store and checked out VS2 and a SI2.. the inclusion in VS2 was very small even with the loupe.. so I thought I could trade clarity for carat..get SI1 or SI2.

then I got home, started shopping online for D,E,F color, between 1.00 and 1.25 ct , VS2,SI1 or SI2 clarity... in princess cut..

till this time, cut was not my priority.. when I read more how cut effects the brilliance, fire I got lost..

table and depth also confused me as well...not mentioning the polish, symmetry and florescence.

now I don''t know what to do.. I do want to get her a D or E color with a VS2 clarity.. bigger than 1.15 ct.. but not sure if it''ll worth to go over my budget...

please help me decide on ROUND or PRINCESS

colorwise should I stay on F and G to fit in my budget or get more carat for the price?

thanx in advance for any inputs..I really appreciate if you could also share your ideas on buying online.. I prefer that as I can compare hundreds of diamonds in a fraction of time...
 
Welcome Meric!

As to what shape diamond you should get, personally I think unless your GF has expressed a preference towards a Princess, then a round might be the best choice. Certainly SI clarity can be an excellent choice if verified eyeclean by a trusted vendor, and F and G can still look extremely white and even an H can too. It is cut which makes a diamond beautiful, so that needs to be a high priority. Cut quality is much easier to judge by the numbers than it is with Princess and other fancy shapes. I would recommend you look at some of the trusted PS vendors who have in house diamonds, that way often the cut analysis has been done for you so you can make an informed choice.

Here are some of the popular vendors, there are others, check out the vendors list under resources top right.

www.whiteflash.com

www.winkjones.com

www.goodoldgold.com

If you give us an idea of budget, then we could suggest some diamonds for you.
 
Most women have a preference between round or square. Do you any idea your girlfriend does? On PS cut rules. A well cut stone in a lower color usually gives you the most bang for your buck. D-F''s are gorgeous but G-H''s seem to be a real sweet spot for most because when the stone has an excellent cut the color difference is very subtle.

Check out some of the PS vendors. (GOG is closed next week) What''s your budget?

.75 round

0.763 princess
 
Ditto Loreli - if she hasn''t specifically requested a princess, I would go for the more traditional round stone.

I personally think if you want to maximise your budget and stay in the safe zone for colour sensitivity etc, I would aim for a G VS2 or even eyeclean SI1, unless you know your gf would sacrifice size for the icy white of a D or E (I opted for a smaller icy white D stone and I love it).
 
Ditto what Lorelei and Honey said. I was just out helping my niece and her BF look at stones. She wants a PC but unless you know your GF wants that cut I would go for a round well cut, GH VS2 / SI1 as long as the SI is eye clean. Can''t wait to see what you find.
 
okay.. budget is 5000-6000 bucks for the diamond..

I''ll now go to a mall jewelery store and compare a same carat weight round and princess cut diamonds side by side , see which one is bigger..

according to the sizing chart amazon.com has.. a 1.5 carat princess is almost same size with a 1 carat round.. and there is not much difference with a 1 carat and 1.20 carat round diamond.. both looks big..

if this is the case.... and when we take " cut " into the play.. I''ll go down to 1.00 - 1.10 carat weight and get a round, E F G H , PREMIUM cut stone...

or go more towards to G-H color to save some bucks..

thanx for all your help.
 
I wouldn't base a decision to purchase one shape over the other on how large they face up. I wouldn't want a princess for two reasons, even if they did face up larger. One, I am not a fan of the square shape, and two, they just don't have the sparkle of a round stone. It's totally up to you though, just an idea.

A princess will face up slightly smaller, but they are cheaper so it's a much of a muchness I think.

I would suggest you purchase from a vendor that has a good return/upgrade policy in case the ring isn't exactly what your gf had in mind. Good luck


Did a quick search, gives you an idea of what kind of well cut stone you can get for that money

http://www.whiteflash.com/hearts_arrows/A-Cut-Above-H-A-cut-diamond-636622.htm

http://www.whiteflash.com/hearts_arrows/A-Cut-Above-H-A-cut-diamond-737788.htm

http://www.goodoldgold.com/diamond/4510/

http://www.goodoldgold.com/diamond/4539/

Will need to check if the SIs are eyeclean, and don't forget to ask for the PS discount if any of these takes your fancy.
 
https://www.pricescope.com/forum/rockytalky/diamond-size-comparison-t83517-60.html

This might also help. It''s a thread of diamond size comparison, should give you an idea of differences between sizes of rounds and princesses.
 
I am a fan of the princess cut... I love the "crushed ice" look of the stone. In my opinion, they have just as much sparkle as a round cut, it''s just that the pattern looks different. Both will look beautiful as long as you get a descent cut. Good luck with your search!!
 
hello honey22..

what did you mean by " don''t forget to ask for the PS discount if any of these takes your fancy "

when shopping online...

I was looking at, amazon.com, bluenile.com, abazias.com, mondera and jamesallen..

liked the jamesallen as they are saying they put the actual photo of the diamonds..

in whiteflash and goodolgold.. the buying experience looks even better... but goodoldgold''s prices are higher..

what do you think if I get the most for my price with AGS or GIA with cut grade ? from any of the online stores?
 
I'm Pricescoping at work so I will do my best to answer your questions while my boss is out of the lab
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Some PS vendors offer a Pricescope discount, WF and GOG do I know, I am not sure of the others.

I purchased from WF so they are my first pick, but GOG will have great options too.

Bugger, been interupted, will be back soon!

ETA - I am not sure about pricing being higher at GOG or WF, but I would point out that you need to be sure you are comparing apples with apples ie. a G VS2 with a very good rating will be cheaper than a G VS2 with an excellent cut rating, so make sure you are comparing the same thing. Also GOG and WF handpick their H&A stones to be the higher quality for light return etc so you can't go wrong with these, but they will be slightly higher in price, but worth it IMO to guarantee a great stone.
 
I am not sure what you mean about getting the most from your price, and the grading etc. You will definately get a better price purchasing online.

If you still want to stay in the G/H colour range and are happy with around the 1ct mark, then I would suggest those stones I linked earlier.

If you think you want to go bigger in size, then you need to drop colour. Let us know and she can suggest other stones if you want.

I personally would pick one of those ACAs from WF, I have one and they are just stunning stones. But it''s up to you.
 
Date: 7/20/2008 6:06:06 PM
Author: Tuckins1
I am a fan of the princess cut... I love the ''crushed ice'' look of the stone. In my opinion, they have just as much sparkle as a round cut, it''s just that the pattern looks different. Both will look beautiful as long as you get a descent cut. Good luck with your search!!
Click to expand...

Ditto! I definitely want to refute the idea that a princess doesn''t sparkle as much as a round cut. A princess cut has more tiny flashes of light, whereas a round has fewer, bigger sparkles. I do think that it''s easier to judge how well cut a round it because round cutting is more exact a science; I think there''s more variation in what makes a princess cut good.

It IS true that a princess cut will look smaller than a round of the same weight, because (1) well-cut princesses have greater depth than well-cut rounds, and (2) some of the weight is "wasted" in the corners. I estimate it that a princess looks about the size of a round that''s about 0.25ct less as a rule of thumb.

All things considered, if you don''t know what she prefers, go for a round...it''s more popular, very classic, larger appearing for carat weight, and down to an exact science for cut quality. But try to find out what she likes first.

As for specs, most women want larger diamonds, so I''d go for the largest ideal-cut stone you can find within budget. I''d drop the color down to H/I/J and the clarity to VS2/SI1/SI2 (provided it''s eye-clean). Going down in color is one of the easiest ways to drop big bucks from the price without affecting the beauty of the stone much. Most people can''t tell the difference between D and H. You can save even more by going to I or J (my princess is an I), and there are some really beautiful J stones here. Just keep in mind that if you go with a princess, they tend to show color more than rounds, so I wouldn''t go below I.
 
hello again..

today I checked round and princess side by side.. the size difference was big ( round looked bigger ) , I agree rounds are more bright so cut will be round for sure..

now I have 8 websites open trying to narrow down the options... too bad that the diamond I want is over my budget..

for the CUT... if ACA or Hearts/Arrows ( in GOG or James Allen ) is the same thing as AGS's IDEAL , GIA's EXCELLENT cut grade... then I could shop for an IDEAL/EXCELLENT CUT in any online store and expect getting Hearts and Arrows..

there is no way I can check the hearts and arrows and no time...I need to get the ring by the end of next week then fly over to Europe to propose...

please advise on my conclusion about the CUT.. whenever I check the report of a ACA, H/A diamond..I end up seeing Ideal or Excellent cut in the reports..

dropping the color...I am not sure about that.. but looks like thats the only way to fit in my budget... I do want a E , VS2... went down to 1.00 carat from 1.15s as there is not much difference in size..
 
Not having the time to fully dig into something, I would suggest just about anything labelled ACA from Whiteflash. I found the one listed below and so long as it is eye-clean, it''s a good candidate for what you had previously mentioned for a budget. Scores a .7 on HCA. Everything else that I found with the search by cut feature here on PS was slightly higher, but you would have to figure in the discounts they offer for PS members.

http://www.whiteflash.com/hearts_arrows/A-Cut-Above-H-A-cut-diamond-1148575.htm

As far as your question about every online retailer being the same by saying "ideal" or "H&A", I would shy away from that. Not all H&A are going to be real deal H&A. In your situation, I would go with the proven winner as far as who I purchased from.

Now if you dropped to a G color, that will open things up for you a bit. The diamond listed below is another ACA by WF that is pretty close on specs to the previous one, but is 10 point more in volume. .9 on the HCA as well as SI1, so you''d have to verify eye-clean. If it we me in your shoes, I would call up WF as soon as possible and have them help you out. Hope this helps out some!

http://www.whiteflash.com/hearts_arrows/A-Cut-Above-H-A-cut-diamond-1148574.htm
 
hello haywood.. thanx for your input.

will call them up tomorrow. hope they have a good discount for PS members which will help me fit a better stone in the budget.

thanks
 
 
I suggest checking this link out, they have good prices
http://www.wonderjewelers.com/advanced_search_result.php?keywords=princess&Search=Find+It!

Let me know

For example this one should be good

http://www.wonderjewelers.com/110ct-princess-vintage-pave-setting-p-28004.html

http://www.wonderjewelers.com/125ct-princess-diamond-accent-setting-p-4545055.html

I think they offer financing so that might help you
 
Date: 7/21/2008 5:24:07 PM
Author: gracioso
I suggest checking this link out, they have good prices

http://www.wonderjewelers.com/advanced_search_result.php?keywords=princess&Search=Find+It!


Let me know


For example this one should be good


http://www.wonderjewelers.com/110ct-princess-vintage-pave-setting-p-28004.html


http://www.wonderjewelers.com/125ct-princess-diamond-accent-setting-p-4545055.html


I think they offer financing so that might help you
Click to expand...

Nowhere near enough info to purchase a princess stone with. No IS, no ASET, non-PS vendor. I would stay clear unless they can provide you with an IS or ASET image.

You get what you pay for. The prices are probably cheaper as the stones are likely to be an inferior cut.

Photos are stock photos too, not the actual stone you would be purchasing. Hmmmm, warning bells here.
 
Call whiteflash!!!! If you don''t want to check all numbers super carefully, stick to ACAs because they''ve already done it for you. If it were me personally I''d drop to I color to maximize size (unless your gf specifically told you absolutely colorless). My I with faint fluorescence is set in white gold and is perfectly white. In fact, my next stone will be a J with more fluorescence because I like the look. Just don''t assume that GIA excellent means ideal. I made that mistake and although I like the stone I picked out, it is not super-ideal like an ACA will be.
 
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