Needs help buying a diamond

[CHENGDI]

Found this site and forum while searching online for a diamond engagement ring. Reading through the site and messages really had helped me a lot, now I would like to ask for input on my purchase.

I know that cut is the most important C of a diamond and I would absolutely like to have the best brilliance, fire and sparkles, so I must have the Ideal cut, proportion, symmetry and polish. Size also matters to me so the minimum weight is 1 ct. I''m not sure about color and clarity and I''m hesitating between G and H and VS1 - SI1. Finally, my budget is $7000 with the ring.

I like platinum setting and classic solitaire or cathedral suit me fine.

I would like your opinions on this and your guidance on what I should buy and where if possible. I had looked at some of the bluenile Signature-ideal diamonds but their prices seem a little steep.

Thank you all for your help.

 

[rothko]

The best thing to do is to go here https://www.pricescope.com/
and start looking through diamonds in your price range, 4Cs range.

At some point, you'll realize that cut is so much more important than the other 3 Cs and that many of the diamonds in the database have good, but not great cuts.

At that point, go to GOG or Superbcert or Whiteflash ACA, etc. and start looking at their diamonds. You can rest assured that their diamonds will have the best cuts possible.

Then, you'll call up Barry or Jonathan, etc. and you'll ask if that SI-2, SI-1 stone really is eye clean, or if the J K L stone really is white face. You should ask them for more pictures, comparison pictures if you're not convinced.

Finally, you'll post two or three of your favorite stones in this forum, and all the experts will chime in.

Good luck. This is pretty much what I did last week. I bought a stone earlier this week, and now I'm headed out to get it appraised.

 

[niceice]

Read the tutorials here on PS and on the individual sites of the more prominent dealers like ourselves NiceIce.com; GoodOldGold; White Flash; SuperbCert; Dirt Cheap etc. and you'll be pretty tuned in to what makes a beautiful diamond and be working with a group of dealers who maintain physical inventories of diamonds which have been hand-selected for maximum visual performance with inclusion characteristics which are not likely to be a problem in terms of the longevity of the stone... The level at which we all play within the market is essentially even, the prices are essentially all the same within an argueable difference, because we're all pulling goods from the same cutter's and selecting diamonds to our own personal preferences which tend to be fairly similar, so it all comes down to which of us happens to have the stone you want on any given day. We're glad to see that you've found Price Scope because an educated consumer is a happy consumer in the long run

 

[CHENGDI]

WhiteFlash happens to be also in Houston where I live so I called them and made an appointment to go to see four of their A Cut Above 1.01ct G VS2 diamonds Monday.
http://www.whiteflash.com/diamonds/Compare_Diamonds.aspx?idnos=499873,499857,499861,586202
Their HCA scores are 1.4, 1.8, 1.4 and 1.6 and the Pricescope wire prices they quoted me are $6683, $6750, $6816, $6816.

Just for comparison, I also searched Bluenile for 1.01 G VS2 Ideal-cut and since they have a bigger selection, I picked 2 with the lowest HCA scores 0.7 and 0.8:
http://www.bluenile.com/diamonds_details.asp?pid=LD00226710
http://www.bluenile.com/diamonds_details.asp?pid=LD00241064
Their price is $6760, I have a $100 referral discount and 1.5% discount if I pay by wire so they are down to $6560. So price wise, Bluenile beats whiteflash. Bluenile also has a tapered cathedral ring that I like.

I'll see whether Whileflash can convice me that I should buy theirs when I go to see them Monday.

 

[valeria101]

Hm...

I believe that the criteria for BN's "Ideal" are not the same as what WF does for thei ACA (and those would be labeles "known H&A"). To get the same quality you might want to inspect BN's "Sugnature Collection" - it's promissing, but BN is less informative on each diamond than WF.

As usual, the devil is in the details.

The ideals (outside the signature collection) at BN are nice on average, but the descriptions allows for quite a mixed lot. For the same type, you could go for WF's "Expert Selection" which contains stones with less perfect cut than their A cut Above, but still fine and with more info provided on cut quality than BN.

While I obviously have not inspected all stones within your specs at BN and WF, you might want to see what drives prices at both sellers. Too bad there is much 'wording' involved in these types and quality groups - it just makes comparing "apples with apples" less straightforward.

All this does not say that the ultimate notch in cut perfection is perfectly justified - but if you do go for a decent approximation with wisual effect and not paper grades in mind, it pays to know exactly what your choice involves... I suppose.

 

[CHENGDI]

The two Bluenile stones are also AGS certified and are AGS000; and they score better than the WhileFlash stones on HCA although they are all under 1.5 so it probably doen't mean much.

 

[69gm]

though bluenile is certainly a pretty reputable dealer, i don't think they are as picky about their diamonds as whiteflash will be. from what i have seen, their "a cut above" stones are some of the nicest i've seen. and they provide a heck of a lot more info than bluenile on the diamond.

another plus will be that you will get to see the stone live if you go to whiteflash. to me it's always a plus to be able to see the diamond you intend to buy. finding the "right numbers" certainly helps, but nothing beats seeing the diamond right in front of you to go "wow". only seeing it live will produce this "wow" factor.

good luck to you whichever way you decide to go.