new member asscher cut

[bwaypianist]

Hi all,
I have no idea if I'm posting this in the right section but I'm giving it a shot. I have a friend who works in the diamond district in NYC and today I bought an engagement ring through her. My GF (and myself) love the asscher cuts. I was shown a 1.03 karat, D color, VS2, very good cut rating along with an 18k setting with 1/3k diamonds around (I think it's called pavé). Anyway, it totaled $6950 and after some research I think it's a good deal especially since (and I know it's a novelty but still!) we'll always be able to say its from the diamond district in manhattan. I'll post pics when I have it in person! Please let me know if you think his was a good deal.

 

[Christina...]

Welcome to PS! You should actually ask the mods to move your thread to Rocky Talky, you will get more responses there. You can do this by hitting the 'post a concern' button and then just ask them to move it for you. Happens all the time, no worries.

As far as your diamond....there is no cut grade for fancy shaped diamonds, other than princess cuts which AGS has determined a cut grade for. I'm not sure who told you this was a 'very good' cut asscher, I assume the vendor, but it's a misleading statement. Some online vendors do this as well Blue NIle, and James Allen come to mind. It's simply their way of categorizing their inventory into most desirable to least desirable cuts, and when it comes to fancy shaped stones, this is all opinion.

It's very difficult to find a great asscher cut. Most have performance issues, lots of leakage under the table (I believe as a result of the P3 facets? someone will clarify) and often there are symetry issues with the faceting. It's impossible to tell you whether or not you paid a fair price with the limited information you provided. Much depends on the lab that graded your stone, the color, clarity etc. I'm guessing you paid an average to above average price, of course much depends on the setting you chose as well and who made it, was it custom? stock? designer? Can you post pics? It would be helpful if you could post the lab report and photos. But I think the best way to tell if you got a fair price would be to do a PS search based on the specs of your diamond and see what comes up. Be sure to compare apples to apples though, for instance, if your diamond is GIA graded G VS1, then only compare prices to other GIA G VS1 stones. If your stone is EGL USA, only compare your specs to EGL USA stones in the search. EGL is less consistent than GIA and AGS and will require an independent appraisal (not from a jeweler) to determine if you paid a fair price.

 

[TitanCi]

^Phew! Exactly what she said! Christina has given you sound advice.

With all of the fancy cuts, it's a little more difficult to tell if you have a really nice performing stone or not (i.e. light return performance, how bright it looks to your eyes) based on a few numbers. What you'll need are ASET images, basically a reflector tool that helps you determine how well a stone reflects the light that enters it. Perhaps if you bought it in the DD in NYC, the vendors there may have an ASET for you to assess your stone? So unfortunately, as far as the STONE goes, it's difficult to tell if you paid the right price for the best looking stone...