Newbie help needs comment for online store and your experience..

[matrix]

Hi,

I live in SF, CA. I am looking for a 1 carat round diamond w/cert. I color, VS2, ideal cut, Depth 61% Table 55%. Is $4200 a good deal for online store? Do you guys think i can get this price locally ? Has anyone bought it from Dirtcheapdiamond, whiteflash, diamondonline and any comments about them please? I have never bought such an expensive thing from internet and really want to make sure is it worth to get it online instead of locally. (If save me over 15% or more compare to local)

 

[NewbieHere]

My son recently purchased a 1.02 I SI1 Hearts and Arrows stone from WhiteFlash. He is very pleased with the information and service he received from WhiteFlash. He is recommending them to his friends.

HTH

 

[aljdewey]

Hi, Matrix: The $4200 is indeed a good price for the online store.....falls right within the average price per ct on pricestats.

In my opinion, buying online is definitely the way to go if you work with one of the well respected vendors. Whiteflash, Good Old Gold, and Nice Ice all have EXCELLENT reputations here, as do Diamond Brokers of Florida and Dirtcheap diamonds. These are vendors that get glowing testimonials time after time from the many participants here.

With one of these vendors, I wouldn't hesitate to buy online, and you'll save a bundle. When you compare it to a B&M purchase, the price difference is likely to be between 10-20% difference. Heck, just saving the sales tax alone in CA amounts to 8.25%!

Finally, many of the vendors will ship the diamond to an appraiser near you so you can see the stone yourself prior to purchase. That should allay any concerns you might have about buying online.

Good luck, whatever you decide!

 

[chrispassmore]

ditto on whiteflash being excellent.

 

[hoorray]

Hi Matrix,

There are lots of vendors who have good reps here, including those mentioned above. If you find something you are interested in from one, do a search on their name here, and you'll probably see lots of input.

I really recommend buying your diamond on line. You save $$, taxes, etc, plus get a much wider choice of top quality stones. It may seem odd to buy something so expensive and important on the Internet, but in my opinion, the diamond market is one of the leading markets that the Internet is having a profound change on.

2 pieces of advice that this board told me when I started, and which worked out great:

1. Make sure you have it appraised by an independent appraiser (someone who does not sell stones)

2. Don't pay for it until you have done #1.

Many of the vendors will ship it to an independent appraiser near you for you to see and accept before you pay for it. That's the way to go in my opinion.

good luck!

 

[matrix]

Hi,

Thanks for all your great response.

But here is my another concern being as a customer side, if the online store vendor ship the diamond to a unknown third party appraiser for inspection, Is it something different than usual, Because i believe that customer usually stand in front of the apparaiser while they are inspecting the diamond. You see my point....