Perplexity
Rough_Rock
- Joined
- Feb 5, 2007
- Messages
- 4
Hi all,
I''m planning to buy an engagement ring very soon. Just when I thought I had learned enough to move forward, I came across this board. I''m a little overwhelmed by how much more detailed the information here (both the tutorial and the forums) is than what I''ve read so far, but I''m impressed with the quality of discussion on the boards. Anyway, I have a bunch of questions -- I''d really appreciate responses on any or all of them.
General background -- I''m pretty sure I want a round/brilliant, about 1.5ct (+/- ~0.10ct), budget about $15k all-in (+/- as much as $5k), with simple/classic platinum solitaire setting. Everything else is still sort of vague. So, my questions:
Bluenile vs. other online merchants -- until I found this site I thought BN was the only big name in online diamond sales. I see from the boards that I was wrong. In fact, it seems like posts here talk about BN a lot less than other sites. So, why is BN mentioned less here? Also -- the fact that BN is a fairly large public company makes me confident/trusting about making this huge purchase online -- are there places I can read more about the other companies that will make me feel better about them? Am I losing out a lot by only looking at BN?
Setting questions (I''ve looked mostly at the BN ones, but I imagine these apply to any) -- is 4-prong vs 6-prong a purely aesthetic choice, or is the 4-prong a lot safer, or what? What''s the deal with comfort-fit? What do most people choose on these two questions?
Clarity -- I want a diamond with no visible imperfections to the naked eye, but I don''t care much about imperfections under magnification. It looks to me like this means I should be setting my minimum at VS2. Is this correct?
Color -- I''ve been struck in my BN searches at the drastic price jump for moving up single levels of color, keeping all else constant. Again, I want something that looks colorless to a non-expert, and don''t care too much beyond that. Where should I be setting my minimum? H? Do I have to go to a B&M store and look for myself to decide this issue?
Cut -- What should I be thinking about here? Is the BN "Signature Ideal" designation meaningful? Is it overkill? Should I just be entering proportions into the HCA and looking for values between 1 and 2? What aspects of cut are not capture by the HCA score?
Polish/Symmetry -- I haven''t seen too much written about this... I''ve been setting most searches to VG/EX (GIA) / EX/ID (AGSL). Does this sound reasonable given what I''ve written so far?
Dealing with huge selection -- This search on BN brings back 40 diamonds: (Round, 1.41-1.59ct, Ideal, G, VS1/VS2, None/Neg Fluor). Those already seem like pretty tight constraints to me -- how am I supposed to pick one of these 40?
Thanks for any responses!
Alex
I''m planning to buy an engagement ring very soon. Just when I thought I had learned enough to move forward, I came across this board. I''m a little overwhelmed by how much more detailed the information here (both the tutorial and the forums) is than what I''ve read so far, but I''m impressed with the quality of discussion on the boards. Anyway, I have a bunch of questions -- I''d really appreciate responses on any or all of them.
General background -- I''m pretty sure I want a round/brilliant, about 1.5ct (+/- ~0.10ct), budget about $15k all-in (+/- as much as $5k), with simple/classic platinum solitaire setting. Everything else is still sort of vague. So, my questions:
Bluenile vs. other online merchants -- until I found this site I thought BN was the only big name in online diamond sales. I see from the boards that I was wrong. In fact, it seems like posts here talk about BN a lot less than other sites. So, why is BN mentioned less here? Also -- the fact that BN is a fairly large public company makes me confident/trusting about making this huge purchase online -- are there places I can read more about the other companies that will make me feel better about them? Am I losing out a lot by only looking at BN?
Setting questions (I''ve looked mostly at the BN ones, but I imagine these apply to any) -- is 4-prong vs 6-prong a purely aesthetic choice, or is the 4-prong a lot safer, or what? What''s the deal with comfort-fit? What do most people choose on these two questions?
Clarity -- I want a diamond with no visible imperfections to the naked eye, but I don''t care much about imperfections under magnification. It looks to me like this means I should be setting my minimum at VS2. Is this correct?
Color -- I''ve been struck in my BN searches at the drastic price jump for moving up single levels of color, keeping all else constant. Again, I want something that looks colorless to a non-expert, and don''t care too much beyond that. Where should I be setting my minimum? H? Do I have to go to a B&M store and look for myself to decide this issue?
Cut -- What should I be thinking about here? Is the BN "Signature Ideal" designation meaningful? Is it overkill? Should I just be entering proportions into the HCA and looking for values between 1 and 2? What aspects of cut are not capture by the HCA score?
Polish/Symmetry -- I haven''t seen too much written about this... I''ve been setting most searches to VG/EX (GIA) / EX/ID (AGSL). Does this sound reasonable given what I''ve written so far?
Dealing with huge selection -- This search on BN brings back 40 diamonds: (Round, 1.41-1.59ct, Ideal, G, VS1/VS2, None/Neg Fluor). Those already seem like pretty tight constraints to me -- how am I supposed to pick one of these 40?
Thanks for any responses!
Alex
300x240.png)