Hello All,
I am new here, but anticipate leveraging your nice space here for future questions and assistance.
I ventured out over the past week for my first time ever looking at settings and loose diamonds. I was deeply disappointed in the loose stones that I came across. I visited about a dozen jewelers looking at rounds .8-.9 VGS2-SI1 H-I, Excellent cut. All of the retailers played their stones up, as expected, but when I secretly pulled in to HCA, I didn't come across one stone less than 3. I mentioned to them I was interested only in stones with certain advanced (table, depth, etc.) parameters, and for the most part they all chuckled and insisted their stones were great based on the 4C's and naked eye. Another comment I reguarlaly received was "look at that sparkle, it's beautiful, she won't even notice"...frankly I couldn't even tell it wasn't ideal with my untrained eyes, but I'm a numbers guy so it just didn't feel right agreeing purely on naked eye.
Is this attitude to be expected from local diamond sellers? I'm a bit disappointed they scoffed at my wants and only care about the 4 C's. How do you navigate the local retail market with people like this?
I'm in New Hampshire and willing to travel to Boston area if anyone has suggestions. Bang for the buck is important to me, i'd rather save $400 doing some footwork to find the quality rather than going to someone who sells quality at a premium.
I am new here, but anticipate leveraging your nice space here for future questions and assistance.
I ventured out over the past week for my first time ever looking at settings and loose diamonds. I was deeply disappointed in the loose stones that I came across. I visited about a dozen jewelers looking at rounds .8-.9 VGS2-SI1 H-I, Excellent cut. All of the retailers played their stones up, as expected, but when I secretly pulled in to HCA, I didn't come across one stone less than 3. I mentioned to them I was interested only in stones with certain advanced (table, depth, etc.) parameters, and for the most part they all chuckled and insisted their stones were great based on the 4C's and naked eye. Another comment I reguarlaly received was "look at that sparkle, it's beautiful, she won't even notice"...frankly I couldn't even tell it wasn't ideal with my untrained eyes, but I'm a numbers guy so it just didn't feel right agreeing purely on naked eye.
Is this attitude to be expected from local diamond sellers? I'm a bit disappointed they scoffed at my wants and only care about the 4 C's. How do you navigate the local retail market with people like this?
I'm in New Hampshire and willing to travel to Boston area if anyone has suggestions. Bang for the buck is important to me, i'd rather save $400 doing some footwork to find the quality rather than going to someone who sells quality at a premium.