newbie questions

[skeletor8]

Hi,

I am new to the diamond shopping business, but have been trying to bring myself up to speed. I recently viewed some diamonds at a few local stores, and found a few that *I* thought were pretty nice. The diamonds in question seemed like good deals given their specs, and given that I was at a local vendor.

Things that make me nervous though are:
1) They are EGL certified...nice that they are certified at all, but I have read a few things on these boards regarding their sometimes loose standards.
2) There is very little information regarding this vendor on this board. I believe they made a brief appearance on this board (and it ended up looking a bit like self-promotion), but there aren''t any other "feel-good" experiences that I can draw on from lurking on the board (though on the plus-side, there aren''t any negative experiences either)

I am interested in the rocks, so should I have it privately appraised? If I had a better trained eye, it might not be necessary...but I just don''t know if I can trust myself to say anything other than the specs looked pretty nice and the diamonds themselves also were very nice. I could see no visible inclusions, including in one that was SI1.

2) Should I identify the merchant? They may lurk around here, and especially might after this place came up in conversation.

 

[jaz464]

Welcome to PS

Personally, I would not go with an EGL graded diamond. They are just more work but money can be saved so you may want to go this route. Absolutely get the diamond looked at by an independent appraiser (one who does not sell diamonds) if you go with EGL. This is even more important if you do not trust your own eyes. Make sure the vendor has a very good return policy. I would try to get the diamond looked at by an appraiser even before you buy it. Try to stick with EGL USA if you go with this lab. What are you looking for in a diamond? Shape, size, cut, clarity, color etc?

I don''t see a reason to list the vendor unless you really want to. Have you considered looking online? Some of the best online dealers sell very high quality diamonds at prices B & M stores cannot match. They also usually have more info like IS images and sarin reports. These can really assist in choosing a diamond online. Also, many will send the diamond out for you to see in person before you decide if you would like to purchase it or not.

 

[skeletor8]

Y, it''s a tough one because of the fact that my bs detector was not screaming at me like it has in many other instances (like car shopping or other jewelry stores for example). I thought the diamonds were very nice and could not make out any particular flaws. In some ways, I almost don''t want to ruin it except for the nagging fact that I have a need to not feel like I got screwed.

I am shopping for a ~1ct asscher, VS2 or better. From looking at different color grades, I and H colors do not offend me, so I don''t think I *need* to go for much better than that. All of the stones that I looked at were under 60% for the table, and around 68% for depth and had very good or better grades in symmetry. One of the stones (which I actually liked the best) was SI1, and I could barely even make out the inclusions in the loop, let alone with my naked eye.

I have looked online a bit, and was more looking at some local jewelers to get an idea of what things looked like in-person before ordering online. I am not entirely sure what to do...I guess I should call an appraiser off of this site and have them check the stones out...just sucks to pay $75-$125 to find out *if* I want to buy something. I suppose it is better than buying a piece of junk for a lot more and finding out later.

 

[diamondseeker2006]

Well, if you can get the numbers off the certs, there are people around here like Storm who know a lot about asscher numbers and could help you narrow down the search before sending it to an appraiser. And you could also figure it is a color grade or two lower than the cert says, so you could compare prices with other online vendors, too.

 

[skeletor8]

Well, here are two WF ones that were referred to me:

http://www.whiteflash.com/asscher/Asscher-cut-diamond-1745242.htm
http://www.whiteflash.com/asscher/Asscher-cut-diamond-2305011.htm

The first one being SI1 is obviously worrisome...though like I said above, I saw an SI1 in person that I really could not make out the inclusion without the loop, and even then, they seemed pretty well hidden.

I am trying to obtain the certs for the diamonds from the local dealer as well for community review.