Opinion wanted PLEASE!

[MikeC103]

I''ve continually read this forum and now I am finally about to make a purchase. I have the opportunity to purchase the following diamond and would like to know what some of the experts on the board think about it. The price, set in a platinum X-prong setting, would be about $ 8,000. During the selection process I saw MANY stones - some with better specs but I always seemed to come back to this one. To be honest, it just looked the best. I just would like to get a few more opinions before diving in. Are there any areas that would make somebody nervous or need drastic improvement? Thanks in advance.



GIA
Princess
5.88 x 5.80 x 4.26
1.27 carat

depth = 73.4
table = 75
girdle = medium to thick

polish = good
symmetry = good

clarity = vs1
color = E
no fluorescence

 

[YoungPapa]

MikeC103,

Opinions are like asses - everyone has one and most of them stink. You just said you''ve **SEEN** many stones. You just said you''ve **SEEN** this diamond - we haven''t. What in the world does our opinion matter?

Okay, I guess I can give an opinion about the price. It''s great.

 

[Rhino]

 

[valeria101]

Date: 12/9/2004 8:59:18 PM
Author:MikeC103
Are there any areas that would make somebody nervous or need drastic improvement ?

How about depth around 65, thin/medium girdle to start with? That 5.8 mm should be feasible with much less weigth after all. What's the point of buying all that carat 'n quarter if it does not show anywhere but the bill ?

Once size gets sorted out, it would not hurt to ask for some account of brilliance (Ideal Scope from seller, and/or appraisal during return period). After all, princess cuts are meant to be brilliant - so it sounds just fair to demand just that.

There is ne more thing: nothing wrong with E/VS1, but those do not need to go that high on the scale to have a colorless and clena stone. If you do know already that you see a huge difference between G/VS2 (or SI, for that matter) and E/VS1 placed one next to the other, fine. If you did not have a chance to see for yourself what those grades mean in real life, than you may find the experiment intersting

Just for fun: here's a one carat princess cut of the same size as your stone LINK

 

[MikeC103]

Thank you very much for your responses.

Rhino - I''m not quite sure how to interpret your crying man icon however - lol

I should add some info to my story and address my concerns specifically:

I had another $2500 to work with so I saw a vast array of diamonds at all price levels but I kept coming back to this one. Yes, I had the opportunity to compare them side by side so it may have been unfair, but knowing that I had a very clean diamond somehow made me happy, even if nobody else knows! Believe it or not, I decided that around 1.25 in this cut was my preference - also taking into account my girlfriend''s hand size and more importantly her "low-key" attitude (trust me - according to her, this may even be too big).

Valeria, regarding the depth, since I decided that in the princess cut I actually preferred the stones that were more compact in nature, I did not concern myself with the depth - I knew I would have many choices in my price range. I did compare diamonds of lesser weight and depth with similar dimensions and decided that the depth may have added something to this stone that the others did not have - this stone just has a ton of sparkle and fire. Of course this was just my perception and you could probably prove me wrong.

As for my concerns:

Is "good" polish/symmetry acceptable? Valeria, as you stated about the color, will anybody notice unless two similar stones are side by side?

Knowing the girdle is medium to thick does bother me a bit - but to tell you the truth I could not see any difference between stones - it is just the "knowing". What exactly does it effect?

What about the table size - acceptable?

I know by now you must be thinking that if I have so many concerns then I shouldn''t buy this diamond. However, I would have many concerns about any diamond thanks to my tendency to over-research my purchases (too much info possibly? @#$@ Internet!). I guess what I am looking for is a definitive reason why NOT to buy this stone.

What I did take away from this exercise is that even sometimes "perfect" numbers may not result in the most glamorous stone - this is where I assume personal preference takes over. So far, I think youngpapa you may be right! Thanks again everybody.

Mike

 

[valeria101]

It sounds crystal clear that you like this stone ! What more does it take anyway ?

"Perfect numbers" would not mean just table and depth - those are not enough to indicate what the stone looks like. I would bet that it wasn't the extra depth that made this stone particularly attractive out of a bunch, but if yu do not mind paying for that invisible weight (both total depth and girdle thickness make this one look as larger as 1 carat), there is nothing left to talk about.

Color... I would think so. These stone are not huger and G is super-safe-white, a least to me that is. You will find lots of threads with the same Q (what color grades look like in person): as far as I remember, G and H get quite a few "votes of confidence" for looking colorless and then, there are I, J and K's with happy owners as well. All in all, G/VS1 sounds like a better deal than E/VS1, but that works only if there is one G/VS1 nicely cut that looks nice to you.

Anyway, no idea what is the price quote for the stone you picked (just guessing 6-7k from price comparison), but did you see THIS ??? Since you appreacite "flawlessness", this is about as good as it gets: D/VVS1, 1.1 carat about as large as your pick, with nicer "numbers" and an attractive IdealSCope image. It would still get to the 8k mark in the platinum ring below: