Please Fill in the Blank...I need HELP

[rtdds]

Well let me just start off by saying this is my first day here and I''m sooo happy I stumbled upon this site. Reading through the posts I''m adding quite a bit to the little I know. There seems to be lots of knowledgable people here and even some jewelers and I think thats great! I''m a diamond newbie and really had zero knowledge on diamonds so I started my ring search about 5 months ago at the local mall, i.e devons, kays, zales, etc. I wanted to get an idea of what my girlfriend was going to like. I got the basics like ring size, diamond size, color, setting and decided to take that and do further research online. At first this was to gather information so I could go back into the jewelers to make an informed decision on the best ring, but now I''m finding that it''s going to be signifcantly less expensive to do my purchase online. At first I was skeptical because its such a big purchase to do over the internet, but after reading others experiences I am confident in the online process. So this is what I''m looking for: 1.8 - 2 ct princess stone, H-I color, SI-1 or better, Good-Very good polish/symmetry (this might be a dumb question, but this is basically the cut right?), mounted in platinum setting. I''ve been mainly looking at bluenile and ebay and have seen these in a range of $6,000-12,000. I basically want something big and sparkly. I''ve been with my girlfriend for 7 years and she doesn''t ask for much so I want this to be special. I am on a budget but can save enough in the next few months to make this type of purchase. Ideally I would like to spend 8k on both stone + setting but would spend a max of 10k.

Well after reading through post after post, I''ve realized I definitely don''t know enough yet. I want something thats going to be big and sparkly and thats not going to look yellow on a plat setting. Please help me fill in these areas with a range for each. I''ve also noticed EGL diamonds were less expensive...would you purchase EGL? Are all the diamonds found in the PS search legit? Any help would be great appreciated

Color -
Clarity -
Depth -
Table -
Gdl -
Cul -
Sym -
Pol -

 

[Lorelei]

Date: 1/7/2009 5:16:09 AM
Author:rtdds
Well let me just start off by saying this is my first day here and I'm sooo happy I stumbled upon this site. Reading through the posts I'm adding quite a bit to the little I know. There seems to be lots of knowledgable people here and even some jewelers and I think thats great! I'm a diamond newbie and really had zero knowledge on diamonds so I started my ring search about 5 months ago at the local mall, i.e devons, kays, zales, etc. I wanted to get an idea of what my girlfriend was going to like. I got the basics like ring size, diamond size, color, setting and decided to take that and do further research online. At first this was to gather information so I could go back into the jewelers to make an informed decision on the best ring, but now I'm finding that it's going to be signifcantly less expensive to do my purchase online. At first I was skeptical because its such a big purchase to do over the internet, but after reading others experiences I am confident in the online process. So this is what I'm looking for: 1.8 - 2 ct princess stone, H-I color, SI-1 or better, Good-Very good polish/symmetry (this might be a dumb question, but this is basically the cut right?), mounted in platinum setting. I've been mainly looking at bluenile and ebay and have seen these in a range of $6,000-12,000. I basically want something big and sparkly. I've been with my girlfriend for 7 years and she doesn't ask for much so I want this to be special. I am on a budget but can save enough in the next few months to make this type of purchase. Ideally I would like to spend 8k on both stone + setting but would spend a max of 10k.

Well after reading through post after post, I've realized I definitely don't know enough yet. I want something thats going to be big and sparkly and thats not going to look yellow on a plat setting. Please help me fill in these areas with a range for each. I've also noticed EGL diamonds were less expensive...would you purchase EGL? Are all the diamonds found in the PS search legit? Any help would be great appreciated

Color -
Clarity -
Depth -
Table -
Gdl -
Cul -
Sym -
Pol -

Welcome!

Firstly with grading labs, EGL are said to be soft on grading in some instances, this page tells you how the grading labs rank.

http://diamonds.pricescope.com/grading.asp

Your colour and clarity requirements sound fine, the best way to buy a Princess is to work with a vendor who has in house diamonds and all the info provided to help you judge the all important cut quality, polish and symmetry are only one detail of the cut, the diamond as a whole is what is important. If you want to narrow the field, you could consider branded Princess such as

Crafted by Infinity ( www.winkjones.com )

A Cut Above Princess ( www.whiteflash.com )

And the in house Princess from www.goodoldgold.com

Some of these will also be AGS0, GIA don't grade Princess for cut quality at this time, however a trusted vendor may have some well cut GIA graded Princess he can recommend.

Above all the overall cut quality is what is important as without that you won't have a beautiful sparkly rock.

If you are just starting out and are not ready to buy yet, start with the advanced tutorial and read up -

http://diamonds.pricescope.com/

Here is a chart you can use as a guide, but don't be too concerned if a diamond doesn't quite match up to the numbers given especially if you have images such as ASET and detailed photos - and you like the diamond!

http://diamonds.pricescope.com/fnc1.asp

 

[MissDimity]

Color= D-I (from what you said you don''t want to go below I, note EGL is a bit looser in its color grading a ''D'' could be a GIA graded ''F'')
Clarity= FL- SI (make sure SI is ''eye clean'')

I assume you a looking for a ''Round Brilliant'' diamond, if so this is Lorelai''s cheat sheet for cut;
Depth=60-62.4,
Table= 54-57%
Crown angle= 34-35 degrees
Pavilion angle= 40.6-41 degrees
Girdle= thin to slightly thick, thin to medium

I followed those measures for cut and have the most sparkly diamond I have ever seen.

Another good measure is the Holloway Cut Advisor (HCA) tool (found in the tools tab on the top of page). The HCA helps reject unseen diamonds, a score above 2 should be rejected if you are looking for an awesome diamond. However, if you follow the cheat sheet you should fall below a HCA score of 2.