Please Help Me Choose

[bma012]

Hi folks,

I am choosing between the following three round brilliant diamonds from an internet retailer. All are supposedly "eye clear." I would love your collective input. Thanks.

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Carat weight: 1.41
Cut: Ideal
Color: D
Clarity: SI1
Depth %: 60.4%
Table %: 56%
Crown Angle: 34.3
Pavilion Angle: 40.6
Symmetry: Ideal
Polish: Ideal
Girdle: Thin to medium
Culet: None
Fluorescence: Negligible
Measurements: 7.29x7.27x4.40 mm
Cert: AGSL
Price: $11,025

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Carat weight: 1.34
Cut: Ideal
Color: D
Clarity: SI1
Depth %: 60.9%
Table %: 57%
Symmetry: Excellent
Polish: Excellent
Girdle: Thin to medium, faceted
Culet: None
Fluorescence: Medium blue
Measurements: 7.12x7.14x4.34 mm
Cert: GIA
Price: $9,102.00

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Carat weight: 1.30
Cut: Ideal
Color: D
Clarity: SI1
Depth %: 61.5%
Table %: 57%
Symmetry: Excellent
Polish: Excellent
Girdle: Medium, faceted
Culet: None
Fluorescence: Faint
Measurements: 7.06x7.00x4.32 mm
Cert: GIA
Price: $8,933.00

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[ChooChoo]

I'm going to preempt everyone here to saying that you should find out the crown and pavillion angles for diamonds two and three. Pictures would be nice too, since these are SI1 diamonds - you'll want to pick the one that's the most eye clean.

 

[valeria101]

Given that there is way more info on one, the choice right now is quite skewed in favor of the first. But with Ideal Scope and/or H&A pictures of the three, things would eve out.

I totally agree with the choice of color and clarity ! And yeah, these should be clean enough. One can always get at least an approximate idea from those inclusion plots (and most likely magnified pictures with overhead lighting, but those might play tricks too).

Off all things, I would like to have the Iscopes most, with Sarin coming a trailing second - but these are far to valuable to buy with no hint of cut quality, I would say.



To be honest, I would love to get a look at the second for it's better price. It could not be such Hell to ask for the Iscope!

 

[hoorray]

I agree -- this is too big of a one-time purchase to not have full cut details. They all look as if they are probably well cut, but until you have the crown and pavilion angles, you won't know. #2 would be my first choice IF the angles turn out to be a good combination and the inclusions are nothing to worry about. It's only slightly smaller, but $2k cheaper.

 

[bma012]

Thanks for your input...I have consulted with some more folks and have narrowed down the selection to two stones (a new one is in the mix)...I am leaning towards the latter. The difference in HCA seems negligible and it is my hope that the difference is color is too. Thoughts?

Carat weight: 1.41
Cut: Ideal
Color: D
Clarity: SI1
Depth %: 60.4%
Table %: 56%
Crown Angle: 34.3
Pavilion Angle: 40.6
Symmetry: Ideal
Polish: Ideal
Girdle: Thin to medium
Culet: None
Fluorescence: Negligible
Measurements: 7.29x7.27x4.40 mm
Cert: AGSL
HCA: 0.5
Price: $11,025

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Carat weight: 1.38
Cut: Ideal
Color: F
Clarity: SI1
Depth %: 60.9%
Table %: 57%
Crown Angle: 34.5
Pavilion Angle: 40.4
Symmetry: Ideal
Polish: Ideal
Girdle: Medium to slightly thick
Culet: None
Fluorescence: Negligible
Measurements: 7.19x7.16x4.37 mm
Cert: AGSL
HCA: 0.7
Price: $9,452

 

[hoorray]

Some people are color sensitive, but the odds of a great cut F stone not looking icy white aren't high. I tend to be a color snob, and would have been 100% happy with an F. (I ended up with an E just because the right stone came along.) I can see the color in my G earings next to my E e-ring, but on my ears they look great, and super white. Have you compared D,E,F ideal stones yourself? Can you pick out the different colors face up?

The new stone's specs look great -- and the price difference is significant. Have you seen any pics of these? That is a good next step -- check out the idealscope and inclusions pics.

 

[valeria101]

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On 4/23/2004 9:21:56 PM bma012 wrote:



The difference in HCA seems negligible and it is my hope that the difference is color is too.

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The HCA scores are in fact identical - the system cannot generate such fine differences. As they say "all above 2 is great" and the rest gets worse with teh scores - this is about as much as one can say about the score alone.

I woudl also say that between D and F very few people woudl ever be able to tell- and all such observers will be professionals used to handle such pieces for a living. Teh D-F grades are much closer together than any other colror grades to start with and then the distinction between them is supposed to show (under grading conditions, important point here) face-down, not through the sparkle of the stone face up. Color grading in setting would never calim "D"... SO it figures the F is as safe a bet as they get.
The second stone is the better buy between the two - given that appearance of the stone not the printed cert is at stake.

However, between this and the 1.38 D (the second in the first batch), still the AGS cert hith the price up on the F. A Sarin report (or cut analysis by other means) on a GIA stone might avoid this waste

True enough - GIA takes it's time to issue those cut grades, so AGS certified stones get higher prices, however, the AGS0 on cut does not guarantee top optics as closely as some direct analysis on the stone itself does... for what it is all worth