Please help with Blue Nile purchase

[kms]

I am most definitely a newbie in diamond purchasing, although I have read as much material as I can find. My fiancee-to-be picked a setting from Blue Nile which they only sell in conjunction with a diamond purchase, so I am shopping for a stone on their site. My goal is $6000 or less for the stone, and I do not want to go over $7000 at an absolute maximum. The setting is platinum with two smaller stones inset (min size .20, min grade H-SI2), and I would like a stone which will have no visible trace of color and will be completely "eye clean" as far as inclusions are concerned (I am near sighted and can see tiny imperfections up close quite well although not at 10x ). I do not want to sacrifice cut, but I really don't understand this so well. I know that I like sparkle or life, which I think would indicate a smaller table size, which might make the diamond look smaller? I also don't want anything unbalanced.

I do not care what it looks like under 10x. I do not care about investment value. I would like the largest looking stone that I can afford which will appear visually perfect after a close inspection by the naked eye of really anal person (uh, that would be me). If any color or clarity imperfections are detectable to an untrained eye then I know I will see them.

At first I thought I wanted a G/VS1/VG (color/clarity/cut), next I was at an H/VS2/ID, and now I am thinking that an H/SI1/ID might be ok. I really don't know though.

- Should I only consider Ideal diamonds, or will VG be sufficient?
- Is H sufficient or should I only look at G?
- Is SI1 sufficient (or SI2 for that matter) or do I need VS2?
- Is the difference between a 1.1 and a 1.3 carat diamond (with good proportions) really noticeable?

I've noticed that the gap in price between a 1.3 carat G/VS1/ID and an 1.1 carat H/SI2/VG is big. I saw a 1.29 G/VS2/VG AGL cert for $8,900 and a 1.29 G/SI2/VG GIA cert for $6,600. That's a big spread!


Any suggestions?

Oh, and what additional info if any should I request from Blue Nile; the GIA certs have very little info and the AGS certs are illegible. I would like to use the Pricescope Holloway cut adviser because regarding cut I have more faith in math than in my eyes.

I know this is a tall order, but I thought if I were more specific it would make it easier to get focused advice. A 1.37 H/SI2/Vg runs around $6600, but a 1.08 G/VS2/ID is the same price.

Help!

P.S. Thanks!

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

Blue Nile are competitive and offer many excellent services and gaurantees.
Remember the prices on pricescxope will be lower than on the blue nile site itself.

So just do a search on the quality you want.
Seems H SI1 would work well. But the prce differencee for qualities is less on smaller stones than it is for +1ct.

 

[kms]

Thanks for the reply. How would you choose between two diamonds like this:

Both are:
Size 1.21
AGSL Ideal Cut, symmetry and polish
Fluorescence none
Culet none
H/SI1
Table 57%
Same Price

Differences:
Depth 60.2% vs. 62.2%
Girdle 0.7 to 1.0 vs. 0.7 to 1.5

My gut says the first one would be nicer, but I really don't know. The first one is wider and shallower, so should appear slightly larger, but I don't know if it's too shallow. Also the girdle varies less. Is there any other information I should get to help me make a decision?

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

Intutition wins.
It may be nice - ask for Sarin and enter it on HCA.

 

[ChetLaura]

Hi! I know that you are saying that your gf likes the setting at Blue Nile, but I doubt that, that is the only place to find that setting. You could find the stone and then use one of the online vendors to custom make the setting that she likes for her, and it would probably be a little cheaper.

I did a search here on pricescope and there are some beautiful stones with top quality cut for sale - and they seem to be less than the ones on Blue Nile. You could buy a superbcert for under $6000 - it is an SI2 - but you could have it checked before making the actual purchase to make sure that it is eye clean and worth the investment. Many of the online vendors will send the stone to an independent appraiser before you make the purchase.

Take the time and learn about the quality of the cut because it makes all the difference in the world.

FYI - We purchased our diamond through the Blue Nile - and they do have outstanding service. We did not purchase our setting through them - we found a picture of what we wanted and had it custom made for us.

 

[buttercup]

is this the settings she likes?

I'm sure you could find it from somewhere else.
But, if you don't feel like going through the trouble, then you can still get a good deal from Blue Nile.

If you use a Visa card for your Blue Nile purchase, you can get 10% off with coupon code VISA31 (expires the end of this month)

So, here are my votes (by the way, all these I mention here are H color, but I think it's fine for you to go down to I, there just weren't any AGS Ideal I diamonds at BlueNile with certs I could see):

1.25 H SI1 AGS Ideal cut
6.95x6.91x4.31 mm
Price $7164-10% = $6447.60
Light Return: Excellent
Fire: Excellent
Scintillation: Excellent
Spread or diameter for weight: Very Good
Total Visual Performance: 1.3 - Excellent - within TIC range

1.21 H SI1 AGS Ideal
6.95x6.93x4.18 mm
Price: $6917 - 10% = $6225.30
Light Return: Excellent
Fire: Excellent
Scintillation: Excellent
Spread or diameter for weight: Excellent
Total Visual Performance: 0.7 - Excellent - within TIC range

1.28 H SI1 AGS Ideal
7.06x7.03x4.27 mm
Price: $7386 - 10% = $6647.40
Light Return: Excellent
Fire: Excellent
Scintillation: Excellent
Spread or diameter for weight: Very Good
Total Visual Performance: 0.7 - Excellent - within TIC range

If you do end up finding a similar setting from somewhere else, here's a much bigger stone that does well on the HCA that's still in your price range:
From whiteflash.com
1.39 I SI1 AGS2 $6422
7.29-7.32X4.31
Light Return: Excellent
Fire: Excellent
Scintillation: Excellent
Spread or diameter for weight: Excellent
Total Visual Performance: 0.5 - Excellent - within TIC range
Whiteflash diamonds all come with this cool little diamond toolkit, but if you don't want that, i believe leslie will take $50 of the price.

 

[kms]

Thanks for the comments and suggested stones! Yes Buttercup, that is the setting she wants. I have to apologize for having started a new thread with the diamond I have chosen (so far), but here are the details again.

The price is $6,008

Carat weight: 1.15
Cut: Ideal
Color grade: G
Clarity: SI1
Depth %: 61.6%
Table %: 53%
Symmetry: Good
Polish: Very good
Girdle: Thin to medium, faceted
Culet: None
Fluorescence: None
Measurements: 6.74x6.80x4.17 mm
Accompanied by: GIA grading report from 1999

And here is the info from the Sarin report:

Carat weight: 1.150
Diameter: 6.75-6.80
Crown Angle: 34.2
Crown Height: 15.8%
Pavilion Angle: 40.5
Pavilion Depth: 42.5%
Culet: 0.3%
Table Size: 52.8%
Total Depth: 61.4%
Girdle thickness 0.8 - 2.3 (medium)
Proportion: 0 Ideal
The Sarin report is dated Jan 1 2000.

The CutAdviser gave me a score of 0.4, and the rep from Blue Nile assured me that the inclusions are not visible to the naked eye. He wrote in his email "The diamond is completely eye clean." He also told me that they had several people look at it, including two gemologists from the lab and no one could see the inclusions.

My understanding it that unless the symmetry is wacked or the table is too small, this should be a visually perfect diamond to a trained eye (without a loop, of course!)

I didn't think I could afford a G colored stone, but this looks like it fills the bill nicely.

All/any comments and suggestions are of course welcome!

Thanks!

 

[kms]

Oh, and the 10% off coupon applies only to settings, not stones.

Damn!

 

[ChetLaura]

It sounds like the diamond will be beautiful!! We loved our service with the Blue Nile. Our diamond was an SI1, and they had their gemologists check it for us before shipping to make sure it was eye clean. It was more than eye clean because we can only find one of the inclusions with a loupe. We did have it verified to the cert after our purchase, and everything matched our cert perfectly.

Let us know if you purchase!

 

[buttercup]

that diamond sounds gorgeous!
it's weird about the coupon, a friend of mine bought a blue nile diamond a while back and got 10% off using a coupon, i assumed that this coupon would apply to diamonds too. I'm sorry!
That diamond you've chosen sounds fabulous! Please let us know if you purchase it.

 

[i_like_tiffany_please_dont_hate_me]

You can get information regarding the angles of the crown and pavillion for any Blue Nile diamond that is listed as certifed by AGSL, click on the ''grading report'' link (just beneath the generic picture) and it is on the diagram. I think it would be very helpful if they listed this in a normal (readable) size font on the main page, rather than have you searching and squinting to see it. That said, before I stumbled across this site today, I wouldn''t have known about the importance of the angles. Thanks to people on here, I now know what to look for

 

[rosy]

Hi,
The AGS certificates can be easily blown up. Just hit the ZOOM IN button on the left hand side of the screen & scroll to the right to see the crown & pavillion angles & other necessary measurements. Hope this helps!

 

[alexah]

this thread is old - dude got his ring well over two years ago...

 

[i_like_tiffany_please_dont_hate_me]

oops! yeah... you are right... I didn''t notice the date... lol, in future I will check! sorry for resurrecting it