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Poll - upgrade Holly or put money towards a (newly cut) vintage honker

Upgrade Holly?

  • Yes, go big or go home!!

    Votes: 54 64.3%
  • No, get a newly cut vintage or a vintage vintage

    Votes: 30 35.7%

  • Total voters
    84

Matthews1127

Ideal_Rock
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5,207
Upgrade Holly. Putting a band aid on a slow bleeding artery is never the right thing to do. Anguishing over it only prolongs the agony. Bid her farewell, and upgrade to the diamond you truly love, unconditionally. Someone else is our there who is looking for Holly, but can't find her. She will have a great home, and you will have the one you have always wanted. Hopefully, Holly will find a forever home with another PSer. :cool2:
 

OoohShiny

Ideal_Rock
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Apr 25, 2014
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8,225
Mind you, I tried on a 12ct at Tiffany's. It had the most beautiful super-delicate halo and it was divine!!:love:

Pics? ;-)


I wonder if, as already mentioned, you are just getting 'antsy' for an upgrade and the old cuts are distracting you?

I would agree with what's already been said - that in life, going straight for what you really want is cheaper in the long term, even if it's a large upfront outlay. On that basis, perhaps you should keep on saving for that D-G 7ct you might well want after getting and living with a 6ct for a while?

I think dropping http://gemconcepts.net/ a line would be a good idea, though, as perhaps you could experiment with some high-colour period cuts as earrings or pendants or RHRs while saving for 'the one'? @valeria101 keeps teasing me with links to the gemconcepts instagram page :D lol
 

nala

Ideal_Rock
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Oct 23, 2011
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7,055
You have a 5.31 and want to upgrade to a 6. How much visible difference will that be? My hubby told me a long time ago, it never ends. You will forever want to keep upgrading. For me, his comment gave me pause to think. And as unpopular as my opinion might be on PS, I love a round diamond, but I think beyond a certain size, they appear cartoonish. If I were going to go for a 7 carat or such, I think I’d go In the emerald cut direction. To me, emerald cuts can be huge and still appear very elegant.
 

ccuheartnurse

Brilliant_Rock
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May 22, 2002
Messages
1,915
I'm in the upgrade Holly camp. For as long as I can remember you've always had an itch to up Holly's size. You have exquisite taste in jewellery & I have no doubt you will end up with a gorgeous forever ring.
I definitely think not buying designer anything is a wise move. While the peices are beautiful & exceptionally well made, they come at a premium. ;-)
With that savings, you can perhaps work on a new old cut stone then I would halo it with larger OEC's to look like an old world cocktail ring. Grace just posted a gorgeous halod rose cut ring on Instagram. Or, a 3 stone AVR to maximize finger coverage without having to commit so much financially but you still get to enjoy the pastels you're looking for. I'm rambling. Lol.
For me, I love old cuts. I had one, & as much as I love the idea of those chunky facets, I miss the modern round & have decided that I'm going back to that style. I'll most likely consider haloing a smaller OEC (cause darn, I love size too!) or going for a 3 stone style. I'm at a point where I can say without reservation (ok, & some guilt) that I can justify a huge chunk of money for a modern stone but I can't justify it in my heart of hearts for an OEC. That is of course, my own personal taste & does not reflect anything towards those that have huge old honkers. If someone gave me an old honker, I wouldn't toss it back. Lmao. I'm moving forward with a modern cut.
Judy

Ps...excuse any typos. I'm on my phone typing from work. Lol.
 

whitewave

Super_Ideal_Rock
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Feb 29, 2012
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12,330
I stopped wanting a larger asscher when I worked with Caysie to get the right setting for the stone.

If anything, I'd reset it. I see no point in going to a 6 carat.
 

mrs-b

Super_Ideal_Rock
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Aug 18, 2013
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11,670
@Phoenix -

I've always thought you'd upgrade sooner than later, but - just to say....

In 2 years and 5 months I'm going to throw another chunk of change at my center stone. If it turns out that you don't upgrade till then, you can take my ACA solitaire, I'll take Holly off your hands for the price difference, and you can use my stone towards an ACA upgrade.

Just throwing this out there. I was going to email you re this idea a week or two ago, but since this thread is going, I thought I'd put it here. I've upgraded my 3.61 stone, as you know, I've bought the VC stone + setting, I bought a new roof and am replacing a bunch of windows in my house, and I'm going to the Bahamas in January. So any significant budget I had is now blown. I *was* thinking about pushing it now and going larger, but I decided to leave it till early 2020 and went ahead and got the 3.4ct in the meantime. DH, bless his heart, said "But Mrs-B...you'll be turning SIXTY! Don't you think you should be getting 6cts??" God love his little cotton socks - I am one lucky woman! 5ct is my max, tho, and Holly would be perfectamundo.
 

whitewave

Super_Ideal_Rock
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Feb 29, 2012
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12,330
@Phoenix -

I've always thought you'd upgrade sooner than later, but - just to say....

In 2 years and 5 months I'm going to throw another chunk of change at my center stone. If it turns out that you don't upgrade till then, you can take my ACA solitaire, I'll take Holly off your hands for the price difference, and you can use my stone towards an ACA upgrade.

Just throwing this out there. I was going to email you re this idea a week or two ago, but since this thread is going, I thought I'd put it here. I've upgraded my 3.61 stone, as you know, I've bought the VC stone + setting, I bought a new roof and am replacing a bunch of windows in my house, and I'm going to the Bahamas in January. So any significant budget I had is now blown. I *was* thinking about pushing it now and going larger, but I decided to leave it till early 2020 and went ahead and got the 3.4ct in the meantime. DH, bless his heart, said "But Mrs-B...you'll be turning SIXTY! Don't you think you should be getting 6cts??" God love his little cotton socks - I am one lucky woman! 5ct is my max, tho, and Holly would be perfectamundo.
I can't believe it will be 2020 in 2 years and 5 months!!!
 

Pinkbunny

Shiny_Rock
Joined
Apr 15, 2016
Messages
159
At the risk of boring everyone to death again, I'd like to solicit your suggestions and advice re whether to upgrade Holly, my 5.318ct H VS2 ideal-cut diamond.

I've never re-set Holly; she's still in her "temp" setting, a plain Pt solitaire - for several years now. I've been mulling upgrading her and have put away funds with that intention, only to end up spending the funds, and more $$$, on other pieces of bling - notably VCA and Cartier (which I absolutely ADORE; but I think I'm done with designer pieces, at least for now, lol). I wonder why I'm procrastinating doing either! She's stuck in this simple solitaire and I keep thinking I'd love her more if she were bigger and/ or whiter. Or would I?!!

In the meantime, I'm drooling over these beautiful old cuts, especially the new optically optimised old cuts, ie. AVR's and AVC's (wrt the latter, I love the optical performance but am not sure I love the Maltese cross, personally). I love antique cuts, but am not colour-tolerant, and am rather partial to the performance of an ideal/ superideal cut MRB. Colour-wise, I prefer at least an H and have seen whiter real antique cuts IRL which I love, but alas the ones I've actually seen IRL do not give out the flashes of pastel colours and / or the fire that owners of ol cuts talk about on here. Watching @Rhino 's new oval makes me think that perhaps I should wait to get an optically optimised "old cut", like an AVR or a (hopefully) August Vintage EC (again, @Rhino ??!! lol). I LOVE the elegance of EC's but have held myself back bc the look is rather subdued, it can look like a piece of glass!

So, should I reset Holly or upgrade her? I'm thinking of getting the Emilya again, to satisfy the size wh*** in me and I do miss my Emilya since I sold the centre diamond; AND perhaps working towards another honker, a new cut "antique". One option that I'm NOT considering is leaving her as she is right now. I don't like simple solitaires on me.:P2=)2. So my choices are: 1) upgrade Holly to a 6ct+ G colour VS, and be FINALLY done; and 2) Reset Holly in a hallo and use the extra funds (that I'd otherwise use to upgrade Holly) to get another honker, either a real old cut or a newly cut "old cut".

Thanks for indulging me, yet again! xx
Yes, upgrade holly! But, as another poster mentioned, this upgrading thing never ends, so what size will you ultimately make you happy?
 
P

PierreBear

Guest
Hi Phoenix! Excited for all your projects, regardless of what you pick. It is so kind of you to share your process with us and hope you narrow down path you want to take for the next bling!

Seeing your threads and polls so far, I think deep down whether you do it now or later, it will always be on your list to consider upgrading Holly. It seems to be a persistent thought and perhaps the best evidence is keeping Holly in a temporary setting for such a long time. I feel like you can't go wrong with upgrading Holly and perhaps this new desire for vintage cuts might just be a distraction. I bet I can guess the show me the ring thread that you read that made you create this poll and thread. It happens to the best of us. Our heart wants one thing but when we see this "new ring/trend/picture" on PS, we start to question and wander. I do it as well!

I vote upgrade Holly but spend more time with vintage cuts to see if overtime you still desire it. I potentially can imagine a comment after getting a vintage cut "oohh I love it but it's not for me" but I don't think you would say that if you upgraded Holly. Hope that makes sense as I'm not a diamond psychologist. hahaha... if only that were a real job. haha! Good luck and have fun!
 

rockysalamander

Ideal_Rock
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May 20, 2016
Messages
5,105
If you upgrade Holly, maybe with a more modest budget you can find a pre-loved modern vintage cut to use as a RHR. It would allow you to wear one for a long time, watch how it behaves, and decide if modern old-cuts are for you or not.
 

doberman

Ideal_Rock
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Joined
Mar 2, 2012
Messages
2,417
You have a 5.31 and want to upgrade to a 6. How much visible difference will that be? My hubby told me a long time ago, it never ends. You will forever want to keep upgrading. For me, his comment gave me pause to think. And as unpopular as my opinion might be on PS, I love a round diamond, but I think beyond a certain size, they appear cartoonish. If I were going to go for a 7 carat or such, I think I’d go In the emerald cut direction. To me, emerald cuts can be huge and still appear very elegant.

I share your sentiment. I'm going to be brutally honest and say that I think a larger RB stone will look a bit ridiculous on your tiny hands. Instead of you wearing the ring, it's going to wear you. Bring on the torches and pitchforks!

Keeping the same size and going higher in color would be a better look.
 

diamondseeker2006

Super_Ideal_Rock
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Jan 11, 2006
Messages
58,547
Phoenix, I am kind of surprised at these responses! Your stone is huge as it is considering your ring size. You said you miss your Emilya, so resetting in an Emilya would automatically make Holly look like about 7 cts! For a little perspective, let's look at m-2-b's 4.7 ct in an Emilya on a size 6 hand. Yours will be larger than hers and on a smaller finger!!!! It sounds like you are tired of a plain solitaire, so a very easy solution is to spend a few thousand on an Emilya and be done with that ring forever! Then if you want to get a large emerald cut or antique cushion one day, that would be a fun project. But I am sorry, to be extremely honest, a 6 ct with a halo is going to be very costly, and no one is going to be able to tell the difference between that and Holly in an Emilya, as that would be huge, anyway. Now if you want to sell Holly and get a 5 ct ACA, that's another matter. But I can't see any larger than you have now in an Emilya. I have tried on m-2-b's and it almost covered my finger from edge to edge at size 5.5!
img_14305-jpg.480580
 

whitewave

Super_Ideal_Rock
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Messages
12,330
Phoenix, I am kind of surprised at these responses! Your stone is huge as it is considering your ring size. You said you miss your Emilya, so resetting in an Emilya would automatically make Holly look like about 7 cts! For a little perspective, let's look at m-2-b's 4.7 ct in an Emilya on a size 6 hand. Yours will be larger than hers and on a smaller finger!!!! It sounds like you are tired of a plain solitaire, so a very easy solution is to spend a few thousand on an Emilya and be done with that ring forever! Then if you want to get a large emerald cut or antique cushion one day, that would be a fun project. But I am sorry, to be extremely honest, a 6 ct with a halo is going to be very costly, and no one is going to be able to tell the difference between that and Holly in an Emilya, as that would be huge, anyway. Now if you want to sell Holly and get a 5 ct ACA, that's another matter. But I can't see any larger than you have now in an Emilya. I have tried on m-2-b's and it almost covered my finger from edge to edge at size 5.5!
img_14305-jpg.480580

Completely agree here
 

MissGotRocks

Super_Ideal_Rock
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Jun 23, 2005
Messages
16,380
I doubt that anyone here responding to Phoenix would actually want a six carat diamond but it is recommended because Phoenix keeps saying that it is what she wants. I see little point in doctoring up what she has because at the end of the day, I think she will still want bigger and an ideal cut stone. The heart wants what the heart wants so. . .
 

msop04

Super_Ideal_Rock
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10,051
@Phoenix -
{snip...} I *was* thinking about pushing it now and going larger, but I decided to leave it till early 2020 and went ahead and got the 3.4ct in the meantime. DH, bless his heart, said "But Mrs-B...you'll be turning SIXTY! Don't you think you should be getting 6cts??" God love his little cotton socks - I am one lucky woman! {...snip}

God, I can't wait to use this!! (are you Southern???) ;-)

...and could Mr. @mrs-b have a little conversation with Mr. msop04?? ...a 10 mm OEC just won't stop calling my name!! ;-)
 

msop04

Super_Ideal_Rock
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10,051
@msop04 - I have to say....

If a 10mm OEC keeps calling your name...perhaps it's time to answer back!!

:mrgreen2:

(and no - not southern - but perhaps philosophically?)

@mrs-b... I'd love to answer back, but I'm pretty sure we're speaking different languages! HA!

But seriously, my upgrade policy with Diamonds Direct is 110%, so I kinda have to use them. Not a bad thing, but they don't see a lot of OEC's come through -- and most definitely not in that size range.

I had a "what if" conversation with my husband about trading in for an OEC... he was supportive -- sort of. :| There is a jeweler that I trust near me that has been in business forever and specializes in old cuts and antique jewelry. My old DD SA worked for them before he was with DD, and he is back with them now. If they could find my unicorn stone in a price I could afford with trade, I'd be happy to throw away my upgrade option with DD!

Realistically, I know I'd never get anywhere near my trade in value compared to DD... I guess I could always have DD be on the lookout?? ;-) Diamonds Direct used to be willing to call in virtual stones, but now that they've gone from 4 showrooms to like 10-12, they just don't do that anymore. *BOOOOOO!!!!!!* :( If anyone has experience with this using DD in the past year or so, PLEASE DO TELL YOUR STORIES!!!
 

valeria101

Super_Ideal_Rock
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15,808
I doubt that anyone here responding to Phoenix would actually want a six carat diamond

Yes ...

Yet, I would think again if everybody had one such thing, then do what everyone does the other way ... - hence GemConcepts.
 

Bonfire

Ideal_Rock
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4,242
Look, I can’t even picture myself in a 4ct! You tried on a 12ct. Tiffany. Go for the gold Phoenix!
 

Pinkbunny

Shiny_Rock
Joined
Apr 15, 2016
Messages
159
@mrs-b... I'd love to answer back, but I'm pretty sure we're speaking different languages! HA!

But seriously, my upgrade policy with Diamonds Direct is 110%, so I kinda have to use them. Not a bad thing, but they don't see a lot of OEC's come through -- and most definitely not in that size range.

I had a "what if" conversation with my husband about trading in for an OEC... he was supportive -- sort of. :| There is a jeweler that I trust near me that has been in business forever and specializes in old cuts and antique jewelry. My old DD SA worked for them before he was with DD, and he is back with them now. If they could find my unicorn stone in a price I could afford with trade, I'd be happy to throw away my upgrade option with DD!

Realistically, I know I'd never get anywhere near my trade in value compared to DD... I guess I could always have DD be on the lookout?? ;-) Diamonds Direct used to be willing to call in virtual stones, but now that they've gone from 4 showrooms to like 10-12, they just don't do that anymore. *BOOOOOO!!!!!!* :( If anyone has experience with this using DD in the past year or so, PLEASE DO TELL YOUR STORIES!!!
Did you get your diamond ring from diamonds direct online? If so, what was your experience? I have provided them with my contact information and was told a manager would reach out, but never heard back. And, since I do not know many who have used them, I am hesitant to place my trust in this company.
 

Pinkbunny

Shiny_Rock
Joined
Apr 15, 2016
Messages
159
Phoenix, I am kind of surprised at these responses! Your stone is huge as it is considering your ring size. You said you miss your Emilya, so resetting in an Emilya would automatically make Holly look like about 7 cts! For a little perspective, let's look at m-2-b's 4.7 ct in an Emilya on a size 6 hand. Yours will be larger than hers and on a smaller finger!!!! It sounds like you are tired of a plain solitaire, so a very easy solution is to spend a few thousand on an Emilya and be done with that ring forever! Then if you want to get a large emerald cut or antique cushion one day, that would be a fun project. But I am sorry, to be extremely honest, a 6 ct with a halo is going to be very costly, and no one is going to be able to tell the difference between that and Holly in an Emilya, as that would be huge, anyway. Now if you want to sell Holly and get a 5 ct ACA, that's another matter. But I can't see any larger than you have now in an Emilya. I have tried on m-2-b's and it almost covered my finger from edge to edge at size 5.5!
img_14305-jpg.480580
I agree, ds. Holly would definitely look enormously huge in the halo setting.
 

diamondseeker2006

Super_Ideal_Rock
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Jan 11, 2006
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58,547
Off topic but does anyone know what the absolute largest MRB owned by a PSer is? 7's gotta be getting close right?

I found this gorgeous 8 carat OEC using Google https://www.pricescope.com/blog/8-plus-carat-old-european-cut-oec-upgrade-jotw and there's another 8 carat emerald cut but I can't find any 8 or higher MRBs.

I know of one 6+ ct and one 5.5 ct bought from Whiteflash by members here. Those are the largest ideal cut rounds I can think of, but there are some larger other cuts.
 

Pinkbunny

Shiny_Rock
Joined
Apr 15, 2016
Messages
159
@Phoenix, based on what you have shared in the past, I feel like if you get an old cut, there might still be a part of you that would feel Holly needs to be upsized to Holly Mother of God. Changing it to a nice halo'ed setting may be enough to satiate DSS for a while, although I feel what you really want is a bigger honker ;)2 If I read this wrong I apologize. Fundamentally what matters most is: what would make YOU the happiest out of all 3 options?

I have that dreaded DSS...back in the day I thought 3 carat was my max....then 5...and now, 7. In a freaking delicate halo! So never say never about going up from your 6+ to something even bigger! :P2
Do you have a photo of your 7 carats?
 

pyramid

Ideal_Rock
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4,607
I remember Wink had a client with a 9 carat, before crafted by infinity. There was also a photo of Mara trying on a 9 carat that someone owned. Not on Pricescope but it was mentioned here about the 10 carat eightstar diamond which did the rounds of all the high class jewellers. Don't know who got it afterwards.:razz:


To the original poster, I would say, 'if in doubt do nowt'. You should know yourself best. Don't be rushed or influenced by others.
 

Dancing Fire

Super_Ideal_Rock
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Apr 3, 2004
Messages
33,852
I'd like to keep at least one MRB ering. I like the optical performance. I wouldn't replace Holly with an OEC. Thank you though.
I would do a G VS 6+ct top ideal H&A MRB...:love: Setting styles come and go but a 6 prong classic solitaire setting will always be in style.
 
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