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Quality Questions

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Shadd

Rough_Rock
Joined
Mar 28, 2003
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Okay there is something weird here and it cuts off most of my message. I can''t figure it out so I''m just going to make several posts. Sorry about that, please bear with me.

Hi guys, I''ve been reading for a couple days and people here seem to know what they are talking about. I''m a first time diamond buyer and I''m wondering if I could get your input on a few things. I''m looking for an engagement ring, and I know kind of what I want (round, 1ct, high end near colorless, SI1 at the least, pretty good cut, price range around $5000), but I''m not sure where to buy from. I''m a bit leary about buying online, though Blue Nile looks like a good deal, and I''m considering a few from there. However, not being able to see the ring before I buy it and not having the lifetime support I get from other stores is making me hesitate.
 
So I went to the mall and looked around. I found a ring at Rogers & Hollands that looks good to the me, but I don't really trust my eye. It's 1ct, H in color, SI1, and G/G on polish/symmetry. But it's an IGI NY cert and I've seen less than flattering comments about them on this board. The only measurements on the card are 6.15-6.17 x 4.10 mm and I didn't see any table or depth percentages. There are two ASA appraisers (John Abbot and James Krol) in Birmingham, MI about an hour from where I live. I would be willing to take it to one of them to confirm the quality of this ring (any preference between those two?). I looked at it under 10x and didn't notice any big inclusions, but my eye is quite untrained.

In addition to being able to see the ring, R&H has a few other bonusses. Like $50 off wedding band and $50 off purchases at the first anniversary or something. They also have a lifetime guarantee and claim they won't give me the fist degree if she shuts her hand in a door and the ring falls out of the setting.
 
And then there's the price. It's in my range ($4999), but I don't know if I should be paying that much for an IGI cert claiming SI1 clarity. I'm going to go back and look at the ring again, but when I saw it yesterday I liked the way it looked, and they let me look at it outside the store. It seemed to have a lot of "fire". I'm only concerend that I might be paying too much for a low clarity diamond, with only an IGI cert.

Wow, I wrote a lot. Thanks a ton guys, this is a huge purchase and I want to do it right.

- Luke
(sorry about all the posts)
 
Hi Luke,

Congrats on your pending engagement. I can't speak for the diamond quality (being a "rough rock" myself), but I also live in Mich & can tell you a little about my experience w/Rogers & Holland and also w/James Krol. First of all, definitely get that thing appraised if you buy it & I highly, highly recommend James Krol. I just had my new diamond appraised by him on Monday & he's an incredible guy; very knowledgeable, informative, personable, spent more time w/us then he really needed to, and has been doing this for 26 years. Can't say enough about him. I think he's on vacation til next week, so I don't know if you're in a real hurry, but you can call his office to see exactly when he'll be back (Birmingham Gemological Svs).

As for Rogers & Holland, well, that happened to be the first place we looked for a diamond; they were "ok", but certainly not as knowledgeable, patient or accommodating as most of the other places we searched (B&M stores in town). I'd also double-check the quality of that stone against the prices around town and on the internet as well; I found they were definitely not the best value.
Good luck!

Gina
 
Personally Shadd if I were you I'd look into some of the pricescope vendors. If you search for your specs on here you'll find that it ranges from around $3000 up for the diamond. I just wouldnt go with an IGI graded stone from a mall store. If you've read other posts about it you'll know why. As for the warranty they offer I'd just insure the ring anyway. If she loses it instead of damaging it you'll need it anyway so i wouldnt look to closely at that.

Hopefully the experts will have an opinion for you.
 
Hi Luke,

One other thing I forgot to mention... You said you were leary about buying a diamond on-line; if you read these posts, you'll see that's really not a big deal. If I couldn't find a stone w/the specs I wanted in town, I surely would have switched to buying from an online vendor (try Good Old Gold and NiceIce to start, you won't be disappointed!). I asked Jim Krol about his experience in appraising diamonds from on-line vendors and he indicated that almost all the stones he'd appraised from the net were just what the consumer thought they were getting and that buying on-line was a completely acceptable & safe method of purchasing your diamond. He did strongly recommend checking out their return policy first though.

G.
 
Thanks for the input. What about Blue Nile? Has anyone had experience buying from them? They have a 30 day return policy, free shipping, and no tax from where I live. That's what I would be looking for in another online vedor, I think. (note that I haven't looked seriously at other sites)

- Luke
 
I've heard Blue Nile is a great place to buy online. But, the prices are kind of high. I have however heard that they have great customer service.
 
I agree with the other posters, do not buy that diamond. It sounds like it is cut too deep, or has a thick girdle as the diameter of the stone is smaller than what you would expect of a 1 ct diamond. I have a .87ct diamond that is 6.19-6.24mm (or something close to that, I don't have my cert here). So basically that 1 ct would look smaller than my 87 point diamond. If you are going to spend the money for a 1 ct, it makes sense to buy one that looks like it's size. An well cut one ct should be around 6.5mm in diameter.

Do yourself a favor and read the tutorial on cut here on pricescope.

Regarding blue nile, I've heard they are a good vendor, but their prices tend to run a little higher than some of the other internet vendors. Goodoldgold, superbcert, and niceice diamonds also carry a slight premium, but they also supply the most information about diamonds. I bought my diamond from dirtcheapdiamonds.com as they seem to have some of the best prices, but they also don't have some of the information that the above mentioned sites have.

Good luck to you
 
SL's right. A very deep stone, with a "fair" cut at best, possibly "poor". Check out these different Cut Class categories for guidance:

http://www.gemappraisers.com/chrt1.htm
 
As someone has suggested, the depth at 66.6% suggests a VERY bad cut and the stone will face up +/- as a 0.80ct... Why do you want to pay for something you can't see??
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