Find your diamond
Find your jewelry
shape
carat
color
clarity

Reliable diamond source for UK delivery..

Status
Not open for further replies. Please create a new topic or request for this thread to be opened.
D

Dystran

Rough_Rock
Joined
Feb 9, 2007
Messages
16
Firstly, thanks everyone for your help yesterday on the forums.

I am now looking for an excellent cut, F-G, VS1-VS2, Round no fluorescence diamond. Carat 0.85 to 1 (budget dependent,

In the UK I could push a 0.85 - maybe - with my budget of GBP£3000 (for diamond only)

I do not know here to go online, its been mentioned that the USA is cheaper what with exchange rates. But what is a quick reliable USA source? How do I trust the diamond matches the certificate and do they deliver by courier i guess on their insurance?

Many thanks once again - you are all lifesavers!

Gavin
 
Hi Gavin

I have had a quick look for a diamond for you and what I am coming up with are these (I am hurrying as about to go out):

http://www.jamesallen.com/diamond.asp?b=16&a=12&c=77&cid=131&item=1007245

http://www.whiteflash.com/hearts_arrows/A-Cut-Above-H-A-cut-diamond-191600.htm

They are slightly smaller than you asked for but if you want F-G VS2 this is what I am finding. If you were willing to drop lower in clarity I could find you more. I know you can ask the vendor if an SI-1 is eyeclean and it would save you quite a few quid!

You can get the ring valued when you get it and that should back up what is written on the certificate. I can assure you though, that the vendors you see on PS won''t send you a cubic zirconia!!
 
Might be worth looking at this one too:

http://www.whiteflash.com/round_ideal_cut/Round-Ideal-Cut-cut-diamond-210306.htm

It comes out at £3171 which includes taxes and duty and delivery too. Its SI-1 but it could be eye clean. By dropping clarity you could get a carat.
1.gif


Maisie
 
Hi Dystran !

I am from Switzerland and now I am in the process of buying a diamond with Good Old Gold http://www.goodoldgold.com/ who is a very reputable vendor out here.

This is a fabulous site with more than you can dream of information about H&A diamonds and very high quality products. They ship to Europe as well and their prices are very competitive.

For your budget if you want a H&A (which is the best round cut you can find) you won''t get 1 ct stone because 1ct is a magic number where the price jumps...unless you go to H SI1 which is also a beautiful quality diamond.

GOG has also an incredible trade up policy in case you consider upgrading your stone later on and that is also a very important thing to take into consideration.

Maisiebelle also mentioned whiteflash, who is also a very reputable vendor here and who carries H&A so you need not worry, in any case you can''t go wrong and it will be a safe buy.
28.gif


Good luck in your search !
 
you may also consider http://www.niceice.com/

It is also a great site and very helpful with beautiful super ideal cut diamonds and they ship to Europe as well. Also very reputable.
 
I am in the US, but I have bought from both Good Old Gold and WhiteFlash. I love the WF .75 F VS1 and here would be my other choice for you:

http://www.goodoldgold.com/diamond/2810/

This one is just a little larger in diameter. Since you were looking at high color and clarity before, I believe I''d stick with F and VS1 or VS2 since returning a diamond will not be practical in your case. Unfortunately, there are not a lot of diamonds in the .80-.99 range. So you either have to look in the .70''s or go up to 1 ct.
 
Hello Dystran,

I''m interested that you are looking to buy diamonds from the US, as I believe you are onto a good thing in doing so. A few months ago I bought my GF a pair of diamond studs from Whiteflash (circa .73tcw, G-SI1 eye-clean, great cut, though just shy of Hearts and Arrows, in 3 prong WG ''Martini mount'' baskets (definitely better than 4 prong baskets in my opinion), with screwback posts , AGI/GIA certs, for ... if I recall $1200.

My philosophy with these was to compromise on clarity and colour a bit, because after a day or two of wear, the back of the stones inevitably gets grubby, so unless cleaned each day they''re probably not going to look anywhere near eye-clean much of the time anyway. What I saved on those aspects, I put into the cut. It turned out to be a very good decision, the stones are fantastic. This Whiteflash purchase was made right after registering here, and returning some real lemons bought at a similar price, I''d received from an company called, I think, DiamondStudsOnly.com, so I had a direct comparison, the quality of the two purchases was immediately and clearly leagues apart. As a consequence if I have a choice in future, I will only buy H&A or near H&A stones (Whiteflash call the category ''Expert selection'') in future. If I propose to my GF, I will most likely return to Whiteflash. They were a pleasure to deal with, and were the best value for this purchase of the ''usual suspects'' suggested on this site,


You''re wise not feeling driven to pass the 1.00 carat mark. A lot of people are, which is why stones past these round numbers leap in price so much. I''ve done it myself before, but can now see how illogical it perhaps is. On the flip side, finding stones just under the ''round numbers'' (1.00/2.00 etc) is not easy as cutting this way might not get the best return. What I found with the studs I bought though, was a very very good cut makes the stones appear larger than they actually are, and so pleasing on the eye with their livelyness.

Anyway I''m rambling!
28.gif
But I just want to mention that when out Christmas shopping I had a look at the jewellry in John Lewis on Oxford Street (a good quality general department store), and studs of a similar size, and I bet un-certified and with no quality indicated were £1800, i.e. about 3 times what I paid in the US.

One thing though. Have you considered that Customs will try and hit you for VAT (17.5%) and Duty (??) if you buy from the US and have it posted to the UK? The retailer will have to declare the value on the package. US prices might include tax for US based purchasers, but I am quite sure it will not cover the cost of import to the UK. Are you clear on this point? There could be a case for you having a long weekend in New York, and having a purchase FedEx''d and held at the local FedEx shop for you to collect and ... take from there.

Good luck with your purchase.
 
Date: 2/10/2007 8:48:27 AM
Author: diamondseeker2006
I am in the US, but I have bought from both Good Old Gold and WhiteFlash. I love the WF .75 F VS1 and here would be my other choice for you:

http://www.goodoldgold.com/diamond/2810/

This one is just a little larger in diameter. Since you were looking at high color and clarity before, I believe I'd stick with F and VS1 or VS2 since returning a diamond will not be practical in your case. Unfortunately, there are not a lot of diamonds in the .80-.99 range. So you either have to look in the .70's or go up to 1 ct.
Click to expand...

Oh I like that one.. it give you a 6mm diameter which is really nice. A one carat round diamond is 6.5 so. But a 1 carat princess is 6 x 6... so you are getting a nice size...

I'd like to se if we can get you up to 6.2 with a G VS2 though.

ETA: Just before Valentines day... slim pickings in that carat range.
 
Date: 2/10/2007 2:26:30 PM
Author: londongenie
Hello Dystran,

I''m interested that you are looking to buy diamonds from the US, as I believe you are onto a good thing in doing so. A few months ago I bought my GF a pair of diamond studs from Whiteflash (circa .73tcw, G-SI1 eye-clean, great cut, though just shy of Hearts and Arrows, in 3 prong WG ''Martini mount'' baskets (definitely better than 4 prong baskets in my opinion), with screwback posts , AGI/GIA certs, for ... if I recall $1200.

My philosophy with these was to compromise on clarity and colour a bit, because after a day or two of wear, the back of the stones inevitably gets grubby, so unless cleaned each day they''re probably not going to look anywhere near eye-clean much of the time anyway. What I saved on those aspects, I put into the cut. It turned out to be a very good decision, the stones are fantastic. This Whiteflash purchase was made right after registering here, and returning some real lemons bought at a similar price, I''d received from an company called, I think, DiamondStudsOnly.com, so I had a direct comparison, the quality of the two purchases was immediately and clearly leagues apart. As a consequence if I have a choice in future, I will only buy H&A or near H&A stones (Whiteflash call the category ''Expert selection'') in future. If I propose to my GF, I will most likely return to Whiteflash. They were a pleasure to deal with, and were the best value for this purchase of the ''usual suspects'' suggested on this site,


You''re wise not feeling driven to pass the 1.00 carat mark. A lot of people are, which is why stones past these round numbers leap in price so much. I''ve done it myself before, but can now see how illogical it perhaps is. On the flip side, finding stones just under the ''round numbers'' (1.00/2.00 etc) is not easy as cutting this way might not get the best return. What I found with the studs I bought though, was a very very good cut makes the stones appear larger than they actually are, and so pleasing on the eye with their livelyness.

Anyway I''m rambling!
28.gif
But I just want to mention that when out Christmas shopping I had a look at the jewellry in John Lewis on Oxford Street (a good quality general department store), and studs of a similar size, and I bet un-certified and with no quality indicated were £1800, i.e. about 3 times what I paid in the US.

One thing though. Have you considered that Customs will try and hit you for VAT (17.5%) and Duty (??) if you buy from the US and have it posted to the UK? The retailer will have to declare the value on the package. US prices might include tax for US based purchasers, but I am quite sure it will not cover the cost of import to the UK. Are you clear on this point? There could be a case for you having a long weekend in New York, and having a purchase FedEx''d and held at the local FedEx shop for you to collect and ... take from there.

Good luck with your purchase.
Click to expand...
I seriously wouldn''t recommend trying to bring a ring here without paying the VAT and Duty tax. Thats not the right way about things. The duty on a platinum diamond ring is 2.5% and the VAT is 17.5%. Even after paying this money its still cheaper to buy from the US.

People think that trying to smuggle things into the UK is a good idea. Its not.
 
Wow, you are all great here - thank you.

This is what I did:

I took the D-IF-Ideal 0.5 Carat back and got a full refund (had 2 days to go!).

I managed to source, locally (well, I had to travel 3 hours today and was online for 4 hours looking), a Round 1 Carat, D, VS1, Ideal cut, VG Polish/sym with platinum 6 claw tiffany style setting all in GBP£3550 (from a reputable company too). It came with an EGL cert, but for the price I can''t complain not having a GIA!!

The negative, it has blue fluoresence (strong or distinct I can''t remmber). But when I got to the shop and looked at 6 random 1 Carat diamonds (not knowing which was the one that I had travelled to see) I unwittingly selected the one I wanted over the more expansive ones - it looked fantastic (the guy was right). I couldn''t notice the blue, but in the sun I might. The man assured me (before I asked) that some blues are not so good if they are cloudy, but this ring one was not cloudy at all (and he did not know that I knew this could be an issue so this led me to believe he was an honest guy.)

Either case, I have another 30 days no quibble refund/return, and I plan to propose on Thursday. I am 99% pretty sure this will not be going back.

There seems to be many pros an cons for fluoresence, but overall I managed to get a 1 Carat that looks great for a very low price (for the UK anyway), so I will take the risk that fluoresence it not a big deal
6.gif
) She is going to love it!

All thanks to you all
 
I was going to say no way that is possible, as I was looking at 1 ct I VS2s last night for 3000GBP, and most 1 ct F VS2s that I see are around 6-8000 USD, but I ran a price search and I guess it is possible.
 
Date: 2/10/2007 5:57:28 PM
Author: Dystran
Wow, you are all great here - thank you.

This is what I did:

I took the D-IF-Ideal 0.5 Carat back and got a full refund (had 2 days to go!).

I managed to source, locally (well, I had to travel 3 hours today and was online for 4 hours looking), a Round 1 Carat, D, VS1, Ideal cut, VG Polish/sym with platinum 6 claw tiffany style setting all in GBP£3550 (from a reputable company too). It came with an EGL cert, but for the price I can''t complain not having a GIA!!

The negative, it has blue fluoresence (strong or distinct I can''t remmber). But when I got to the shop and looked at 6 random 1 Carat diamonds (not knowing which was the one that I had travelled to see) I unwittingly selected the one I wanted over the more expansive ones - it looked fantastic (the guy was right). I couldn''t notice the blue, but in the sun I might. The man assured me (before I asked) that some blues are not so good if they are cloudy, but this ring one was not cloudy at all (and he did not know that I knew this could be an issue so this led me to believe he was an honest guy.)

Either case, I have another 30 days no quibble refund/return, and I plan to propose on Thursday. I am 99% pretty sure this will not be going back.

There seems to be many pros an cons for fluoresence, but overall I managed to get a 1 Carat that looks great for a very low price (for the UK anyway), so I will take the risk that fluoresence it not a big deal
6.gif
) She is going to love it!

All thanks to you all
Click to expand...
CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!! That''s wonderful, I''m so glad your search is over and that you got exactly what you wanted!!
36.gif


And most importantly, we WILL be needing pictures sometime in the near future, LOL. And hand shots after ther proposal, as well!
2.gif
 
will do Ebony!!!!

Julie, you''re right. It really must be the fluoresence. It was the cheapest he had at that spec by far. I thought that I must be missing something else obvious (another negative), but nope. I''m pretty good at net research and soucing things too, plus a lot of luck and a bit of soft price negotiation(i.e. I will come up now and pay if you wil llet it go etc etc)

:O)
 
I think you're right on the fluor. thing, and I'll never understand it. I was looking at a .95ct two days ago, but that one had very stong blue fluor. on the AGS cert. which scared me a little. However, if it had been strong blue, I probably would have snapped it up. It was quite a bit less expensive than others of the same grade. Strange!! Lots of people LOVE fluoresence!

Anyway, great job!
 
Well done Dystran!

At some point will you let us/me know where you bought the stone?

Thanks, and best of luck for the proposal!
 
No problem, here you go.

http://www.qualitydiamonds.co.uk/?gclid=CJ2yxJO1pooCFRFhMAods1_AtA

The search facility is very good. Also, the prices are for diamonds that they have in stock (rather than estimated prices)

They have offices in Milton Keynes and in London Hatton Gardens

The contact I spoke with is Paul (Sales Director)
 
Status
Not open for further replies. Please create a new topic or request for this thread to be opened.
GET 3 FREE HCA RESULTS JOIN THE FORUM. ASK FOR HELP
Jewelry Blog
PriceScope-Concierge-Ad
Find prime cuts.
Top