Sapphire choice opinions please!

[Jbows]

hello, I’ve decided to start a new thread dedicated to helping me choose between two sapphires. None is also an answer, but please post suggestions under $2000 . I’m looking for a lively stone that has a true blue color and is vivid and saturated. Thank you for your input! And sorry for the amount of pictures... some of them are at night and some are today in a sunlit room.

 

[livannie]

hello, I’ve decided to start a new thread dedicated to helping me choose between two sapphires. None is also an answer, but please post suggestions under $2000 . I’m looking for a lively stone that has a true blue color and is vivid and saturated. Thank you for your input! And sorry for the amount of pictures... some of them are at night and some are today in a sunlit room.

I personally, like the round stone. Very pretty.

 

[princessandthepear]

I prefer the brighter tone of the round. They are both lovely gems.

 

[qubitasaurus]

If the pictures are accurate then the round is definitely a winner, congrats!

 

[dkata]

I’m not an expert, but the round looks much better!

 

[Stone Hunter]

The round seems to have the color more evenly distributed, it's probably the cut. The other stone has a nice shape but some dark areas that don't appeal to me.

 

[Jbows]

The pictures are pretty accurate. However.

I’m worried that the stones are facing up much smaller than I’m paying for. For example, the round is supposed to be a 1.29 ct stone but is 5.75 mm at the table, which is small for the price. Any thoughts?

 

[mellowyellowgirl]

Someone mentioned that sapphires are more dense (?) So face up smaller than diamonds.

My 1.61ct sapphire faces up to only be 6.8mm compared to my 1.28ct diamond which faces up to be 6.9mm. Both very well cut.

 

[Jbows]

Someone mentioned that sapphires are more dense (?) So face up smaller than diamonds.

My 1.61ct sapphire faces up to only be 6.8mm compared to my 1.28ct diamond which faces up to be 6.9mm. Both very well cut.

I took it to a well respected jeweler in town to see it in semi mounts and they totally looked down on it, saying that I was getting ripped off. But I don’t know who to believe. A family member also made the same commentssad

 

[whitewave]

I like the round. I thought mine looked small, but I placed it in a temp holder and it immediately looked larger.

 

[Jbows]

@whitewave and anybody more experienced... I’m actually super worried about this whole debacle. The jeweler told me point blank I was overpaying for both ($1350 for round, $1675 for cushion) and that it was deceptive! I don’t believe that of Roger but I’m so confused as to what I should have expected.

 

[chroman]

Round!
If the pictures are accurate, 1350 seems like a great price. But, more importantly, do *you* love it?

Face up size isnt everything - you can find horribly cut stones that face up large but have huge windows.

The jeweler may also be trying to sell you one of their stones, by planting seeds of doubt about what you brought in.

 

[whitewave]

@whitewave and anybody more experienced... I’m actually super worried about this whole debacle. The jeweler told me point blank I was overpaying for both ($1350 for round, $1675 for cushion) and that it was deceptive! I don’t believe that of Roger but I’m so confused as to what I should have expected.

Well, I don't recall exactly what you have, but mine is 1.64 heated oval and has an AGL card and is Sri Lanka originated. I paid $1600 and am very happy.

What was she saying is deceptive? Which part? It sounds like she was causing trouble..... but maybe she was "offended" you didn't get it from her? Some people don't work with outside stones.

 

[Bron357]

Yes, “carat size” is a weight and sapphires are more dense than diamonds so 1 carat sapphire is a smaller mm size than a 1 carat diamond. A carat btw is .2 grams.
As for the Jewellers looking down their nose at you - been there many times. I don’t know why but they tend to “Pooh Pooh” anything that isn’t bought from them! Probably because they want your money.

 

[Jbows]

@whitewave @chroman the round is a 1.29 ct agl certified stone. That’s what I thought, that the jeweler was causing problems. But now my mom is telling me that I should buy from angara and qvc or Tiffany’s or a high end jeweler instead. I value her opinion because she is a jewelry connoisseur but I said the overall budget is around $3000 and she said that I’m absolutely going to need to lower my standards. I hate everything we saw in a the two jewelry stores. The sapphires were dark and gross and small. I was going to tell my boyfriend to buy a ring we saw at Costco so he doesn’t overpay it indeed I am overpaying for the sapphires. Do I go with what my mom and the jeweler said or with the round stone I’m in love with, even if it faces up smaller.

 

[Jbows]

Yes, “carat size” is a weight and sapphires are more dense than diamonds so 1 carat sapphire is a smaller mm size than a 1 carat diamond. A carat btw is .2 grams.
As for the Jewellers looking down their nose at you - been there many times. I don’t know why but they tend to “Pooh Pooh” anything that isn’t bought from them! Probably because they want your money.

I totally get that! I just don’t want my boyfriend to overpay. I am so in love with the round. I am obviously not very experienced and don’t want to get taken for a ride.

 

[qubitasaurus]

I think you shouldn't let random strangers on the internet, or jewelers tell you what you should and shouldn't buy. Also I imagine your boyfriend just wants you to be happy -- a rock is a rock, if he is anything like my husband he only sees the smile on your face and it is blue (literally many conversations later it is still this one is blue and that one is pink).

For some reference it might be cut a little deep, although not by much. And sometimes a little extra weight at the bottom improves the colour. I categorically wouldn't buy tiffanys -- they accept diffusion as a treatement and quite honestly that makes me queasy. Diffusion is an invasive treatment -- and also drastically reduces the value.

The price per ct. sounds right to me. If you want to get a better price then it is possible to buy the stone second hand, as many pricescopers often resel their stones at a ~30% loss. For instance I think this one has changed hands a few times and you can see the price trajectory

https://loupetroop.com/listings/rings-colored-stone-center/natural-sapphire-platinum-ring
https://loupetroop.com/listings/loose-stones-colored-gemstone/star-sold-star-jeff-white-sapphire

Unfortunately, it is not an easy or especially reliable way to go. As private sellers often don't offer returns (they don't have insurance policies like vendors), second hand stones can have wear and tear (facet abrasion) and honestly anyone can post to loupetroop and it can be super hard to interpret the photos accurately even if the seller is trying their best to be 100% honest.

 

[whitewave]

Has your mom priced sapphires lately?

 

[chroman]

I am so in love with the round​

I think that answers your question

 

[Jbows]

@qubitasaurus you are right, I should go with my gut. I am very nervous about it because of a lack of experience and the fact that my profession (I’m a scientist) is very analytical and technical, so I’m used to overthinking even the smallest step in a given experiment or plan! And I don’t hate Tiffany’s but I don’t care for what they have And lol my boyfriend is exactly like your husband. He cares less about how he spends his money in this regard than I do, as long as I get what I want. And so it’s not the price, they were totally in my self-set budget, I just want to make sure I’m not being naive or uninformed.
@whitewave no, actually she has only bought from dealers like angara and antique jewelry mall lately. Although she has amazing taste! Funny story, she got a $15000 sapphire ring from a big Boston jeweler for $1500 about 14 years ago based on a wrongly written price tag. I’ll attach a picture below. Anything I find gets compared to it, but the stuff she suggested was so much worse not because she doesn’t have good taste but because I don’t want to spend more than $3000. I keep repeating to myself I care what I think most of all. Again, I’m only beginning to trust myself

.@chroman you are totally right! I need to come up with a couple setting ideas now as my boyfriend works with David Klass for the final product. I wasn’t expecting to get a round so I’m starting from square one. I want something classic and elegant. Like a three stone ring, scalloped halo, or a solitaire with channel set diamonds.

 

[Jbows]

My Mom’s ring, just FYI

 

[qubitasaurus]

@qubitasaurus you are right, I should go with my gut. I am very nervous about it because of a lack of experience and the fact that my profession (I’m a scientist) is very analytical and technical, so I’m used to overthinking even the smallest step in a given experiment or plan! And I don’t hate Tiffany’s but I don’t care for what they have And lol my boyfriend is exactly like your husband. He cares less about how he spends his money in this regard than I do, as long as I get what I want. And so it’s not the price, they were totally in my self-set budget, I just want to make sure I’m not being naive or uninformed.
@whitewave no, actually she has only bought from dealers like angara and antique jewelry mall lately. Although she has amazing taste! Funny story, she got a $15000 sapphire ring from a big Boston jeweler for $1500 about 14 years ago based on a wrongly written price tag. I’ll attach a picture below. Anything I find gets compared to it, but the stuff she suggested was so much worse not because she doesn’t have good taste but because I don’t want to spend more than $3000. I keep repeating to myself I care what I think most of all. Again, I’m only beginning to trust myself

.@chroman you are totally right! I need to come up with a couple setting ideas now as my boyfriend works with David Klass for the final product. I wasn’t expecting to get a round so I’m starting from square one. I want something classic and elegant. Like a three stone ring, scalloped halo, or a solitaire with channel set diamonds.

The nice thing about coloured stones and engagement rings is that you don't have to be completely logical about them.... I don't think they have much value outside of what we artificially construe them to represent. As far as I am concerned they have no functional use, can not improve my quality of life, and I certainly haven't acquired any new skills (or learned anything really) from this hobby. And I flat out refuse to have a logical discussion about them.

This is the most appealing part! I can come home from an exhausting week where someone is talking to me about using semidefinite programing to lower bound the distilable private key rate from a quantum cryptography network, someone else is talking about quantum fisher information and metrology and someone else is talking about zipf's law and using google page rank algorithms to look at financial stability of various countries banking sectors and I just can not process anything else.... Funny. I have a phd in high energy physics, and generally can support pretty heavy conversations. My social circle treats deep nerural nets, alpha go, bitcoins, the many worlds interpretations of quantum mechanics, and pseudo polynomial time solutions to the graph isomorphism problem as dinner table topics and my parents talk to me over the phone about using polynomial chaos to sample data spaces in engineering problems. But being continuously switched on is exhausting. The complete illogicality of this one is shiny and that one is blue just appeals to me. And I have never seen a convincing argument that there is anything deeper then that to buying and appreciating stones.

 

[Jbows]

The nice thing about coloured stones and engagement rings is that you don't have to be completely logical about them.... I don't think they have much value outside of what we artificially construe them to represent. As far as I am concerned they have no functional use, can not improve my quality of life, and I certainly haven't acquired any new skills (or learned anything really) from this hobby. And I flat out refuse to have a logical discussion about them.

This is the most appealing part! I can come home from an exhausting week where someone is talking to me about using semidefinite programing to lower bound the distilable private key rate from a quantum cryptography network, someone else is talking about quantum fisher information and metrology and someone else is talking about zipf's law and using google page rank algorithms to look at financial stability of various countries banking sectors and I just can not process anything else.... Funny. I have a phd in high energy physics, and generally can support pretty heavy conversations. My social circle treats deep nerural nets, alpha go, bitcoins, the many worlds interpretations of quantum mechanics, and pseudo polynomial time solutions to the graph isomorphism problem as dinner table topics and my parents talk to me over the phone about using polynomial chaos to sample data spaces in engineering problems. But being continuously switched on is exhausting. The complete illogicality of this one is shiny and that one is blue just appeals to me. And I have never seen a convincing argument that there is anything deeper then that to buying and appreciating stones.

You speak to me on a spiritual level

I’m in love with the round I have. I’ve decided I’m going to own that and now start fantasizing about how I’m going to set my sparkler! I love it, I have to wear it, and my boyfriend will have given it to me so I will love it even more, and honestly that is what matters to me about the decision. I just think I built it up in my head with a lot of pressure and wanted to make good use of the advice of the people I trust but to heck with it. Every time I see the stone I just stare at it!

 

[Bron357]

Woah.... a PhD in Physics !!!!! I bow down in awe (seriously) - go girl!
As for gems, well, I think sometimes a stone “speaks” to you and irrespective of its stats, it’s the right one for you. Very unscientific but so often true.
I don’t know how you might want it set, but have a look at some Art Deco style settings / rings.
I think it’s glorious.

 

[qubitasaurus]

Thank you -- I actually feel a bit of an ass for evincing such strong opinions when realistically there is only one opinion that matters (maybe 2 as an engagement ring is about agreeing to be a team even when you are tired and cranky). And at this stage ideally I would rather not interject into that process -- irrespective of the outcome. I am just a bit tired and got carried away in my rant. But thank you for the kindness, it reminded me of home and made me smile.

 

[Seaglow]

Sapphire has a higher specific gravity but I think the smaller face is due to the pavilion being cut as step cut which can add weight to the belly (or if cut with a brilliant cut pavilion, then it would have a thicker girdle). My round sapphire (no window) is cut with a brilliant cut pavilion, it's 1.06 carats but it's 6.63mm diameter. However, to retain weight, most sapphires are cut with step cut pavilion.

If you don't mind the small face for the price, then it is a nice, bright stone and my vote goes to the round as well.

 

[digdeep]

Well you've caught the winds from every direction, haven't you? Definitely follow your heart on the gem you like. Those of us who have bought gems know there are gems that 'speak' to us for whatever reason. That is the relationship you are looking for in an engagement ring. Roger is an icon in the colored stone world.......if you have any questions ask him to clarify. Otherwise I'd say march on to DK and start dreaming of the setting you want. It will be a fun ride with art, design, and maybe some science too! HAVE FUN!!!

 

[Jbows]

Well you've caught the winds from every direction, haven't you? Definitely follow your heart on the gem you like. Those of us who have bought gems know there are gems that 'speak' to us for whatever reason. That is the relationship you are looking for in an engagement ring. Roger is an icon in the colored stone world.......if you have any questions ask him to clarify. Otherwise I'd say march on to DK and start dreaming of the setting you want. It will be a fun ride with art, design, and maybe some science too! HAVE FUN!!!

I’m ready to march on. I’m going to keep both stones through the holidays just to be sure but I love this round one. I really appreciate this community and the support they have given because I really didn’t know how easy it was for a jewelry sales person to convince me I’m making a huge, horrible mistake. Ultimately, I trust what I see that makes me happy backed up by the experience of others’ advice on here.
@Seaglow I did a search on many websites and what you said further confirms my thoughts... most jewelry stores judge everything by diamond standards in terms of size and cut. I didn’t see one sapphire (well okay I saw one, but it was $67,000) that appealed to me in that guy’s store so I decided to discard his advice and go with my heart and how much I love the round.
For anyone interested, I think I’d really like a scalloped halo with channel set diamonds on the band. Inspiration (halo doesn’t have scalloping though) attached!

 

[NKOTB]

I’m glad you’re going with your gut. FWIW, I went to Tiffany’s with a couple of other PSers years ago, and was appalled at the pricing, especially compared to what many of us have put together here. Some pretty stuff, but you’re paying a huge premium for the name.

 

[Bron357]

Random photo courtesy of google