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Should I feel good about this price?

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cboyd1976

Rough_Rock
Joined
Aug 3, 2009
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Hi Folks,

I know alot more than just the cert specs come into play but any thoughts would be good. I''ve found a diamond I''m pretty happy with (first time diamond buyer). It is GIA certified:

1.54 carat
Color: F
Clarity: SI2
Cut: Excellent
Polish: Very Good
Symmetry: Excellent
Price: $8600

GIA Report: 1106712255

The inclusions I see under the loop map very well to the report. I''ve compared it extensively with a D VSI1 triple excellent stone in a table light, office light and sunlight and am very very happy with the way my stone compares. I can''t see the inclusions w/out a loop and I think the stone is just great versus alot of stones I''ve seen.

That being said - should I feel good about this $8600 price? (it was listed at $10,700 and I talked them down). Also, the dealer is very reputable as far as I know (Diamond Doctor in Dallas Texas .. www.diamonddoctor.com)

Thanks everyone,

Charlie
 
We need a little more information to see how well cut it is.

depth
table
crown angle
pavilion angle
 
GIA Report Check
GIA Report Number: 1106712255
Report Type: GIA Diamond Grading Report
Date of Issue: April 29, 2009
Round Brilliant
Measurements: 7.41 - 7.45 x 4.54 mm
Carat Weight: 1.54 carat
Color Grade: F
Clarity Grade: SI2
Cut Grade: Excellent
Proportions:
Depth: 61.1%
Table: 61%
Crown Angle: 34.5°
Crown Height: 13.5%
Pavilion Angle: 41.2°
Pavilion Depth: 43.5%
Star length: 50%
Lower Half: 75%
Girdle: Thin to Slightly Thick, Faceted (4.0%)
Culet: None
Finish:
Polish: Very Good
Symmetry: Excellent
Fluorescence: None
Comments: Additional clouds are not shown.
 
Date: 9/1/2009 6:57:17 PM
Author: cboyd1976
GIA Report Check
GIA Report Number: 1106712255
Report Type: GIA Diamond Grading Report
Date of Issue: April 29, 2009
Round Brilliant
Measurements: 7.41 - 7.45 x 4.54 mm
Carat Weight: 1.54 carat
Color Grade: F
Clarity Grade: SI2
Cut Grade: Excellent
Proportions:
Depth: 61.1%
Table: 61%
Crown Angle: 34.5°
Crown Height: 13.5%
Pavilion Angle: 41.2°
Pavilion Depth: 43.5%
Star length: 50%
Lower Half: 75%
Girdle: Thin to Slightly Thick, Faceted (4.0%)
Culet: None
Finish:
Polish: Very Good
Symmetry: Excellent
Fluorescence: None
Comments: Additional clouds are not shown.
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If you do a search, you will find that Abazias listed this same diamond for $8871. Perhaps you can negotiate a small discount (paying cash or wire transfer), and you will end up getting the same price of $8,600. Therefore, I do not think you got a great bargain. More importantly, I would not buy this diamond if I were you, because the HCA score is > 2.
 
Thanks for the input everyone. The HCA is pretty new to me, perhaps I can use that to negotiate the price some. Further feedback from other readers would be very much appreciated as I''m pretty new to all of this.
 
Cboyd1976, I ran it through the HCA and it scored a 4.3. Only "fair" in theoretical scintillation, and only scored a "good" in fire. You can probably do better for performance unless your only criteria is price. However, you''ve seen it in person, and you like it, and if you''re comparing it against 000 diamonds and you feel it holds it''s own, that''s what should matter. Are both diamonds loose under similar lighting conditions?

I live in DFW, too, and I''m surprised at your review of Diamond Doctor. They get plenty of radio airplay here, but my experience was less than positive. This was about 1.5 years ago, but they also were reluctant to bring in any outisde AGS0 stones for me to compare to their in house GIA stones. I also didn''t agree with their high pressure sales tactics. I hope your experience was superior to mine, but I urge you to make sure this is the company you want to do business with.
 
Date: 9/1/2009 11:07:20 PM
Author: LaurenThePartier
Cboyd1976, I ran it through the HCA and it scored a 4.3. Only ''fair'' in theoretical scintillation, and only scored a ''good'' in fire. You can probably do better for performance unless your only criteria is price. However, you''ve seen it in person, and you like it, and if you''re comparing it against 000 diamonds and you feel it holds it''s own, that''s what should matter. Are both diamonds loose under similar lighting conditions?

I live in DFW, too, and I''m surprised at your review of Diamond Doctor. They get plenty of radio airplay here, but my experience was less than positive. This was about 1.5 years ago, but they also were reluctant to bring in any outisde AGS0 stones for me to compare to their in house GIA stones. I also didn''t agree with their high pressure sales tactics. I hope your experience was superior to mine, but I urge you to make sure this is the company you want to do business with.
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Ditto Lauren, also I would suggest viewing this diamond in plain daylight if you can before you decide, to make sure you like how it looks away from the store lights.

http://www2.gia.edu/reportcheck/index.cfm?fuseaction=home.showReportVerification&reportno=1106712255&weight=1.54 report link.
 
Date: 9/1/2009 6:46:08 PM
Author:cboyd1976
That being said - should I feel good about this $8600 price? (it was listed at $10,700 and I talked them down). Also, the dealer is very reputable as far as I know (Diamond Doctor in Dallas Texas .. www.diamonddoctor.com)
Thanks everyone,
Charlie
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I wouldn''t feel very good about a stone that had it''s price jacked up so I had to play the game of "talking them down" just to get the same price everyone else was selling the stone for.
 
That stinks about your experience with DD - mine has been very good so far - no pressure - easy to work with - my best experience so far with any store. As far as the lighting - I''ve examined the stone and compared the stone to a higher graded stone in table lighting, normal room lighting and natural sunlight - all 3 looked really good to me. I personally was super duper pleased with the stone - but the HCA scores worry me now. Being a novice I just want to make sure I''m doing the right thing.
 
Date: 9/2/2009 5:31:58 AM
Author: swingirl

Date: 9/1/2009 6:46:08 PM
Author:cboyd1976
That being said - should I feel good about this $8600 price? (it was listed at $10,700 and I talked them down). Also, the dealer is very reputable as far as I know (Diamond Doctor in Dallas Texas .. www.diamonddoctor.com)
Thanks everyone,
Charlie
Click to expand...
I wouldn''t feel very good about a stone that had it''s price jacked up so I had to play the game of ''talking them down'' just to get the same price everyone else was selling the stone for.
Click to expand...
This dealer is infamous for that, unfortunately. Pricescopers armed with smart phones are their worst nightmare.
29.gif
 
Date: 9/2/2009 3:52:53 PM
Author: cboyd1976
That stinks about your experience with DD - mine has been very good so far - no pressure - easy to work with - my best experience so far with any store. As far as the lighting - I've examined the stone and compared the stone to a higher graded stone in table lighting, normal room lighting and natural sunlight - all 3 looked really good to me. I personally was super duper pleased with the stone - but the HCA scores worry me now. Being a novice I just want to make sure I'm doing the right thing.
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If you're happy with the experience and the product, that should be all that matters. The HCA is a tool that should be used to weed out under performers, not just to make an ultimate selection, so if it performs the way you expect for $8,600, that's a winner.
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Had you come here and posted that diamond before you made your purchase, you may have been flooded with suggestions for diamonds in the <2 range because we don't have the advantage of viewing the diamond in person, so to be safe, the HCA can make fairly accurate predictions for how a diamond will behave. The two characteristics that might be missing are fire, and to a lesser extent, scintillation.

Good luck with your purchase and proposal.
1.gif
 
Date: 9/2/2009 3:52:53 PM
Author: cboyd1976
That stinks about your experience with DD - mine has been very good so far - no pressure - easy to work with - my best experience so far with any store. As far as the lighting - I''ve examined the stone and compared the stone to a higher graded stone in table lighting, normal room lighting and natural sunlight - all 3 looked really good to me. I personally was super duper pleased with the stone - but the HCA scores worry me now. Being a novice I just want to make sure I''m doing the right thing.
Click to expand...
When you say "higher graded stones", are you talking about their cut quality, or purely higher colour and clarity?

Have you been able to see some AGS0 diamonds in person and not just GIA triple excellents (GIA''s "excellent" rating can have quite broad parameters, and many GIA Excellents would not fall within the cut parameter criteria for an AGS0)? What does "triple excellent" actually mean to you?

I have an AGS0 diamond that scores a 1.2 on the HCA - I''d be happy to meet you at a local jeweler to compare, though mine is significantly smaller.
2.gif
 
Regarding the talking down portion of my experience - it was really casual, nothing like bartering back and forth. I told him up front that if I ended up finding a stone that I liked that from a price perspective - I wanted it to be competitive with bluenile.com and/or abazias.com - he said he felt like he could compete with their prices. We then sat down and spent about 1.5 hours together looking at stones. About 45 minutes in I found the stone that I ended up buying. I asked him if he could pull out a similiar sized stone, D in color, VSI1, excellent cut, polish, symetry on the GIA report. He did so and I compared my stone to this stone in sun/ceiling/table lighting - and to my novice eyes (and compared to other stones I''ve seen so far) I really liked how mine compared. Now - I can''t be sure on how the cuts compared or how good the D colored diamond really was - but all in all I''m happy. Once I was feeling really good about my stone - Chris and I sat down at his PC and we looked up stones on the web together side by side and he made his offer, a few hundred cheaper than any other GIA stone we coudl fine with similar GIA stats online - which seemed like a pretty fair deal to me.

The other really nice thing is that my GF is dead set in love with a Mark Patterson designed ring. Rather than try to sell me on one of their rings, or talk me into having their jeweler craft one that looks just like it - he looked at the stats of the ring (metal, paved diamond count/style) - did some calculations and said - I can only save you about $600 if we craft it here - why don''t I give Mark Patterson a call and see if they''ll work with us and we''ll get your GF the ring she really loves. I thought that was great as I''ve had other places really force their own crafters on me. He is also going to clean/polish the ring for life as well as guarantee the workmanship, if any of the paved diamonds fall out, he''ll replace them even though they didn''t make the ring - which is minor, but nice.

Sorry for the long post - but thought I''d just document what a great experience I had. I of course am a novice, and didn''t ask to compare AGS0 stones. In the end I can''t find anything online cheaper than what I paid. I''m happy with how it looks, I think my GF will be too and it seems I paid a fair price for the product I received. On a side note, Chris at DD will exchange the stone for the price I paid for it in return for any stone of equal or higher value - so if later on I get some bad appraisals or we aren''t happy initially I can always work something out.

You''ve all been great - and this site is a god send as I learned about diamonds, certifications, etc.. Once I get the ring I''ll take some pics and post in the photos section. Here is a link to the ring I''m having made just for grins:

http://www.vonbargens.com/catalog/detail.php?product=2977&category=1200
 
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