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Superideals, the naked eye, and GIA certs

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Babylon1023

Rough_Rock
Joined
May 28, 2002
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54
I've seen two Superideal brands of diamonds so far, the Hearts on Fire and the Leo. Both were so incredibly shiny and firey, far superior to the crap they had at the mall. I know for a fact that I want my future fiance's diamond to look like that, but what exactly is it that makes them look so damn good? Furthermore, can you tell if a diamond will be that shiny and sparkly by looking at the information on a GIA cert? GIA certed diamonds are most of what I'm seeing, so it would help to know if there is a tight set of ranges that I should look for in a GIA cert that would hint to me if it's a good diamond or a bad one (they don't have enough info for the HCA here on pricescope). I was told that these are the MINIMUMS that I should look for, so please tell me if I'm wrong:

Depth: 60.1-62.8%
Table: 55-60%
Symmetry: Very Good
Polish: Good
Color: I and up
Clarity: VS2 and up (or SI1 if inclusion is not directly under table facet)

As far as naked eye noticablilty is concerned, am I on the mark for what will *LOOK* like a Hearts and Arrows diamond without a loupe? Please correct any of these assumptions if I'm wrong. Thanks!
 

ChetLaura

Rough_Rock
Joined
Mar 2, 2002
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Hi You can always ask the jeweler/vendor for a sarin report on a diamond that is GIA certed. This will give you all of the angles for the HCA on this site. When we were shopping both locally and online, we were able to request sarin reports on GIA stones and actually got very quick responses.

As for the Leo diamond - it is very nice, but it just doesn't compare to a diamond that is in the ideal cut proportions. It is the cut of this diamond though that creates the spark that you were seeing. The price of the Leo was very expensive compared to us purchasing online. We were sure that we wanted a Leo diamond, but after we purchased an AGS Ideal (not that you have to purchase AGS for this, just the ideal cut)- we went and compared and there was NO comparison. I do not know about the Hearts of Fire diamonds. We also made a trip to Tiffany's before our purchase and were blown away with the fire of their diamonds, but after our purchase - they really weren't anything special.

My diamond is not a hearts and arrows, but I can see the arrows perfectly with the naked eye. I would suggest maybe purchasing an ideal scope from this site - we purchased one and it is amazing to see the diamonds through this. Hope that this little bit helps. Are you purchasing locally or online?

:))
 

Babylon1023

Rough_Rock
Joined
May 28, 2002
Messages
54
I plan to buy from Bluenile.com. I feel comfortable with them and like their wide selection and their beautiful yet simple settings. Personally, I found the settings from places like whiteflash.com to be gaudy and expensive. Their customer service department is great too. However most of their diamonds are GIA certed but I was told that unless I was a purist that the info on a GIA report should be enough to tell me if it's a beautiful diamond or not. Mainly the depth/table %'s and the polish/sym determined this. Plus they have the diamonds divided into their own categories of Ideal, Very Good, and so on cuts.
 

ChetLaura

Rough_Rock
Joined
Mar 2, 2002
Messages
62
We purchased from the Blue Nile ourselves, but I think that you will find that some of the diamonds that are listed under Ideal - don't score well on the HCA - this is even true with some of the diamonds in their Signature Ideals. I highly recommend Blue Nile - we found their customer service to be above and beyond, but I think that you will find that all of the vendors listed on this site are very good as well. I do not remember if we tried to get a sarin on any GIA's through the Blue Nile - but we must not have if you were unable to do this.

Have you looked a goodoldgold.com? There is just a wealth of information there, and I know from reading here that there are many satisfied customers. I lean towards his site because of the incredible pictures and detail of all of the diamonds that he has forsale. The pictures are right there to view also. There is a sarin report for all of the GIA stones.

Let us know what you purchase! :))
 

ChetLaura

Rough_Rock
Joined
Mar 2, 2002
Messages
62
Just wanted to add that you do not have to purchase the setting from where you buy the diamond. We purchased the diamond online and had it set locally. Do you know what kind of setting that you want? We found the settings on Blue Nile very nice - kind of expensive. I hope that this helps.
 

pricescope

Ideal_Rock
Joined
Dec 31, 1999
Messages
8,266
).

Garry just wrote from JCK show in Las Vegas that GIA speakers already telling that pavilion and crown angles should be used (not even crown and pavilion depth %).

Good news is that BN has Sarin machine in hows and you can ask for Sarin report for your candidate. It takes two minutes to do.

One of the advantages of HCA system is that it tels whether diamond rated ideal by table/depth% approach or AGS system can be not ideal at all and doesn't cost the premium.

What particular BlueNile setting do you like?

:)[/u]
 

larry

Rough_Rock
Joined
Mar 7, 2002
Messages
85
I wanted to know that I did the same as ChetLaura. Bought the diamond at Whiteflash and the setting at Diamond.com . Almost the same setting on BlueNile I bought at Diamond.com for a much better price than BlueNile. I had an excelent experience with both WhiteFlash and Diamond.com. As this was my first diamond purchase I went with Whiteflash for the diamond because I felt better getting all the information about the diamond up front. I did buy a H&A AGS000 with a HCA of 0.8 just to be on the safe side. It is absolutly beautiful and the price was very competitive to other online vendors. My local jewler had no problem setting the diamond even though I did not buy anything from him.
 

pricescope

Ideal_Rock
Joined
Dec 31, 1999
Messages
8,266
Hey Larry, where did you get this avatar!?!? :bigsmile:
 

larry

Rough_Rock
Joined
Mar 7, 2002
Messages
85
On the web :twirl:

dev.gif
 

pricescope

Ideal_Rock
Joined
Dec 31, 1999
Messages
8,266
Cool dude - glad you didn't have problem uploading it :sun:
 
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