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Trade offs.

Gypsy

Gypsy

Super_Ideal_Rock
Joined
Aug 8, 2005
Messages
40,225
I've noticed some people want eternity bands, and others go for larger stones, but in a 5 stone or a half eternity. Some go for a blingtastic setting with a smaller stone, others get the largest stone they can get and stick it in a cheapest setting they like. Some want a mind clean F VS others want SIZE SIZE SIZE and will drop down on color and clarity.

What are the trade offs you would take, and what are the ones you wouldn't.

Personally, I wanted platinum and I wanted a halo. I didn't need (or even want really) the pave in the shank and so I gave it up. I don't care for eternity bands... all rings are round and the metal goes all the way around, and that's eternity enough for me. I'd rather have larger stones on the top of my finger. I have an F VS, but would have been happy with 'looks white to me' and eyeclean.

How about you?
 
For my budget, I wanted the biggest carat weight I could get without looking "tinted". To me, my limit was an "H" before I started seeing obvious color. So I chose a 1.81 ct H because to me, making the 2 ct mark was not important. As long as there weren't visible black inclusions, or inclusions that affected the brilliance of the diamond I was okay with an SI. I ended up with a beautiful SI1 completely eyeclean.

I also knew I absolutely wanted a diamond band, but I chose a half eternity not a full (not because of budget constraints), I just didn't see the point of having diamonds that no one could see, and that could potentially get damaged if I were lifting weights or something. Given unlimited budget I still wouldn't get a full eternity because I'm hard on my hands.

As for the e-ring setting, I knew I like simple solitaires that didn't look cheap. I definitely wanted something in platinum because from experience I'd noticed that white gold did not stay white with the chemical make-up of my hands, and it would bother me if I needed to keep re-plating, but I was absolutely adament that it looked like a well-made designer solitaire, and not flimsy looking. So, I got my setting custom-made with a Euro shank, and exact head that I wanted.
 
My wedding ring is a half-eternity band -- it's an heirloom, but if I'd bought a new one, would have done the same. Eternity bands are not comfortable for me; bothers me when the stones or metal get squeezed against pinky & middle finger. I have a diamond & emerald eternity band acquired later but it's small, more the size of a guard ring, so doesn't create a problem. To protect the emeralds I only wear it when we go out anyhow. I always wear yellow gold -- my skin is very fair & I look AWFUL in white metals, they just bleed right out. Earrings especially, next to my face. Reminds me of the time I tried on a blonde wig & darn near turned invisible.

--- Laurie
 
I don't think that I've compromised on any of my pieces ... yet. I wanted a stone between a carat and a carat and a half, G to J, no lower than VS2, and that's what I got. For a while there, I worried that I should have gone higher in color - even if I liked what I saw, what if I was wrong? But for the future, hypothetically?

I don't think I'll ever go higher than an SI1 again, now that I've seen how clean they can be after buying my pear. Similarly, after buying the white-white-white E w/SB pear, I am now firmly reassured of the fact that I like warmth. So, aside from shape (not, mind you, cut), there isn't that much left for me to trade off on!

My next big purchase is probably going to be earrings, and the way I'm going? It's going to be a nice pair of K SI1s, as large and as well-cut as I can get them. I sort of see it less as "settling" and more as coming into my own in terms of knowledge and taste. Some of our standards can be awfully arbitrary, and figuring which ones are unnecessary is useful.
 
I would be happy as long as it looks colorless, is no less than a Good cut, and no less than VS. I also would not go lower than the size of my current stone.

I picked out an ornate setting that I absolutely love, so I don't really need to worry about giving anything up for a bigger setting around the stone.
 
I wanted the biggest single diamond I could get for my money, and it ended up being a J VS1 just under the 1.7ct mark. The one C I was unwilling to compromise was carat, so the rest was just filled in based on my budget. I got the simplest inexpensive setting knowing I would get a dream setting later on. So all of my budget went to the diamond.

I could not afford to go up in color without dropping size by about .2mm (unacceptable), I could not go down in clarity and get over the 1.7ct mark (why bother?). I could have saved around a thousand with an SI in this exact size, but since stones this carat weight are relatively hard to find, who knew when that stone would have come along. It also appears that I am more sensitive to clarity than I am to color. This VS1 is very mind clean to me and I like that a lot about my diamond. And I think my J color diamond was misgraded and is actually an I. It looks much less tinted than my previous J or K color stones.

All told, I got lucky and ended up with a diamond I love in the size I want for a price I love!
 
For me, it was symmetry. I love step cuts for their symmetry and I wanted an Asscher that was as square as possible with very symmetric steps and windmills. My "C" is CUT!

Unfortunately, the perfectly symmetrical Asscher I found was also a D, so now I am a color snob, too, just because I am so used to looking at that D that I start to see color a lot of color around H.
 
Being a colored stoner really messes you up when you go to threads like this....I don't even think about diamonds the same way as diamond people do, I think!
 
I went down in clarity (SI2) & carat weight (.70cts), for higher color (G) based on the budget. Probably could have pushed for a bigger size for an oval if we had shopped around more and made purchase online.

Ering is solitaire with side stones 3/4 way around, 2mm shank wg...platinum not in the budget. Wedding Band is alternating diamonds/sapphires again 3/4 way around slightly larger band at 2.5mm.

Together I am satisfied about the bling factor without being in over our heads budget wise.

All in All very happy with my ering/wb. Since joining PS will be more informed for future purchases, upgrades.
 
How so Freak? You still have to make some trade offs? I love your spinel, but... did you pick a spinel over a sapphire for budget? Or did you compromise on anything else?

I love hearing about everyone's thoughts on their purchases. I got a pre-owned wedding band. "New" is what I sacrified, but I got everythng else. I'd to it again in a heart beat. I keep hoping someone will sell my dream studs so I can get those second hand as well.
 
I really don't think I sacrificed anything with my engagement ring. I wanted a cushion that made my heart sing, and I found it. I wanted it set in a simple shared prong platinum eternity band. Check! I had no idea that our budget would buy a 2 ct diamond, so that was a pleasant surprise.

I view a jewelry purchase as a big deal, and I typically wait until I can get exactly what I want before I make any big deal purchases. If I had to make a trade off, I'd probably just hold off altogether.
 
I have no problems with inclusions as long as it is eye clean to me at 6 inches out , and color, I am ok with anything i or better... so I guess I would be one where SIZE matters!
 
all my wife's stones are set in cheap plain 14k wg or plat setting.i'd prefer to spent more money on stones than a expensive setting.
 
I'm a size girl through and through: unbranded J SI2 to eke out every last hundredth of a mm ::)

That said, it's not a sacrifice - I chose my setting to complement the J's tint, and a few months in I know I could easily have dropped even further in colour, and gone with an OEC, and been completely satisfied. I don't care about what I can't see clarity-wise, and I trust that good cut will make up for the small losses in brilliance that necessarily accompany bogeys in the stone...and as I firmly believe H&A is a purely mind-clean phenomenon for any realistic purposes, I put that premium toward carat too

I did want a particular setting, but it wasn't a particularly pricey venture.
 
the tradeoffs I made weren't really tradeoffs at the time... if I were shopping NOW for a diamond I would go way down in color to LMNOP and just get the biggest stone I could. I got the biggest stone I could maintaining a VS2 and J color but stones lower than J were hard to find - good cushions were hard to find. Cushions under J were hard to find! Now things are wide open and I would probably make a different choice if I were starting from scratch today, but I don't feel like I traded off much at the time. Not sure if my answer exactly fits your query, but it's what I have lol
 
Our stone is a 1.53 carat princess cut diamond with 'F' color, SI1 clarity, and excellent polish and excellent symmetry. Since it is GIA-certified and therefore not graded on cut, we relied on our eyes to find the look that we really wanted.

I really wanted a princess cut, and both my FF and I wanted something that sparkled a lot, appeared colorless (we both like the icy white look), and had no visible inclusions. Of course, we wanted to go as large as possible, but we didn't want to compromise on our other standards. We looked around a LOT, and finally found our stone. We decided that we wanted to go with 'F' color because he is very sensitive to color, and he could tell which stones were colorless and which weren't, even when they were face up and presented alone (not next to a colorless stone). If we had gone with a round, we might have dropped to 'G' or even 'H' color, but warm tints seem to be more noticeable in princess cuts (especially in the corners).

I found some stones that were comparable in cut, clarity, and price (maybe just a bit more $), and were 1.85- 2 carats, but they were 'I' in color. I thought about it for awhile, and I just decided that I would probably never be happy with that color (like I said, I really like the icy white look). Since my FF is even more color-sensitive, it would probably drive him up the wall. Also, for our area, 1.5 carats is large - I don't think that anyone we know has a larger diamond than that.

We have not picked our wedding bands yet. He wants something simple (no diamonds), and I am still trying to decide. Part of me wants an eternity or half-eternity band so that I can still have some bling if I choose not to wear my e-ring on certain days, and part of me wants plain platinum so that I won't worry as much about wearing it to the pool, beach, outside, etc.
 
Gypsy said:
How so Freak? You still have to make some trade offs? I love your spinel, but... did you pick a spinel over a sapphire for budget? Or did you compromise on anything else?
Click to expand...
At first, it may have been budgetary, but being that one major reason I didn't get a diamond is because it's popular. Well, sapphires are the second most popular (I blame Princess Di!) And spinel? No one has ever heard of it...except my geologist cousin.

So did I get a spinel instead of a sapphire because of budget? Kind of? But not really. At one point my then BF raised the budget significantly and I incorporated sapphires into the search. I ended up choosing a *cheap* spinel still. They just have a different look to them. Something that people who don't frequent the CS part of the forum won't realize, is that I have since amassed a pretty large collection of spinels. If I had saved all of that money, I could have had a decent sapphire. Or a few decent sapphires.

I wanted it to be Barry cut. I looked everywhere else, but Barry ended up being the one who came through for me in the end, and it ended up feeling like fate.

Color? I didn't really care, I just wanted blue, and a blue that struck me. Because then BF had a choice between two stones, he took care of that for me--and he chose right.

Shape-oval or round.

Clarity-didn't even hit my radar.

Carat? I wanted a certain size (6-8mm) but there is a lot of give in between those numbers.

I was lucky to have an idea of what I could be getting into if I made the specifications really tight--months and months of searching. As it was, it was certainly long enough for me!

As for diamonds? I find inclusions interesting. I like M and lower colored diamonds. I love fluorescence. I prefer antique cuts, but can see the appeal of ideal cuts. I can see uses for any size of diamond. Or any shape.

Whats funny is that I ended up buying a sapphire a year or so later, and I had considered it for an ering. Who knew?! It was lavender btw. Not blue. And not an oval or a round. :naughty:
 
I love spinels, personally. I'm dying for a red-orange one . But... Alas, I've realized I am much more likely to wear my diamond jewelry and keep my colored stones unset in my jewelry box. Which is a shame. I do for some reason desperately want something GREEN though.
 
I would go for a smaller stone to get a platinum setting every time. Something about my skin chemistry doesn't react well to WG, I eat the plating off within a couple months and I don't like the unplated look (or YG) so plat it is. I really love a couple of Saturn Jewels settings, too, so I'd trade off a lot with the center stone to get one of those. Cut would be most important, but I actually think my E is a bit too white and my sweet spot is a G/H, so I wouldn't mind going down in color anyway. And I'm not all about size, I actually prefer smaller jewelry on myself, so it doesn't take too much to make me happy...Alternately, I'd go with a super simple plat setting if I could have an Octavia to go in it.
 
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