Ugh, so much for the "try it on first" approach.

[MichelleCarmen]

Okay, today I went into a chain B&M to try on diamonds around .70.

Requested to see diamonds about that size.

Two were available:

.70 and .71

#1 was: shallow cut, lifeless, and set in yellow gold
#2 was: deep cut, somewhat better life, and set in white gold

Tried both on.

The shallow had a noticably bigger spread than the deep. . ..

I comment on the shallow, "oh, wow, that one has a larger spread than the other one!"
Sales gal, "oh no, it just looks that way because it's set in yellow gold."
Me, "oh."
Her, she puts the diamonds up so that the girdles nearly touch and tips them so I can look down into the table "See they're the same. It's the yellow gold that makes one look bigger."
Me, I look through the pavilion side, "one looks wider than the other."
Again she says it's because of the yellow gold setting.

She then points to the shallow one and asks, "so you like that one?"

Well, that diamond looks like crap, but I didn't say that, just commented that the other one looks a bit better. . .

Seriously, I almost RAN out of the store at this point because I was done looking. It took about 5 minutes longer before I could escape from her clutches.

How many jewelry stores will I have to visit before I can find one with well-cut stones just to try on to see what .70 will look like? I can imagine this taking months

(I do plan to buy online. . .just was trying to follow my own advice about looking beforehand).

 

[dragonfly411]

MC - that''s why I hate the mall. Really I do...

 

[Maisie]

I was once informed that a D and J colour were the same when I visited a store near me. I think you might have to resort to cutting out diamond sizes on a piece of paper and laying them on your finger

 

[Lorelei]

MC, try Jareds if there is one in your area, ask to see their AGS0 Peerless brand or alternatively Hearts on Fire if there is a vendor closeby. That should get you into the realm of well cut diamonds so you can get a better idea.

 

[MichelleCarmen]

Date: 1/15/2010 3:06:30 PM
Author: Maisie
I was once informed that a D and J colour were the same when I visited a store near me. I think you might have to resort to cutting out diamond sizes on a piece of paper and laying them on your finger

hahaha The gal said similar. I forgot about that. She said that grades down to I are all colorless.

 

[Maisie]

Date: 1/15/2010 3:16:42 PM
Author: MC

Date: 1/15/2010 3:06:30 PM
Author: Maisie
I was once informed that a D and J colour were the same when I visited a store near me. I think you might have to resort to cutting out diamond sizes on a piece of paper and laying them on your finger

hahaha The gal said similar. I forgot about that. She said that grades down to I are all colorless.

Its funny isn''t it!

I just feel sorry for the people who go in there with limited information.

 

[MichelleCarmen]

Date: 1/15/2010 3:09:47 PM
Author: Lorelei
MC, try Jareds if there is one in your area, ask to see their AGS0 Peerless brand or alternatively Hearts on Fire if there is a vendor closeby. That should get you into the realm of well cut diamonds so you can get a better idea.

There is a Jared''s about 1/2 hour away. . .Thanks for the tip. I''ll go there. Also, I may check out Ben Bridge''s signature line. Are those diamonds okay?

One thing I hate about looking in person is the sales people pester me about when I''m going to buy (and today the gal tried to convince me that I should apply for interest free financing now even though my anniversary isn''t till June). Also, more than a few times I''ve been asked if my husband is going to be involved (since I always try on jewelry by myself). lol "Nope, I''m going to hide the ring for the next 20 years." hahaha

 

[Jim Summa]

Hi MC,
If you live in the US or Canada you could try an American Gem Society store. Give one a call and see if they would show you some AGS Platinum Report diamonds complete with a standardized ASET viewer to take a look.

 

[whatmeworry]

Date: 1/15/2010 3:21:53 PM
Author: MC

Date: 1/15/2010 3:09:47 PM
Author: Lorelei
MC, try Jareds if there is one in your area, ask to see their AGS0 Peerless brand or alternatively Hearts on Fire if there is a vendor closeby. That should get you into the realm of well cut diamonds so you can get a better idea.

There is a Jared''s about 1/2 hour away. . .Thanks for the tip. I''ll go there. Also, I may check out Ben Bridge''s signature line. Are those diamonds okay?

One thing I hate about looking in person is the sales people pester me about when I''m going to buy (and today the gal tried to convince me that I should apply for interest free financing now even though my anniversary isn''t till June). Also, more than a few times I''ve been asked if my husband is going to be involved (since I always try on jewelry by myself). lol ''Nope, I''m going to hide the ring for the next 20 years.'' hahaha

I think the Ben Bridge signature has a different faceting than the standard 57 facet round brilliant but the Ben Bridge Ikuma is their AGS0 graded diamond

 

[Bella_mezzo]

I print the stones off a diamond size chart and tape to my fingers

I hate chain store jewelry store sales people and find them to be singularly unhelpful and uneducated about diamonds (and pretty much anything else in their store)

 

[MichelleCarmen]

Date: 1/15/2010 3:39:30 PM
Author: whatmeworry

I think the Ben Bridge signature has a different faceting than the standard 57 facet round brilliant but the Ben Bridge Ikuma is their AGS0 graded diamond

Thanks for the info. I''ll go in there then.

A few months ago, I visited and the gal did say that cut was better than color. . .that''s promising. They''re prices were crazy expensive, though! They had a 1-ct for $15K!!! I would think it was a D or some similar to justify that price.

 

[MichelleCarmen]

Date: 1/15/2010 3:52:54 PM
Author: Bella_mezzo
I print the stones off a diamond size chart and tape to my fingers

I hate chain store jewelry store sales people and find them to be singularly unhelpful and uneducated about diamonds (and pretty much anything else in their store)

My printer is out of ink and I'm too cheap to buy more since it only works if all the colors are filled up! lol I was hoping to compare the size to my .42 to see how much bigger the .70 would look. The deep one was barely bigger. The other was too much (suspiciously) bigger. Frustrating.

ETA - the monitor on my kids computer is old so maybe I'll just trace a diamond chart and cut out the shapes. lol Mine is an LCD so I can't trace from the screen. My dh is going to know I've lost my mind.

 

[Bella_mezzo]

Yep trace very carefully on your kids computer...sounds like a plan...a crazy pricescoper plan, but a plan nonetheless

 

[yssie]

I just don''t understand how someone can work in a jewellery store and not know their primary product inside and out

- or at least, know the basics! I know I''d be fired in a heartbeat if I gaffed to that degree!




Could you specify a mm range instead of a carat weight when you ask? Then you''ll get some shallow 0.6s and deep 0.8s, and they''ll look dreadful, but you might get some idea of size..

 

[tonyc2387]

Date: 1/15/2010 5:13:46 PM
Author: yssie
I just don''t understand how someone can work in a jewellery store and not know their primary product inside and out

- or at least, know the basics! I know I''d be fired in a heartbeat if I gaffed to that degree!

you think that at first, yes... but the sad, sad reality is there''s a staggering amount of money to be made selling crappy diamonds for much more than they''re worth, because people don''t know (or care to know) any better. and if the SAs themselves believe it, well, all the more money to be made

 

[MichelleCarmen]

Date: 1/15/2010 5:27:23 PM
Author: tonyc2387

Date: 1/15/2010 5:13:46 PM
Author: yssie
I just don''t understand how someone can work in a jewellery store and not know their primary product inside and out

- or at least, know the basics! I know I''d be fired in a heartbeat if I gaffed to that degree!

you think that at first, yes... but the sad, sad reality is there''s a staggering amount of money to be made selling crappy diamonds for much more than they''re worth, because people don''t know (or care to know) any better. and if the SAs themselves believe it, well, all the more money to be made

I just checked the SA''s card and she doesn''t have any credentials. The only diamonds she was wearing were earrings and either they were dirty or poorly cut as they looked like the I2 type stones sold on eBay.

 

[LGK]

Date: 1/15/2010 3:56:59 PM
Author: MC

Date: 1/15/2010 3:52:54 PM
Author: Bella_mezzo
I print the stones off a diamond size chart and tape to my fingers

I hate chain store jewelry store sales people and find them to be singularly unhelpful and uneducated about diamonds (and pretty much anything else in their store)

My printer is out of ink and I''m too cheap to buy more since it only works if all the colors are filled up! lol I was hoping to compare the size to my .42 to see how much bigger the .70 would look. The deep one was barely bigger. The other was too much (suspiciously) bigger. Frustrating.

ETA - the monitor on my kids computer is old so maybe I''ll just trace a diamond chart and cut out the shapes. lol Mine is an LCD so I can''t trace from the screen. My dh is going to know I''ve lost my mind.

OMG that sounds like an agonizing visit. The attack-SAs horrify me too; I rarely go into B&M jewelry stores for just that reason. (OK, I sometimes go to Greenlake Jewelry to drool, and to Saschi''s in Snohomish because the owner is awesome and lets me play with his loose stones, but the chain ones are painful usually!) I just don''t know why they don''t at least teach the people at the counter a bit more. I usually am just awestruck at the painful misinformation.

(And what is UP with the faxes & printers doing that! I hate it so much, my copier/fax at work- which we never, ever use for color printing- does this and the colored ink dries up all by itself- and it''s like crazy $$$ to get more just to make the stupid thing work. I just had to replace it (yet again) yesterday and I''m feeling bitter about it, lol.)

 

[puravida]

Over a year ago when my BF and I were looking for settings/stones locally, we went through a similar thing. We had intentions to buy online anyway, but we wanted to compare colours of stones, settings, etc. in person. The thing is that its so hard to find a stone at a B&M store that''s well cut so that you''d get an in-person idea of what a well cut stone will look like. I could compare a crappily cut G stone to a crappily cut H but then if I''m interested in a BGD ACA RB stone, it''ll look completely different than anything I''d be able to try on in a local store. So I won''t be able to figure out if I want a G or an H BGD by shopping around at local B&M stores. Which is unfortunate!

We found that most, if not all, stores that we went to in malls were the worst. I''d go in an ask to see a H&A stone and they''d look at me completely baffled. Of they''d try to justify why they use a crappy lab for their stone certs. Very frustrating.

Now that we have resumed our search, we are gonna try this weekend to go to two places and see stones and settings. The only options for us are a small local jewllery store with a great local reputation, Damiani Jewellery. The second is Spence. (We live just north of Toronto.) The sales people at Damiani are pretty good and know their stuff but I would be surprised if they spent lots of time with us, showing us different stones unless we expressed some interest that we wanted to buy from them.

How easily is it to walk into t a B&M store and ask to see loose stones to compare colour?
How willing would they be to show us the specs on the stones right away?

I''m interested in comparing stones that are FIC, TIC and BIC. What is the best way to go about this?

Also, I''m planning to go in with a cheat sheet of things I''ve cut and pasted from PS recently for RBs so that I can cross reference any specs they give me with the numbers I should look for. Then I won''t waste any time on looking at stones that are far from what I''d like to buy.

Sorry for the threadjack

 

[Dreamer_D]

I feel for you, I really really do. I went to a B&M to look at three stone rings to see if I liked them, and they had a 1,7ct center than measured the size of a 1.5 -- deeeepppp.

I go to Tiffany''s when I want to see well cut stones.

 

[MichelleCarmen]

Date: 1/15/2010 3:09:47 PM
Author: Lorelei
MC, try Jareds if there is one in your area, ask to see their AGS0 Peerless brand or alternatively Hearts on Fire if there is a vendor closeby. That should get you into the realm of well cut diamonds so you can get a better idea.

Lorelei - This afternoon I made a trip to Jareds. I have to say the Peerless .70 they showed me was a beauty! It was an H SI .70. The only catch it is was $4100 loose, and then $199 for the basic setting and then tax on top of it.

The sales people had me in there for *an hour* showing me various diamonds. I told them I had found a G SI1 AGS0 for under $1500 here online and they worked their butts off to find a comparable and came up with an IGI F I1 for $1500!

They do deserve credit for having a tool similar to an ideal scope (had some other name). . .and that was fun to look under.

I showed them my ACA WF earrings and one of the SAs told me they look milky! lol

 

[Dreamer_D]

So what did you think of the size? Did seeing it help you make a decision?

 

[MichelleCarmen]

Date: 1/19/2010 11:14:11 PM
Author: dreamer_dachsie
So what did you think of the size? Did seeing it help you make a decision?

Yes, seeing the size helped. Even though I love diamonds, I''m self conscious of major bling. I think going a bit smaller to keep within budget will work out well with me! Hopefully I can find an ES or ACA H stone around .65ish.

 

[marcy]

MC, glad you got to see some beautiful diamonds at Jared''s. Yes, they are pretty pricey there. LOL at their comment on your WF earrings. I would have to say my WF studs are much nicer than those they sell at Jared''s but that of course is my humble opinion.

Hopefully some of the jewelry stores will become more willing to match online prices for quality diamonds but so far they are not willing to deal. Have fun shopping.

 

[MichelleCarmen]

Date: 1/19/2010 11:22:14 PM
Author: marcyc
MC, glad you got to see some beautiful diamonds at Jared's. Yes, they are pretty pricey there. LOL at their comment on your WF earrings. I would have to say my WF studs are much nicer than those they sell at Jared's but that of course is my humble opinion.

Hopefully some of the jewelry stores will become more willing to match online prices for quality diamonds but so far they are not willing to deal. Have fun shopping.

Yeah, I did test the waters around price matching and it seemed their best attempt was lowering quality and trying to convince me that the IGI F I1 would be as good as the ACA I had found online simply because it was an excellent cut vs. the ideal cut I found on the WF site. lol Not sure of their logic but I guess after they went on and on for an hour and had made me dizzy by then, I almost believed what they said.

Funny thing: they had a kid play area! I've never seen such a thing in a jewelry store. They gave my kids hot cocoa & bottled water while I looked. When it was time to go, I had to tell my kids they had till the count of five to climb out of the play thingy. lol They would have been happy all night.

 

[Miss Sparkly]

A line that I really like is the Say I Do loose diamonds from Fred Meyer. They are probably not up to pricescope standards as far as a "mind clean" diamond, however, they do offer some excellent loose diamonds at prices that are comparible to internet vendors. One Fred Meyer Jewelers that I went to had an excellent sales rep. who knew all about diamonds and percentages while another that I stopped by had a gal who didn''t even understand what pave or a basket setting was. Just kind of luck of the draw.

 

[Bliss]

MC, they called your WF ACA sparklebomb studs MILKY?

Sacrilege!

Did you scrub those babies before you went out? Studs get so dirty so fast...faster than the e-ring gets dirty! I now clean my studs more than my e-ring! Hugging people gets their face oils all over them and etc! Sorry to go off on a tangent, but these days everyone loves to "air kiss" and that also gets face oils/makeup all over my studs. Heehee.

So maybe your studs fell victim to the drive by face oil slick?

Anyway... I'm surprised the local stores don't have a wide range of stones around .7! Bet the Jared's stone was pretty nice! My friend has a Peerless and it's very very pretty. Hmmm... some generous PSer could send MC their .7 so that she could compare.

If your printer doesn't work, I echo tracing it out based on the mm size! Trust me, you will love the size! It's just a matter of if you want that big yummy stone to be your pendant or e-ring! I still vote for e-ring bc you'll get to enjoy it more.

 

[Bella_mezzo]

Date: 1/19/2010 11:21:14 PM
Author: MC

Date: 1/19/2010 11:14:11 PM
Author: dreamer_dachsie
So what did you think of the size? Did seeing it help you make a decision?

Yes, seeing the size helped. Even though I love diamonds, I''m self conscious of major bling. I think going a bit smaller to keep within budget will work out well with me! Hopefully I can find an ES or ACA H stone around .65ish.

MC-Have you looked at this one?

http://www.whiteflash.com/hearts_arrows/Whiteflash-ACA-cut-diamond-2231062.htm

 

[Dreamer_D]

Wll I''m glad that some good came out of the visit! I think .65 would be a very nice size for a pendant... you decided on the pendant upgrade over the ring upgrade, right?

 

[Aulie]

You just can''t beat actually seeing the diamond on your finger!

I do really like looking at the diamond size charts though and fantasizing about that 2 carat that I''m probably never going to own

Came across a really good chart here if anyone''s looking for one.

 

[MichelleCarmen]

Date: 1/20/2010 10:38:23 AM
Author: Bella_mezzo
MC-Have you looked at this one?

http://www.whiteflash.com/hearts_arrows/Whiteflash-ACA-cut-diamond-2231062.htm

Bella - YES! That''s the one I''ve been eyeing! Hopefully it''s still there when the time comes. If not, I''ll be waiting for a diamond along that line.