What''s your experience?

[clementine]

Thanks guys for all of your input on the 1.42 princess cut stone I was looking at from my local jeweler.

I dediced not to buy it, and now I''m very serious about buying my diamond online. I''m upgrading from a .25 marquise for my 15th wedding anniversary to a princess stone around 1.4-1.5 in size (funny how the more I look around the net, the bigger I want!).

Anyway, I''d love to hear from anyone who purchased their diamond online. What was your experience like? Did all go smoothly? Did the diamond appraise well? Was the stone exactly what you expected it would be? Did you have to pay for it before you had it appraised? What about the setting? Thanks!

Clem

 

[Mara]

Hi Clem...well nothing ever goes smoothly..that is the way life is!

However we have had alot of recent posters who purchased online and were extremely happy with the end result. There is the odd unsatisfied customer, but for the most part...I would venture to say that those who do their homework like diligent little diamond researchers usually end up with a pretty amazing stone.

We were going to purchase online but our offline vendor matched our online price. Yay. However there are some amazing stones and vendors out there. Try for one who has more information than the typical GIA or AGS report...get some angles on the crown and pavilions and if they can give you an IdealScope image, thats even better. That will show you light return vs. light leakage in the stone you are considering.

Read up on GoodOldGold's education area of the site, lots of good stuff there. Also someone mentioned WhiteFlash's princess cuts (or was it SuperbCert?)...check them out too. View www.gemappraisers.com and look at Dave's fancy cut diamond charts to see what you should be looking for in a well-cut princess stone. Look at alot of stones online before narrowing it down to a few final contenders. Look at stones offline to see what you really like (e.g. do you like white brilliance or more colored fire?). Oh and read lots of posts!

 

[Lugus]

If you have the notion, you can do a search for the full posts on my experience. I can sum it up pretty easily though.

What was your experience like?
Wonderful. In fact, I'm really kinda sad that I don't have another diamond to hunt for. I spent so much time researching, that it's become a part of me

Did all go smoothly?
The only hiccup was trying to pay. I've never had so much trouble giving someone money before! Banks get kinda wierd about big cash transfers.

Did the diamond appraise well?
Exactly as specified. Actually, better, since the GIA cert inclusion chart was much much messier than the diamond actually turned out to be.

Was the stone exactly what you expected it would be?
Having never seen a truely perfectly cut stone, it was hard to know what to expect exactly. I can say the second I saw it I knew I was proud to give it to my fiance.

Did you have to pay for it before you had it appraised?
I had it sent to RocDoc before I saw it or paid for it. Barry at superbcert paid the shipping there, and I paid the shipping back.

What about the setting?
I got a temporary 14k white gold solitare setting, which was thrown in for free. Still working on finding the permanent one.


I had a wonderful experience buying from Barry and would totally do it again. He really made everything happen that needed to happen to get me the diamond of my (and my fiance's) dreams.