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Which diamond should I get?

A

atropis88

Rough_Rock
Joined
Jul 22, 2013
Messages
19
hey everybody, i'm pretty new on pricescope so i hope that i'm doing this correctly. you guys have been EXTREMELY helpful for me this past week, as i've been intensely educating myself about diamonds. I'm trying to buy the best stone that I can with a budget of around $3000, and definitely want to go the Hearts and Arrows route. When I first started my search, not knowing anything about anything, I planned on getting a 1 ct diamond, but after learning more about the 4 C's and looking at prices that idea got squashed quickly. Anyhow, to make a long story short, I'm not looking at round diamonds within the .6 - .7 range. I'm still a little unsure if it's worth it to drop to .6ish to get an "A Cut Above" or Brian Gavin's signature, or to get a bigger diamond that isn't as well cut but still top-notch. I think I'm leaning towards the former. I've made my way down to 2 diamonds that look almost identical to my eyes. One is from Brian Gavin and the other from Whiteflash. If anybody has any opinions on these, let me know as they are both very similarly priced as well.

This is the one from whiteflash:
http://www.whiteflash.com/loose-diamonds/round-cut-loose-diamond-2960085.htm

This is the one from BG:
http://www.briangavindiamonds.com/diamonds/diamond-details/0.633-f-vs2-round-diamond-ags-c-104063713047

Also, if anyone knows of any other stones offhand that they think are a better deal than either of these, let me know!

Thanks so much and I look forward to being of more value to this forum once my experience and education improves.

Sean
 
Well, at $1.00 difference, you certainly can't let price be the deciding factor! The WF stone looks perfect and is a point higher in weight, so I guess I would go with it since there aren't pics of the other yet. Plus I have had great service from WF and highly recommend them!

I don't see anything else really close to your budget. The next thing up would be this at $3939:

http://www.whiteflash.com/loose-diamonds/round-cut-loose-diamond-2962082.htm

This one is okay at $3838, but I'd rather have the .80 if your budget allowed.

http://www.whiteflash.com/loose-diamonds/round-cut-loose-diamond-2949562.htm
 
Thanks so much for the feedback! I am going to re-assess my $ situation and see if I can raise up a few more hundred. I asked the rep that I was talking to at Brian Gavin if there was anything about their stone that had an advantage over the WF one that I mentioned. The only thing she could really say was how Brian Gavin was the originator of ACA and went on to create his own company with even tighter parameters. I don't doubt that this is true, but it doesn't necessarily mean that one of the specific stones that I'm looking at is better than the other one... I also asked her to post pictures of the F VS2, which she promptly did. There aren't any pictures of the hearts though. I just e-mailed her asking if they could post those as well if they have them.

I was also wondering, are WF's pictures of the Hearts from their diamonds always that actual diamond do you think? I don't see why they wouldn't be, but they all look strikingly similar so it got me thinking. Maybe they just all are strikingly similar. One more thing is that when I looked at the AGS reports, the BG stone had a lot fewer internal imperfections, just one crystal and one pinpoint. Both were on the table though. The WF stone had a lot more internal imperfections, none of which were on the table though. I don't know if any of this matters, just thought I'd mention it.

Thanks again!
 
Something else I've been wondering... should I not even bother using the HCA with diamonds of these cut qualities? When I've plugged the numbers in, they all come back under 2, but sometimes one's Scintillation or Fire will be "Very Good" as opposed to Excellent. I know that the HCA is limited and more so a tool for eliminating diamonds that are not so skillfully cut, but I don't know if it still has some value in this situation. Should I just assume that if something is a part of BG's signature or ACA that the HCA is totally irrelevant?
 
atropis88|1374521377|3487856 said:
Thanks so much for the feedback! I am going to re-assess my $ situation and see if I can raise up a few more hundred. I asked the rep that I was talking to at Brian Gavin if there was anything about their stone that had an advantage over the WF one that I mentioned. The only thing she could really say was how Brian Gavin was the originator of ACA and went on to create his own company with even tighter parameters. I don't doubt that this is true, but it doesn't necessarily mean that one of the specific stones that I'm looking at is better than the other one... I also asked her to post pictures of the F VS2, which she promptly did. There aren't any pictures of the hearts though. I just e-mailed her asking if they could post those as well if they have them.

I was also wondering, are WF's pictures of the Hearts from their diamonds always that actual diamond do you think? I don't see why they wouldn't be, but they all look strikingly similar so it got me thinking. Maybe they just all are strikingly similar. One more thing is that when I looked at the AGS reports, the BG stone had a lot fewer internal imperfections, just one crystal and one pinpoint. Both were on the table though. The WF stone had a lot more internal imperfections, none of which were on the table though. I don't know if any of this matters, just thought I'd mention it.

Thanks again!
Click to expand...

Both vendors have outstanding stones. I do not think you could possibly say that one was better than the other, and I am very picky when it comes to choosing diamonds.

Yes, the images under the stone are the images taken of that stone on the WF site. They are all going to look similar because the stones are cut to tight parameters. And yes, a VS2 with inclusions in the center will likely have fewer because they are in a more visible location as opposed to a VS2 that has inclusions on the sides where they are less visible. But I'd go with that G VS1 over either of those, personally. And I'd go for the .80 H if you decide you can raise the budget a little more.
 
atropis88|1374521679|3487862 said:
Something else I've been wondering... should I not even bother using the HCA with diamonds of these cut qualities? When I've plugged the numbers in, they all come back under 2, but sometimes one's Scintillation or Fire will be "Very Good" as opposed to Excellent. I know that the HCA is limited and more so a tool for eliminating diamonds that are not so skillfully cut, but I don't know if it still has some value in this situation. Should I just assume that if something is a part of BG's signature or ACA that the HCA is totally irrelevant?
Click to expand...

Good thinking! You do not need to use HCA with stones graded AGS Ideal cut, and especially not WF ACA's or BG Signature. They have been evaluated by AGS for light performance and graded ideal. That is more definitive than the HCA, although almost all ideal cut stones will score well on the HCA since it targets AGS Ideal as the most desirable range. We mainly use the HCA on GIA Excellent stones because that is a much broader category than AGS Ideal.
 
Thanks again for the responses. My budget has gotten a little bigger, but what worries me about that H VS2 is there's a lot of seemingly weird stuff going on in terms of the inclusions...There's crystal, cloud, feather, natural, and an extra facet? Also, when I'm looking at the ASET, there's this big blotch of green by 8-9 o-clock. Does any of this stuff mean anything or not really. It is VS2 so I assume it's top-notch but seeing all that stuff kind of worried me. I've also (somewhat reluctantly) begun to look at some James Allen stuff. I know his "True Hearts" are not nearly to the same standards as WF or BG but I see some things that seem almost too good to be true. This makes me worried but intrigued at the same time. If you want to check them out, I have them saved under a comparison chart: http://www.jamesallen.com/loose-diamonds/round-cut/?CaratFrom=0.72&CaratTo=10.00&Color=D,F,E,G,H&Clarity=VS2,VS1,VVS2,VVS1,IF&Cut=TrueHearts&PriceFrom=400&PriceTo=4000&Sort=Carat%20asc,%20DefaultOrder&TabSelected=3&advancedParameter=CaratSliderBottom&DiamondID=164405,178845,90777,232599,237162,112247,146897


I just don't understand how there could be stones that are hearts and arrows, or even close to it, with color grades I and below, with clarity like VVS1 and even IF for under 4000? Am i missing something? I'm gonna start a new thread with this, hopefully some more people will chime in. Once again, I can't thank you enough for helping me out.
 
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