Why is my GIA cert. a copy?

[makemepretty]

I just received my gorgeous ring from an online retailer(whiteflash.com) and my GIA cert. is a plain black and white copy. It''s not an actual certificate. It looks like a fax, actually. My question is, will they send me the original? I e-mailed their customer service twice and never heard back. My brother bought his engagement ring from niceice.com and received the original certificate with it. Thanks for any input!

 

[Mara]

Chances are it was a brokered virtual stone....sound familiar? Most likely the cert is with the wholesaler and will be shipped to you under separate cover.




Their in-house ACA stones come with AGS certs and they ship the actual cert with the stone. But if it's a GIA graded stone, it's probably a virtual wholesaler stone, they had the stone shipped to them, inspected, then sent to you. The wholesaler will probably send the GIA cert under separate cover.




My e-ring stone was like this with a local jeweler. They sent the stone to the jeweler for us to inspect, with a COPY of the GIA cert. When we bought the stone, we had the stone right away obviously, but the GIA cert was still with the wholesaler and we got it 3 weeks later.




NiceIce has only in-house stones meaning they have their certs too.

 

[makemepretty]

Thanks Mara, I figured it would probably come by mail but they also had my address down wrong on my invoice so I did e-mail them. Hopefully it'll find it's way to me. I just wish they would have let me know. However, since my ring is absolutely stunning I won't complain too much

Thanks again!