Will be taking the plunge this Saturday..

[cestmoi]

So, good folks at Pricescope and fellow lurkers...

I finally got the GIA stats from my second jeweler after my crappy ordeal from the first jeweler...

I was at the store of the second jeweler and the owner recommended the following diamond to me which was within my budget: $4500 he quoted me... is the following diamond reasonable for the price? Or could I do better?

Round Brilliant
6.50 - 6.55 x 3.89
Carat: 1.00
H color
VS2
Depth: 59.6%
Table: 54%
Girdle: Medium to slightly thick, faceted
Culet: None
Polish: VGood
Symmetry: Good
Fluorescence: None

Crown angle: 31.5 deg
Pavilion angle: 40.8 deg
Pavilion depth: 43%
Star length: 50% <<- what is this?
Lower Half: 80% <<- what is this?
Cut Grade: Good

 

[Lorelei]

Actually although the proportions are outside what we often see on PS, it appears this could be an attractive diamond. The girdle looks to be in a good range for this type of diamond also, to lessen the likelihood of chipping. Check it out carefully away from the store lights to make sure you like how this diamond looks in more everyday lighting. Can you do better? Yes, but overall this still could be a pretty stone if the performance and personality appeal to you. What I would advise is this, check out some diamonds of known cut quality such as AGS0 cut grade ( Jareds carry them if there is one near you) so you have a top cut stone as a point of comparison to this one.

This page should answer your question concerning star facets and lower halves

http://www.goodoldgold.com/classic.php?page=minor_facets.htm

 

[cestmoi]

Thanks for taking time to critique! Appreciate it! I've already seen the diamond. One of my main criteria was to make sure that there were no dark inclusions showing with the naked eye and that it would be hard to see through a 10x loupe. There was one white feather that I could barely discern using the loupe and is noted on the GIA report so I wasn't worried about it.

It did have the sparkly under normal lighting conditions and I also cupped my hands over the diamond (the jeweler didn't have very many lights turned on as it was quite sunny out. When I left the store, the jeweler was going to get me some quotes on bands and ring. I had forgotten to copy down the GIA# so the jeweler finally sent it to me recently before making my final decision to buy that diamond.

After plugging in the dimensions in the Cut Adviser tool available on Pricescope, imagine my surprise that it had a HCA rating of 1! Should I put too much stock in that?

 

[diamondseeker2006]

You know, most diamonds look pretty good, but if you are taking the time to come here to ask opinions, I am going to say that you should not settle for less than excellent cut. Certainly there are degrees within excellent, but "good" is just too far from ideal cut for me to be comfortable.

Is there some reason you can''t just order a diamond from one of the PS vendors who specializes in excellent/ideal cut stones? If not, I''d just tell the jeweler you only want to look at GIA Excellent or AGS Ideal diamonds. You can do a lot better than that one, although that is not a bad price.

 

[Lorelei]

Date: 10/23/2008 9:00:10 PM
Author: cestmoi
Thanks for taking time to critique! Appreciate it! I've already seen the diamond. One of my main criteria was to make sure that there were no dark inclusions showing with the naked eye and that it would be hard to see through a 10x loupe. There was one white feather that I could barely discern using the loupe and is noted on the GIA report so I wasn't worried about it.

It did have the sparkly under normal lighting conditions and I also cupped my hands over the diamond (the jeweler didn't have very many lights turned on as it was quite sunny out. When I left the store, the jeweler was going to get me some quotes on bands and ring. I had forgotten to copy down the GIA# so the jeweler finally sent it to me recently before making my final decision to buy that diamond.

After plugging in the dimensions in the Cut Adviser tool available on Pricescope, imagine my surprise that it had a HCA rating of 1! Should I put too much stock in that?

The HCA only predicts how well a certain set of proportions are likely to work together, it isn't used for choosing diamonds. The thing is, you can do better certainly as I said above, but not everyone is looking for a superideal or near superideal diamond. This is what we call a nice make of stone, it is decently cut and according to the HCA, could look good. So it depends on what matters to you most, if you like it then you could always get an independant appraiser to look at it and make the sale final on a favourable report.

Try to check out some AGS0 cut grade if you can to have a point of comparison for this diamond, so you know what you want.