New York's 47th St. diamond district - Part 2

Another interesting device that all of the jewelers use on 47th Street is that they tell you that before you purchase the ring, you should take it first to be appraised/verified and they recommend an appraiser. I believe that the appraiser I took my ring to must have been on the jewelry store's payroll, because he gave the diamond a much better rating (about 3 grades better in clarity), than four other jewelers who saw the stone after I purchased it and graded the diamond to be of very poor clarity/quality The appraisor that I went to was on 47th Street. I was told by the other jewelers that he was either blind or being paid off to give the ring such a high rating. Because of the 47th Street "appraiser", I purchased a highly flawed stone. The jeweler never told me it was a good stone so this wasn't her fault. She was trying to work within my budget. I was told that Macy's will verify/appraise stones even it they are not bought in their store and their prices for evaluating stones are quite reasonable. I did not use Macy's so I cannot recommend them. I would never again let the jewelry store know where the stone is being taken for inspection. I must sound paranoid but on 47th Street, they all appear to be doing favors for one another. I think the biggest problem on 47th Street are the appraisers giving false information.

Anyway, I was able to exchange the flawed stone for a really beautifully cut GIA certified stone at a very fair price. The jeweler was very nice about my exchange and found me a new stone within one day, and gave me the quality I should have purchased initially.

One last observation: The EGL certified stones that I examined during my search were graded very liberally. I saw many H and I color EGL certified stones that were very tinted and were about 2-3 shades less desirable then some J color GIA certified stones. Have you found this to be the case? I decided not to buy an EGL certified stone after seeing this.