8 replies to this topic

[lingpanda01]

I was thinking of buying a loose diamond for really cheap on ebay and getting a nice setting from a good b&m store.

I was just wondering if anybody has had any experience? I know a lot of people think that ebay is full of scammers, but if the seller has hundreds of positive feedback, his diamonds must be legit.

I saw this one seller:
[url="http://shop.ebay.com/superlight.diamonds/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg="][url]http://shop.ebay.com/superlight.diamonds/m...from=&_ipg=[/url][/url]

The diamonds he sells seems to be INSANELY cheap. And he has 99% feedback from 10,000 purchases. His 1% complaint was that the diamonds were graded too generously on the Color and Clarity, since they're not certified. But not a single buyer stated that they were fake or anything like that. Just that the quality was lower than advertised.

But even then...getting a 1ct found diamond for under $500 seems too good to pass up, even if it's not the most perfect color and clarity.

[davidelevi]

1. Ebay is an advertising channel. There are good sellers using it, and there are bad sellers.

2. Feedback only goes so far, and I'm automatically suspicious of feedback in the thousands on jewellery. Especially since some of the positives are really masked negatives (just look at recent FB with people saying "not as described, but offered a discount")

3. The least of your issues is whether the diamond is real or not. Even a real diamond may be so included and/or so treated and/or so poorly cut as to be nasty and virtually worthless except as grit.

4. It all depends on what you are looking for. If you want something that looks good, has decent cut, colour and clarity and is cheap, get yourself a good quality CZ. It's a lot less than even a crappy diamond, and it looks very very good.

5. Details matter. And on diamonds, incredibily small details can make a lot of difference to value and price. ANd by and large, with a product as commoditized and as transparently priced as diamonds (no, really), your chances of getting a bargain are practically nil: you will get what you pay for.

[denverappraiser]

Insanely cheap as opposed to what? I don't know about you but I count $500 as a fair amount of money. The first and only stone I looked at from your seller was a self graded 1.03/I2 clarity enhanced currently at $300. That's pretty much the going rate for goods like that. What are you using for comparison to decide this is cheap?

You might want to rethink your premise that all 1 carat diamonds below $500 are a bargain regardless of quality. This is flatly untrue. Buy what you like, including if you like the low end, but just because it's cheap doesn't mean it's a deal. Shop the competition. Competitive ebayers is a good place to start. There's lots of people selling Clarity Enhanced goods that way. As far as I can tell, ebay is the biggest place for advertising for these things and it's easy to look. They have a whole section for CE diamonds. Pay attention to the 'completed' auctions when looking for comps. Ebay auctions as a source of comps has some serious problems to bear in mind because you don't have complete information (you don't know if the buyer actually paid, if the buyer & seller were in cahoots or even the same person, if they returned it, etc.) but it's an easy place to start. Unfortunately, ebay now only allows you to look at completed auctions for 15 days after the close of the deal and this is often before the feedback is posted, assuming feedback gets posted at all and almost certainly before it gets posted on a deal where there's a problem.

If you haven't looked into it, make sure you understand what 'clarity enhanced' means. It's a big deal.


Neil

Edited by denverappraiser, 01 October 2009 - 02:20 PM.

[diamondsbylauren]

HI All,
Great answers given so far.
Davide is spot on about feedback.
Some of the very worst sellers have feedback in the high 90%'s

Personally, I find it to be misleading when sellers post photos of things they are not selling.
It's easy to see when this is the case...if there's many items all using the same photo then clearly the photo is not of the item, rather stock photo.
It's made worse if the photo is of a really nice looking diamond.

It's misleading when sellers try to make shoppers believe the item has a different price somewhere else.
For example- "We're selling this diamond for $300, but the "retail value" exceeds $3000"

Anyway, these are "pet peeves"- but I'll bet you'd be STUNNED at how bad a $500 one carat diamond looks.

[lingpanda01]

denverappraiser, on Thursday, Oct 1 2009, 11:03 AM, said:

Insanely cheap as opposed to what? I don't know about you but I count $500 as a fair amount of money. The first and only stone I looked at from your seller was a self graded 1.03/I2 clarity enhanced currently at $300. That's pretty much the going rate for goods like that. What are you using for comparison to decide this is cheap?


Neil

Well, I am still at the beginning stages of looking for the right engagement ring. I'm just using Blue Nile prices to compare, which I heard was pretty good. But the cheapest 1ct I see are around $2000... But I guess $500 is the going rate if a diamond is "clarity enhanced"? Any advice on where to buy diamonds that you would consider a good deal?

Thanks for all the info and tips everybody!

Edit: What about this diamond? [url="http://img.bluenile.com/is/image/certs/?src={/2049/GIA6102421850_zoom.jpeg}&fmt=pdf"][url]http://img.bluenile.com/is/image/certs/?sr...eg}&fmt=pdf[/url][/url] 1/2 ct, good quality, but I don't know how good it will look in person. I just want a diamond that is pretty and shiny to look at with the naked eye. I'm not too worried about people walking around with magnifying glasses trying to stare at miniscule flaws in a diamond. But I want it to be a diamond, not a cz.

Edited by lingpanda01, 01 October 2009 - 06:50 PM.

[davidelevi]

Blue Nile is - like most online retailers - pretty competitive price-wise.

I think you need to decide if you want to go with a clarity enhanced stone which is much cheaper, but potentially not durable and certainly practically worthless in terms of resale value, or whether you want to go with a non-enhanced diamond.

Then, decide on size. You can find pretty decent looking 0.75ct stones for $2500. You can also find something larger, but it will have somewhat visible inclusions.

Colour is really a matter of taste.

The one thing you should not compromise on is cut quality.

[denverappraiser]

There's no really straight answer because it depends on what you want. Not every dealer sells the same things. I dare say the two you've chosen are a terrific example of that. Blue Nile sells exclusively lab graded untreated natural diamonds and avoids the lower grades. The other guys apparently sell exclusively house graded clarity enhanced diamonds in nothing but the lower grades. It's like shopping for a car and you can't decide between a used Toyota and a new Lexus. There's something to be said for either direction but this decision is important before you decide what dealership you want to go to.

What's your budget?
What are your most important paramteters? (size, shape, sparkle, price, etc.). Force rank them. You are going to have to compromise, where would you like to compromise first?

Neil

Edited by denverappraiser, 02 October 2009 - 11:06 AM.

[diamondsbylauren]

lingpanda01, on Thursday, Oct 1 2009, 10:43 PM, said:

denverappraiser, on Thursday, Oct 1 2009, 11:03 AM, said:

Insanely cheap as opposed to what? I don't know about you but I count $500 as a fair amount of money. The first and only stone I looked at from your seller was a self graded 1.03/I2 clarity enhanced currently at $300. That's pretty much the going rate for goods like that. What are you using for comparison to decide this is cheap?


Neil

Well, I am still at the beginning stages of looking for the right engagement ring. I'm just using Blue Nile prices to compare, which I heard was pretty good. But the cheapest 1ct I see are around $2000... But I guess $500 is the going rate if a diamond is "clarity enhanced"? Any advice on where to buy diamonds that you would consider a good deal?

Thanks for all the info and tips everybody!

Edit: What about this diamond? http://img.bluenile.com/is/image/certs/?sr...eg}&fmt=pdf 1/2 ct, good quality, but I don't know how good it will look in person. I just want a diamond that is pretty and shiny to look at with the naked eye. I'm not too worried about people walking around with magnifying glasses trying to stare at miniscule flaws in a diamond. But I want it to be a diamond, not a cz.

You're welcome Linda!
I bolded an important part of your statement.
BLueNile is a company that sells damonds they never see, in the majority of cases.
The diamonds are in New York, LA, and other places, and dropped shipped when someone buys.
That means that a first hand assessment is not possible.
They are also among the large group of diamond selling sites that do not provide photos of the diamond.


The stone above is an SI2- and a good example of why photos are so essential when considering lower clarity ( a lower priced) diamonds.

The imperfection is a feather at the edge of the stone- around 9:00.
It could get the same grade, and be far worse of a visual aspect.
IMO it's far less f a risk buying a G/SI1 from Blue Nile than a $500 one carat stone sight unseen from anyone.

Of course I'd recommend finding a site that offers photos above either of those options. But I'm definitely prejudiced on that one

[D.Enaky]

tell her you want sex morning and night as a part of your training schedule.. .. i am sure she will love you just the way you are now benny afterall..