Argonomic, on 15 January 2011 - 11:55 PM, said:
My SO has expressed these particular desires when it comes to an engagement ring:
Yellow diamond, oval, set vertically between two smaller clear stones. She also doesn't want the diamond raised too high because she thinks it would be inconvenient.
She also designs jewelry so this may be a bit more difficult than normal.
As long as you get someone that you can speak to and who is competent at setting yellow diamonds (BN may or may not be easy to speak with - they always give me the impression of being rather "one size fits all" with settings, and coloured diamonds are not their specialty), that should not be a problem.
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I looked at bluenile.com and they have a few yellow diamonds, but they won't let you build a ring online with them
This is most likely because they don't have the diamond in stock (BN never does - that's their business model) and since fancy colours are not their ordinary trade, they may want or need to speak to the customer and/or the supplier before they commit. Just look at the fact that BN is currently advertising 45 fancy colour diamonds in all, against several tens of thousands of D-Z...
Also, to have the best colour effect, you should probably set the stone in yellow gold, and this may mean a two-metal ring, since now all yellow is out of fashion. Again, not something that BN has in stock or on the website, and may need special ordering.
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It's a tough question. By the way, once you normalise for the slight difference in weight, the price per carat is about 33% different, not 50%, but it is still a lot. So, why?
- Firstly, one is IF clarity, the other one is VS1. And although they will look exactly the same to you or anyone else without a loupe (and even with a loupe, once they are set in a ring), it still makes for a significant difference in price. With a colourless diamond it would be more than enough to justify the difference; with fancies, clarity matters much less than the other two reasons.
- Secondly, the colour grades in Fancy Colours are much broader than those in the D-Z part of the spectrum, and there is no way for you to know whether a "Vivid" is bang in the middle of the range (most expensive) or close to "Intense" or "Deep" (less valuable) without seeing the diamond and comparing it. However, any variation in colour hue or intensity will have a large impact. If - for example - one of the two is the purest of pure yellow, and the other has a smidgen of orange or brown, the one with the pure colour is worth up to 50% more, although I for one would prefer the other one aesthetically!
- Thirdly, you know nothing at all about how these diamonds are cut. One may have a big bow-tie or not be very sparkly, while the other is excellently cut. Forget any "rules" or "ranges" that you may have seen for D-Z diamonds. They are not very useful anyway, but they are totally useless for fancies. You need to see the stones to decide.
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One of the reasons I'm considering bluenile is that if she wants to re-set (or even change out?) the diamond, there is a window in which they will do that. I don't know if that is standard. Sounds like a good idea in my case.
Any decent dealer will offer a return period. Blue Nile's is at the higher end, but not exceptional.
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Another question is, sort of an odd one,but: Is the yellow/rare quality of these diamonds "enough" to make up for how much smaller they are than clear diamonds of the same value? I feel like perhaps I should look at more traditional but larger stones instead.
The difference between a D colour and a Fancy Yellow (roughly the same price/carat) is that the Fancy Yellow is much much rarer than the D in terms of the number of stones found. A Fancy Vivid Yellow is several times (10x - 15x) more difficult to find than a Fancy Yellow, and it is truly a rare find. So much for absolute rarity. If I were to hazard a guess, good fancy colour diamonds will grow more in value than good colourless ones - precisely because they are truly rare, rather than a market artefact.
If you were to set your sights on a "normal" Fancy Yellow instead of a Vivid, you'd get the same size - and the same caveats - as with a top grade colourless. If your SO has expressed interest for a yellow, though, I'd stick to it. You'll have plenty of opportunities to give her a present with a colourless diamond later, and there will be plenty of colourless diamonds for you to find.
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Thoughts are appreciated. New to this
Thanks.
Well, to confuse you further, here is another one for you to think about:
http://rockdiamond.c...ia-canary-r3743
And note that these are photos of the actual diamond rather than stock photos as on the BN site...
Edited by davidelevi, 16 January 2011 - 01:47 AM.
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) Congrats in advance 
