for the past 6 months I have been reading all there is to read about buying diamonds online and I preatty much have a very accurate idea of what I want. The problem? The more I read about diamonds, the more I learn, the more I realize I don't know much, and that it is not easy at all to buy a diamond unless you are a diamond expert.
Which online company do I trust?? The top ones (Blue Nile and Union Diamond) are way more expensive than the rest (Abazias, Excel...), why such big difference in price??? What about the GIA certificate? it feels that if a diamond is GIA certificate it is more expensive. Are prices going up? Back in march I seemed to find better deals than now. I don't know anyone that has purchased a diamond online so no friend can help me with this. I wonder if there is someone out there, with a gentle soul, spare time and full knowledge, who would be willing to help me. Otherwise, I am afraid that if I don't make the decission soon, I will be flying home for x-mas empty pocke (as I plan to have the ring crafted in europe). Please, at least give me some orientation as to where I can buy the best deals now and which online companies have the best quality/price ratio. I am aware this is BIG HELP I am asking for, but I don't know where else to turn, it will be my first diamond purchase (and maybe last).
Here is what I "almost" bought in march form union diamonds
1.29 ct H SI 1 Price: 4.804 USD
I am a bit flexible about the cts, between 1 and 1.30 but I dont want the clarity to be lower than SI1 and the colore less that H.
Thank you for your help!
0
Ready For My First Diamond But Need Lots Of Help!
Started by wantit, Aug 21 2011 08:45 PM
2 replies to this topic
#2
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- A-List Jeweler
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- 3,166 posts
Ideal Diamond
- Gender:Male
- Location:Switzerland
Posted 22 August 2011 - 02:29 AM
First - you will get more help if you post in the right forum. I have asked the moderators to move this to "The Rock".
Let me start from the easiest of your questions: prices are definitely going up. In the last 6 months by about 20-30%. This is partly due to increasing demand from Asian economies, partly to the weakness of the dollar. And possibly there starts being a speculative element of sorts, also considering the continued uncertainty in the economic outlook.
GIA or not GIA - this is also an easy question. Summing it up: GIA graded stones aren't any more expensive than other stones of the same colour, cut and clarity. Stones that have the same label (grade), but assigned by different labs, don't necessarily have the same colour, clarity or cut quality. and tiny differences in colour or clarity (e.g. D/IF vs E/VVS1) can make for differences of 100% on price. For a recent, interesting discussion on this, see here: http://www.diamondre...-round-diamond/ post 7 onwards in particular.
The "big guys" vs. the others: I can't say that I have noticed a particular difference in price between online dealers. Blue Nile only sells GIA and AGS graded diamonds, whereas e.g. Abazias lists a lot of EGL graded stones. As you have noticed, these are priced lower (though you are comparing apples with pears). There are times when multiple dealers will list the same stone, and the price difference is seldom more than a few %. Most times when that happens, dealers will match the lowest advertised price.
You do need to be careful to compare like-with-like in these exercises, though. There are over 300 1.20-1.30 H-SI1 stones advertised on the Diamond Finder. Prices start at over $11,000 and end below $3500. How is it possible?
1) Different labs used for grading = different colours and clarity. There is literally no GIA/AGS graded stone below $7000, and there are 4 EGL priced over $7000. There are ~190 stones priced over $7000, and ~130 under, so it's a pretty large sample.
2) SI1 = potentially visible inclusions, even when graded by GIA/AGS. A diamond with a visible inclusion will cost a LOT less than a similar size, colour and cut stone with a non-visible inclusion - even if the other stone is also graded SI1 (or even SI2).
3) Cut quality.
4) Fluorescence, polish, symmetry and other minor factors.
Who to trust - well, all the companies you have mentioned are all pretty decent: they describe what they sell (reasonably) correctly, they have good return terms, they are solid businesses and they price competitively. There is another category of online operators that provide higher service (more information about the stone, highly selected stones, buy-back plans, ...) that in my view also provides great value for money, though prices are sometimes slightly higher. These are the likes of GoodOldGold, HighPerformanceDiamonds, BrianGavinDiamonds, DBOF, ... The question here is what do you value?
Finally, one note. You have made rather categorical statements of "colour not below H and clarity not below SI1". With those as boundaries, assuming your budget is $4500-5000, you need to look at stones between 0.90 - 0.99 carats with some question marks as to clarity (possibly not totally eye-clean) and cut (possibly good but not the best). If you go over 1 carat, it is not going to be H colour and/or SI1 clarity - it doesn't matter what someone is calling them.
Let me start from the easiest of your questions: prices are definitely going up. In the last 6 months by about 20-30%. This is partly due to increasing demand from Asian economies, partly to the weakness of the dollar. And possibly there starts being a speculative element of sorts, also considering the continued uncertainty in the economic outlook.
GIA or not GIA - this is also an easy question. Summing it up: GIA graded stones aren't any more expensive than other stones of the same colour, cut and clarity. Stones that have the same label (grade), but assigned by different labs, don't necessarily have the same colour, clarity or cut quality. and tiny differences in colour or clarity (e.g. D/IF vs E/VVS1) can make for differences of 100% on price. For a recent, interesting discussion on this, see here: http://www.diamondre...-round-diamond/ post 7 onwards in particular.
The "big guys" vs. the others: I can't say that I have noticed a particular difference in price between online dealers. Blue Nile only sells GIA and AGS graded diamonds, whereas e.g. Abazias lists a lot of EGL graded stones. As you have noticed, these are priced lower (though you are comparing apples with pears). There are times when multiple dealers will list the same stone, and the price difference is seldom more than a few %. Most times when that happens, dealers will match the lowest advertised price.
You do need to be careful to compare like-with-like in these exercises, though. There are over 300 1.20-1.30 H-SI1 stones advertised on the Diamond Finder. Prices start at over $11,000 and end below $3500. How is it possible?
1) Different labs used for grading = different colours and clarity. There is literally no GIA/AGS graded stone below $7000, and there are 4 EGL priced over $7000. There are ~190 stones priced over $7000, and ~130 under, so it's a pretty large sample.
2) SI1 = potentially visible inclusions, even when graded by GIA/AGS. A diamond with a visible inclusion will cost a LOT less than a similar size, colour and cut stone with a non-visible inclusion - even if the other stone is also graded SI1 (or even SI2).
3) Cut quality.
4) Fluorescence, polish, symmetry and other minor factors.
Who to trust - well, all the companies you have mentioned are all pretty decent: they describe what they sell (reasonably) correctly, they have good return terms, they are solid businesses and they price competitively. There is another category of online operators that provide higher service (more information about the stone, highly selected stones, buy-back plans, ...) that in my view also provides great value for money, though prices are sometimes slightly higher. These are the likes of GoodOldGold, HighPerformanceDiamonds, BrianGavinDiamonds, DBOF, ... The question here is what do you value?
Finally, one note. You have made rather categorical statements of "colour not below H and clarity not below SI1". With those as boundaries, assuming your budget is $4500-5000, you need to look at stones between 0.90 - 0.99 carats with some question marks as to clarity (possibly not totally eye-clean) and cut (possibly good but not the best). If you go over 1 carat, it is not going to be H colour and/or SI1 clarity - it doesn't matter what someone is calling them.
Davide - Specialised Consumer Information and Assistance,
Diamonds by Lauren (http://diamondsbylauren.com)
davide@diamondsbylauren.com
Diamonds by Lauren (http://diamondsbylauren.com)
davide@diamondsbylauren.com
#3
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- Member
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- 5 posts
Bronze
Posted 22 August 2011 - 05:29 PM
Thank you for redirecting me to the right forum and for your thorough explanation! That's the kind of info I need to make the purchase. I think am ready (more ready) now!!
davidelevi, on 22 August 2011 - 02:29 AM, said:
First - you will get more help if you post in the right forum. I have asked the moderators to move this to "The Rock".
Let me start from the easiest of your questions: prices are definitely going up. In the last 6 months by about 20-30%. This is partly due to increasing demand from Asian economies, partly to the weakness of the dollar. And possibly there starts being a speculative element of sorts, also considering the continued uncertainty in the economic outlook.
GIA or not GIA - this is also an easy question. Summing it up: GIA graded stones aren't any more expensive than other stones of the same colour, cut and clarity. Stones that have the same label (grade), but assigned by different labs, don't necessarily have the same colour, clarity or cut quality. and tiny differences in colour or clarity (e.g. D/IF vs E/VVS1) can make for differences of 100% on price. For a recent, interesting discussion on this, see here: [url][url]http://www.diamondreview.com/forum/topic/7436-advice-on-this-35-ct-round-diamond/[/url][/url] post 7 onwards in particular.
The "big guys" vs. the others: I can't say that I have noticed a particular difference in price between online dealers. Blue Nile only sells GIA and AGS graded diamonds, whereas e.g. Abazias lists a lot of EGL graded stones. As you have noticed, these are priced lower (though you are comparing apples with pears). There are times when multiple dealers will list the same stone, and the price difference is seldom more than a few %. Most times when that happens, dealers will match the lowest advertised price.
You do need to be careful to compare like-with-like in these exercises, though. There are over 300 1.20-1.30 H-SI1 stones advertised on the Diamond Finder. Prices start at over $11,000 and end below $3500. How is it possible?
1) Different labs used for grading = different colours and clarity. There is literally no GIA/AGS graded stone below $7000, and there are 4 EGL priced over $7000. There are ~190 stones priced over $7000, and ~130 under, so it's a pretty large sample.
2) SI1 = potentially visible inclusions, even when graded by GIA/AGS. A diamond with a visible inclusion will cost a LOT less than a similar size, colour and cut stone with a non-visible inclusion - even if the other stone is also graded SI1 (or even SI2).
3) Cut quality.
4) Fluorescence, polish, symmetry and other minor factors.
Who to trust - well, all the companies you have mentioned are all pretty decent: they describe what they sell (reasonably) correctly, they have good return terms, they are solid businesses and they price competitively. There is another category of online operators that provide higher service (more information about the stone, highly selected stones, buy-back plans, ...) that in my view also provides great value for money, though prices are sometimes slightly higher. These are the likes of GoodOldGold, HighPerformanceDiamonds, BrianGavinDiamonds, DBOF, ... The question here is what do you value?
Finally, one note. You have made rather categorical statements of "colour not below H and clarity not below SI1". With those as boundaries, assuming your budget is $4500-5000, you need to look at stones between 0.90 - 0.99 carats with some question marks as to clarity (possibly not totally eye-clean) and cut (possibly good but not the best). If you go over 1 carat, it is not going to be H colour and/or SI1 clarity - it doesn't matter what someone is calling them.
Let me start from the easiest of your questions: prices are definitely going up. In the last 6 months by about 20-30%. This is partly due to increasing demand from Asian economies, partly to the weakness of the dollar. And possibly there starts being a speculative element of sorts, also considering the continued uncertainty in the economic outlook.
GIA or not GIA - this is also an easy question. Summing it up: GIA graded stones aren't any more expensive than other stones of the same colour, cut and clarity. Stones that have the same label (grade), but assigned by different labs, don't necessarily have the same colour, clarity or cut quality. and tiny differences in colour or clarity (e.g. D/IF vs E/VVS1) can make for differences of 100% on price. For a recent, interesting discussion on this, see here: [url][url]http://www.diamondreview.com/forum/topic/7436-advice-on-this-35-ct-round-diamond/[/url][/url] post 7 onwards in particular.
The "big guys" vs. the others: I can't say that I have noticed a particular difference in price between online dealers. Blue Nile only sells GIA and AGS graded diamonds, whereas e.g. Abazias lists a lot of EGL graded stones. As you have noticed, these are priced lower (though you are comparing apples with pears). There are times when multiple dealers will list the same stone, and the price difference is seldom more than a few %. Most times when that happens, dealers will match the lowest advertised price.
You do need to be careful to compare like-with-like in these exercises, though. There are over 300 1.20-1.30 H-SI1 stones advertised on the Diamond Finder. Prices start at over $11,000 and end below $3500. How is it possible?
1) Different labs used for grading = different colours and clarity. There is literally no GIA/AGS graded stone below $7000, and there are 4 EGL priced over $7000. There are ~190 stones priced over $7000, and ~130 under, so it's a pretty large sample.
2) SI1 = potentially visible inclusions, even when graded by GIA/AGS. A diamond with a visible inclusion will cost a LOT less than a similar size, colour and cut stone with a non-visible inclusion - even if the other stone is also graded SI1 (or even SI2).
3) Cut quality.
4) Fluorescence, polish, symmetry and other minor factors.
Who to trust - well, all the companies you have mentioned are all pretty decent: they describe what they sell (reasonably) correctly, they have good return terms, they are solid businesses and they price competitively. There is another category of online operators that provide higher service (more information about the stone, highly selected stones, buy-back plans, ...) that in my view also provides great value for money, though prices are sometimes slightly higher. These are the likes of GoodOldGold, HighPerformanceDiamonds, BrianGavinDiamonds, DBOF, ... The question here is what do you value?
Finally, one note. You have made rather categorical statements of "colour not below H and clarity not below SI1". With those as boundaries, assuming your budget is $4500-5000, you need to look at stones between 0.90 - 0.99 carats with some question marks as to clarity (possibly not totally eye-clean) and cut (possibly good but not the best). If you go over 1 carat, it is not going to be H colour and/or SI1 clarity - it doesn't matter what someone is calling them.
