hey geo123.... thanks for all the info. I don't want to abuse you but what do you think of this diamond? This is the one I just bought for an engagment ring. I know I over did it on the clarity but do you think I got screwed? Oh i paid 9500

my diamond

Thank you for the great reply geo123. everytime i ask question on a forum people try to sell me a stone instead of helping me.

I thought the new grading system went in effect in june 05 and this was graded in july 05? Since the stone was not engraved with a serial number I requested it to be sent back to AGS and regraded and serial #'d. The dealer Ely (who has been mentioned at fatwallet before) was more than happy to do that. It is going to AGS in Las Vegas then being sent straight to me from AGS. It will be interesting to see if it gets the same grade. I bought it thursday afternoon and ely had it in vegas by friday morning. I should get it late next week. I will keep you updated.

As far as Ely is concerned I went with him because he is on eBay with a great reputation, he is buy safe bonded, and he allows 14 days to return the stone without a restocking fee. He seemed very nice on the phone (I know this doesn't mean much).

I knew this was a dropped shipped stone and that it was being offered by many different vendors. It confused me at first but then I read more of what is actually going on in NY. It really puts the hurt on the B&M dealers.

What do you think of the HCA (sp?) criteria on pricescope. This stone graded a 0.3! I know #'s aren't the end all be all, but this stone seems to be really nice. I will know for sure next week when I see it.

I know i didn't need the IF. but in reality this is a luxury purchase. I don't need the d##n thing at all, it is just a symbol of love. That is the reason IF was important. I wanted to get her a nice stone but not a gaudy one.

AGS did change its grading system in June, 2005 but they were (and I believe still are) offering the old proportion based report to those dealers who specifically request it. As I mentioned in one of my posts above, dealers maximize their profits by strategically selecting the labs and the reports. The dealer holding your stone most likely realized that the stone, while very nice, would not get the AGS000 rating under its new system and therefore requested the old proportion based report. Since you requested a new certificate from AGS, if I were you, I would be prepared for an AGS 1 cut rating under the new system. By the way, if you decide to return to stone, will you be required to pay AGS' inscription and re-grading fees or will Ely or the wholesaler just absorb those? These fees shouldn't be substantial (I'm guessing AGS charges something like $20 to inscribe it; not sure about the re-grading fee) but it still would be nice if you didn't have to pay those.

I did run the stone through HCA -- as I mentioned above, it is a very nice stone but is on the shallow side, so it appears larger than its carat weight but may appear to have a dark core when you look at it up close. An IF clarity certainly makes it quite unique (there are very few people out there who own such stones), so you're certainly getting the best clarity money can buy.

As I also mentioned, you're getting a very decent price, so you are definitely not getting ripped off. When you get the stone, make sure that you look at it under different lighting conditions to make sure that its shallow depth doesn't present a problem but chances are, you will be quite pleased with it.

I have a question.

Have any of you consider buying the diamonds abroad. I'm not suggesting going to Congo in check out the mines, but I was in Taiwan with my fiancee and notice the diamond prices were cheaper than America and pretty good and legit. I know some my former students (I was a teacher abroad) went to Sri Lanka and got some huge rocks for what was apparently a cheap price. The amount of money they saved more than paid for the plane ticket. I dunno, does anyone know good place to go to for diamond shopping.

you can go to amsterdam and buy them but the customs/TVA will kill you and the exchange isn't so hot today. It's interesting to watch them cut raw they usually have one dude mucking about in the public eye i'm not sure if he's just faking it for entertainment value.

online folks gotta make something, the markup isn't all that man. A new car salesman prob makes a bit more per sale than online broker.

mariojm said:Does anyone have experience with Moissanite rings? (i.e. synthetic Silicon Carbide instead of diamond) Apparently, it can rival the optical abilities of diamond and is extremely hard to distingiush from diamond. I've heard it's significantly cheaper to produce than diamonds.

Moissanite

What about a nice sparkly glass ring? Cubic zirconia etc. ... I'm thinking for instance from Swarovski.Your post is not being ignored; this is just a natural diamond discussion thread, so we have no experience with moisssanite. Check out this thread instead.

psychoanalyst said:I find that Diamonds Blue Source has excellent quality diamonds. Even more stunning in person than the picture. Some stones are cheaper than Blue Nile and other popular sites. I just bought a round and saved a few hundred dollars. So much cheaper to buy the stone and have it mounted rather than buy the actual ring itself.I've never heard of this place but have just checked it out and must admit that I am less than impressed. The selection is quite small, the prices seem quite high, they stock a lot of EGL diamonds and offer them at premium prices and offer absolutely no cut information (sarin data, idealscope, magnified pictures, etc...). For a place that only sells in-house diamonds, the least a person could expect would be cut information, which they for whatever reason withhold. Further, the fact that most of their diamonds come from a second tier lab (EGL) makes me quite concerned about the place itself.

Psychoanalyst, no offense, but perhaps I am missing something here. Would you mind elaborating why you feel this place offers high quality at low prices and, perhaps, give links to a couple of examples?

umcsom said:geo123... do you know anything about the 19k white gold? I can't find much on it. I know scott kay is using it and all my other info came form the jeweler.As you probably already know, gold is always yellow, so it's the other metals that affect its color. It is therefore not true that 19kt gold will make it whiter or will remove the need to rhodium plate the setting to avoid it turning yellow over time (see this link for more information). I still like white gold over platinum (each metal has advantages and disadvantages though) but 19kt gold will not make your setting whiter.

ps expecting my diamond any day... I will post pics Looking forward to it.

ClaimsGuy said:Is this due to the physical charateristics or the FWF person in you?We bought an 18kt. white gold Ritani setting, so we were paying mostly for design rather than the metal. In our case, a white gold setting was slightly cheaper than a platinum one but the price difference would've been fairly small (about $350 in our case).

Advantages and disadvantages of white gold vs. platinum, as I see them, are as follows:
1) white gold is cheaper than platinum;
2) white gold (or actually the rhodium plating that's used to cover the setting) is more reflective than platinum, so aesthetically we preferred white gold (some people actually prefer the low shine of platinum though);
3) although white gold will eventually require replating, the frequency of such replating will depend on each person's body chemistry (some body chemicals react with white gold more than others) and on the way you wear the setting. Our very established local jeweler that we used to purchase the setting will provide free lifetime rhodium replating (which literally takes seconds), so this wasn't a factor for us either way;
4) white gold is less prone to scratches than platinum;
5) white gold is softer than platinum. This means that certain impacts will bend white gold prongs while platinum prongs would remain intact. At the same time, strong impacts will cause platinum to break (so the diamond would fall out) while white gold would be more likely to either bounce back and retain its shape or to bend, while keeping the diamond in its place. Since these impacts are unpredictable, it was therefore impossible to decide which metal would be better for us. We consequently disregarded this;
6) platinum is heavier than white gold, so some people like that extra weight. We didn't care one way or the other;
7) some people like the "exclusivity" of platinum. We decided that a Ritani setting was sufficiently "exclusive" for our tastes without the need to worry about the exclusivity of the metal;
8) although platinum does show scratches more than gold, it is easy to repolish it to its original low shine;
9) some people have nickel allergy (nickel is often used to make white gold), so those people must use nickel-free settings, such as platinum. My fiance is not allergic to nickel, so this wasn't a factor for us.

Please note that the above list is anything but exhaustive, so I am sure that other people may have other factors that aren't mentioned above.

rigor said:Dvatche guarantees your platinum 950 settings for lifetime from stone falling out. How so? they set them in their factory. iirc the tiffany-like platinum 950 setting is about 1 grand or so depends on the market i spose.Numerous jewelry stores/designers offer this guaranty. They do it by purchasing insurance policies and by passing the costs of such policies on to their customers. As long as you are able to comply with the terms of such policies (most of which require you to have your setting inspected by your jeweler every 6 months), you're covered. Alternatively, you can purchase your own insurance policy or just add the ring to your homeowners' insurance (just like with everything else, there are advantages and disadvantages to doing that).