Consumers: What are you buying, where and why?

[StevL]

Great thread Lawmax!

 

[lawmax]

Howdy stranger! Nice to see you.

 

[erainbow]

can you tell me the address & name of the 2 sellers on 47th? thanks

 

[erainbow]

do you use an ideal scope? i'm hesitant to order from blue nile because if it looks bad under the ideal scope, i'll have to return it; how many times would i have to do that before finding a good looking one... any advice?

 

[pricescope]

Erainbow, could you please post the proportions of this Blue Nile diamond?

Aside from ideal-scope, do you like it?

 

[StevL]

Howdy??

I bet that sounds different coming from you I can't wait to hear that said one day, but don't worry, I'll remind you

BTW: "The Correct Southern Spelling (TCSS)" is; Howwwwdyyyy

 

[lawmax]

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On 5/4/2002 12:29:36 PM

Howdy??

I bet that sounds different coming from you I can't wait to hear that said one day, but don't worry, I'll remind you

BTW: "The Correct Southern Spelling (TCSS)" is; Howwwwdyyyy
----------------


O.K., you remind me. I may very well be moving back to New Jersey. Then my accent will get really bad and I can entertain you with it as much as you entertain me with yours.

 

[StevL]

"entertain me with yours"

 

[chughes555]

Hi,

We'd like to know where you are buying your diamonds and what draws you to one vendor or another.
> i've probably spent over 50 hours looking at diamonds online in the last 2 months. i've also been to over a dozen jewelers. no malls though. so far, i've had pleasant experiences with jewelers who emphasized cut. i am of the opinion that if they don't, then they don't know what they're talking about (like i do?). the best salesman i've talked to in person said that there are two ways to look at diamonds: 1)as a commodity 2)as a work of art. i am strongly considering buying a hearts on fire from him.

Are you buying online or are you just gathering information to take to a brick and mortar store?
>i would have to find a very good price to buy on the internet. however, if i did, i might not believe it.

What kinds of services are important to you and how are you choosing which vendor will get your business?
>price and how well i get along with the salesperson.

What has been your experience thus far?
>i am starting to believe that there are no great deals out there. everything that i look at is the same. especially with the higher quality cuts. the only thing i've found in the past two months that sounded like a great deal was from a guy who only mentioned the word cut in passing.

Are you looking for excellence in cut quality or is this less of a priority for you?
>i am, but i might just have to sacrifice. i have become very interested in great cuts, but i'm on a tight budget. this ring will cost a lot more than my car. i've seen hearts on fires, hearts and arrows, and even 8stars. they look so much better than stock diamonds, but size does matter.

Please take a moment and share your diamond buying experiences with us.
>i love it one minute and hate it the next.

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

This is an interesting new generation of one of the branded cuts that I know has just been developed but not yet marketed.

Let me know if you are interested (I have no $$ interest in you buying a diamond). This cutter has developed this cut using the Ideal-Scope and DiamCalc2 software.

I do not know the hCA ranking, but assume it to be around 0.7.

 

[Spartan]

Garry,
Wow! That's a gorgeous image. Do you know when and where that brand will be available to consumers? I'd sure be interested in getting my little paws on something like that!

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

It has not even been given a real name yet.

drop me a line at [email protected] if you are interested.

 

[pricescope]

More opinions wanted

 

[Mara]

Wow this thing is a monster. It threw me off because the dates are mostly April in the beginning. I thought..wow how did I miss this huge thread in the last few days..then realized it was 2002 and yes that we are only on April 3 and not 24. Work has my brain fried right now!

Here's my info though I'm sure you've all heard the story before:



In the past we bought diamonds from our Aptos jeweler, friend recommended, that whole thing. Turns out that the diamonds he sold us for our first purchase were not the best quality at all. He has since remedied the mistake, and is as confused as us on how it happened (uh huh). We bought our e-ring stone there and had the setting custom made. All checked out 100% at the appraiser as sold. I think now that he knows we are more savvy, he will know he can't snow us again. I sent him an IdealScope as a thank you for the great service on the e-ring and for putting up with my anal-ness.



We were going to buy online and in fact had a stone all chosen after about 2 months of research. In the end we called the jeweler we have used in the past, and gave him the ultimatum...can he match the price and potential quality of the stone we found online? Well he did bring in a stone that probably was the mirror twin to the one we were looking at online, HCA scores similar, color, clarity, etc. and matched price. But we ended up going with another stone, BIC as opposed to the TIC we were originally looking at, because it 'appealed' to us more. It's a true story of having all the facts and paperwork on some stones that are probably cream of the crop, and then we ended up with a stone that many (including AGS) would think is very far from a great stone but in person just looks amazing and spoke to both my FI and myself.

For future purchases, I plan to research like hell and buy online if possible...unless again the jeweler matches the price and quality and gives us a great deal. We have something invested with him and his business now...and my FI an offline buyer while I am an online lover.



If I was purchasing online...as we were thinking of originally, the sites with the most information on the stones would catch my eye and still do. Sites such as GOG, WhiteFlash, SC etc with all the information, closeups, bscope, ideal/firescope images, the list goes on. I don't want to email a vendor for a Sarin and have them treat me like I am putting them out. Or have them say they can't get one. I had one vendor tell me they couldn't get the wholesaler to give me a picture of the stone. How does that make me feel comfortable with purchasing? How hard is it to get a digital camera nowadays, esp if you are in the business of selling stones online. With the customer having multiple options nowadays, I think vendors both offline and online are having to jump higher for the customer and through more hoops. Most customers are not putting them through the wringer for fun, but rather because chances are its a large purchase and they want to feel comfortable with where their 6 months of savings is going. I think as time goes on, the popularity of tools such as the ones on the top sites are going to be more mainstream, at least online if not offline. Customers are becoming more savvy and the vendors have to step up tto the plate.

It was also important for me to be able to have offline jewelry maintenance done. We could have bought the stone online and had the stone set with our Aptos jeweler, but that is not how it worked out. This was something we were interested in. Also a trade-in policy for the future.



This was originally my top priority once I started learning more about stones and past just color, clarity and ctw. We were looking seriously at just TIC stones or similar. How we ended up with a BIC? It was the good old...wow that stone looks bigger and is the same price and still looks really pretty...syndrome. It appealed to us in the fact that we could feel like we were getting more for our money and I'm a girl so yeah I wanted the bigger stone. But I feel proud that our BIC is a great BIC and isn't just some large spread, shallow depth stone with a big fish-eye. It's a charmer and I think we did a good job with the information that we had.

In the future? I'd be really intrigued by one of the ACA or SC stones or if we could afford it, maybe even 8* if I could find one that appealed to me. I would be really interested in seeing what a superideal-excellently-cut-minor-facets-tweaked-type stone would look like in leiu of my original stone (and bigger of course!). That is if we have the $$ for it

But who knows, by the time I am ready for an upgrade (many years!), they may have new technology and ways to cut the stones...ACA and SC may be a thing of the past or at least considered a stepping stone to the newest and greatest (and most expensive) thing.

 

[Big Rock]

After initially planning to buy in person, I decided to do some research online and just purchased a 2.5ct Emerald E/IF from diamond.com. As many people on this forum are enamored with the smaller retailers, you cannot compare them to the big boys (blue nile, diamond.com, etc.) for selection, especially for fancy cuts. As far as price, people need to take into consideration that many of the smaller shops listed prices are for cash, but the big boys are for credit card purchases and you can get an additional discount (2%) for cash. Also, I saw my diamond on a competing no-frills site the morning I wired the funds for $600 less and they agreed to refund half the difference (as they already had my $, they did not have to even do that), and they over-nighted it to me for free. The stone was appraised by an independent appriaser recommeded on this site for $3 grand more than I paid. So, overall I have been pleased with my e-shopping experience.

 

[pricescope]

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Mara wrote:

Wow this thing is a monster.
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I think it is a great topic let's keep it up

 

[Mara]

BigRock--Actually most of the small places will also give you a credit card price and do the 2% discount for cash. When we were researching, about 90% of the stores we were looking at online had this option. So it's not just Blue Nile and Diamond.Com who offer this to customers.

In terms of fancy cuts, many of the online smaller stores also sell the fancy cuts that BN and DC do...because most of the time neither BN/DC or the other stores they don't carry that inventory in-store meaning that they can all buy from the same wholesaler. BN and DC are just more pricey.

If you run a search on Pscope and find a stone, you will see that about 15 other retailers also have the ability to sell that same stone. That lets the customer choose their poison.

Congrats on getting the price dropped. Your stone sounds lovely.

 

[Skyblue]

I originally went online to acquire information regarding diamonds with the intention of purchasing from a B&M. I had no idea that this website, DT or internet vendors existed. After acquiring more knowledge than my brain can sometimes handle, I really started to feel that purchasing online might be the way to go. This was especially supported by certain vendors who went the extra mile to both provide information as well as support and guidance to potential purchasers. I also felt that I started to "know" certain vendors and could trust them. Also, knowing that there were many, many other people who had purchased from certain vendors helped.

I came very close to purchasing from an online broker but did not when they were unable to provide me with the images and recommendations that I wanted on a particular stone. When you are looking for 2.0 carats, you want more than numbers and I also did not want to pay s/h without more info. This made me realize that I needed to purchase from someone who could provide me with images and gadget info. This alleviates some concerns in not being able to see the stone.

I must mention though, that if I could find someone locally who could provide the service, return policy, upgrade policy and be within a reasonable $$ of internet prices + come highly recommended I would probably use them. I just have not found anybody like that so I feel more comfortable purchasing online.

Oh .........and CUT has become all important thanks to the internet information.

 

[Hest88]

Well, I did some, but not enough initial research when we purchased my e-ring. Then I just continued researching diamonds for fun.

My e-ring was from a B&M, and I doubt we could have gotten the setting I'd wanted if I could only look online. Now that that's out of the way, though, my first choice is through an online jeweler.

My current jeweler is DBOF (www.diamondbrokersoffl.com). I like the convenience of shopping via email, and I trust them implicitly to find me great stones for good prices. I'm willing to pay extra for good service and piece of mind, but with DBOF I actually don't have to. I expect a BScope and I expect a Sarin if necessary, but mainly I expect the expert eye of an experienced and trusted jeweler.

I think finding a great jeweler means you, as a consumer and a non-expert, can sit back to some degree and have them do the work for you. My current favorite way to shop for jewelry, if I have an idea of what I want, is to give them a price range, specs, and ask them what they can get for me. So far, it's worked pretty well.