This might be a long one, so I'll start off with the bullet points of lessons learned:
(If this is better suited in a separate subforum, please move accordingly! Sorry!)
Story time.
My girlfriend (I'm proposing Saturday!) and I had discussed rings so I had a good idea of what style she liked. I had been lurking on Pricescope for awhile and I knew I wanted to purchase online to get the most bang for my buck, but when I started looking at settings everything was very overwhelming. I wasn't even 100% sure of her ring size. On a whim, we went to the mall to window shop. This was easily the best decision I made, because I learned three things. First, she tried on a ring that she instantly fell in love with. If she had her way, we'd have walked out with it right then and there. Here is the setting: http://www.uniquesettings.com/products/show/26626
Second, her ring size is smaller than we thought. We thought it was a 5-5.5, turns out it's a 4.5.
Third, and perhaps most importantly, we decided what size center stone we liked. Since she has smaller fingers, a larger stone looked awkward on her hand. Even a full 1 ct was a little too much. Of the stones she tried, the one that fit the best was 0.7 ct.
With this information in hand, back to Pricescope I came. With some help from users here and a LOT of indecision, I eventually settled on this setting: http://www.jamesallen.com/engagemen...uise-shape-diamond-engagement-ring-item-49489. I say "settled' because at the time, I was not convinced it was exactly what I wanted, but it was the best I could find. My concern was that it didn't look delicate enough. I was concerned that the round and marquise shaped sections would appear bulbous. (At the time, the photos of the ring on a hand did not exist.) I could not have been more wrong. When I received the ring, it was more petite than I expected, and I mean that in a good way! The setting is literally perfect. With that being said, had I done the smart thing and really paid attention to the width, I would have known exactly how wide the setting was and would have been less nervous about the purchase. Also, I probably wouldn't have bothered with an inscription. The band is so thin, it's hard to read. Not because the engraving is not done well, simply because of the size.
Now it was time to choose a stone. Again, there's a lot of options. I was leaning toward WhiteFlash since they have so many IdealScope images, but the thought of purchasing a setting and stone separately, then sending one item to the other company to have the stone set... it was too much. I decided to stick with JamesAllen, and I'm very glad I did. Here's how I searched:
First, I narrowed down to the items I knew I wanted. A weight of 0.7 - 0.85 ct, a cut of either "Ideal or TrueHearts", color from D-I, clarity no worse than SI1. From previous research, I knew all of these criteria would give me items within my budget. Still, that returns a couple thousand matches. Still overwhelming. So then I turned to my secret weapon: diamondnumbers.txt. I had seen some diamond measurement numbers repeatedly mentioned around the site as ideal to stay within. They are:
table: 54-58
depth: 60-62.3
crown angle: 34-35.0
pavilion angle: 40.6-41.0
Putting in these numbers as advanced criteria got me down from 2-3k options to under a thousand. Better! Here's where I decided to narrow things down some more. I knew I didn't want to go above .85 ct so I didn't need to maximize size with my budget. Instead, I could start tightening the qualities in some other areas. Instead of accepting an I color, how about making the minimum an H or a G? I decided that strong florescence wasn't something I wanted, so let's only accept medium or less. Making all of these adjustments got me down to fewer than 50 diamonds. Now I was getting somewhere!
JamesAllen does not provide IdealScope images for all of their stones, but they DO have highly magnified 360 degree images. I found that incredibly useful. I was able to reject some stones just from this. If one caught my eye, my next weapon was the Holloway Cut Advisor. I could plug in some numbers and reject some more stones based on this. Per the PriceScope community, you want to stay under a ranking of 2. I took this further and decided that I only wanted stones that ranked Excellent in 3 of the 4 categories. This allowed me to reject some more stones.
Finally, I got down to a slender few. As I said before, JamesAllen does not provide IdealScope imagery for all of their diamonds, but they DO provide it for their "TrueHearts" collection. Since about half of my remaining stones were in the TrueHearts collection, I decided to limit my search to only those stones to avoid the process of requesting IdealScope imagery. Also, admittedly, I was getting impatient and didn't want to wait any longer.
When all was said and done, I ended up with this stone: http://www.jamesallen.com/loose-diamonds/round-cut/0.73-carat-f-color-vs1-clarity-ideal-cut-sku-550664
Did I really need VS1 clarity and an F color? No. I probably could have saved some money by expanding my options a bit. But this stone had everything I wanted, great quality, and it fit within my budget. Having all of that information ahead of time made this purchase a lot easier.
James Allen review
I basically chose everything without JA input, so I can't speak to the process of getting a gemologist consultation. Here's what I can say...
The good: Ordering was easy. I ended up ordering over the phone due to my payment method and the person I spoke to could not have been nicer. It was an absolutely painless process. The estimated ship date was spot on and I received the ring 8 days after purchase. Ordered on a Monday, received the following Tuesday. The packaging is gorgeous. Most importantly, the ring... the photos do not do it justice. It is stunning.
The room for improvement: There was nothing bad about the experience, but there are a few things I'd have liked to see. First, the order status. It simply went from Paid to Shipped. There were no updates on the process, which would have been nice to see. Also, at the time I ordered, there were no images of the setting on a hand. That made it hard to visualize. I contacted customer service and they said they didn't have any, but now they do. So kudos to them for listening to their customers, it just would have been nice to have when I was ordering.
Overall, I am thrilled with the ring. It blew even my highest expectations out of the water. I'm sure my soon-to-be-fiance will feel the same way on Saturday. And now... pictures!
First, if you go to http://www.jamesallen.com/engagement-rings/side-stones/14k-white-gold-round-and-marquise-shape-diamond-engagement-ring-item-49489 one of the rings is the one I ordered. Click the one that says 0.73 F-VS1. Fun fact, I actually saw that BEFORE I got a shipping notification. They put the images up FAST and it was my first peek at the ring.
(If this is better suited in a separate subforum, please move accordingly! Sorry!)
- Options quickly become overwhelming. Narrow down your search as much as possible and life will be easier.
- Have her try on rings. This will let you know exactly what size ring AND center stone to get.
- Things online are blown up. Pay attention to the measurements to determine what it'll really look like.
- Read a lot of Pricescope stuff. Even if it doesn't seem directly applicable to your situation, anything that will help you cull the herd is useful.
Story time.
My girlfriend (I'm proposing Saturday!) and I had discussed rings so I had a good idea of what style she liked. I had been lurking on Pricescope for awhile and I knew I wanted to purchase online to get the most bang for my buck, but when I started looking at settings everything was very overwhelming. I wasn't even 100% sure of her ring size. On a whim, we went to the mall to window shop. This was easily the best decision I made, because I learned three things. First, she tried on a ring that she instantly fell in love with. If she had her way, we'd have walked out with it right then and there. Here is the setting: http://www.uniquesettings.com/products/show/26626
Second, her ring size is smaller than we thought. We thought it was a 5-5.5, turns out it's a 4.5.
Third, and perhaps most importantly, we decided what size center stone we liked. Since she has smaller fingers, a larger stone looked awkward on her hand. Even a full 1 ct was a little too much. Of the stones she tried, the one that fit the best was 0.7 ct.
With this information in hand, back to Pricescope I came. With some help from users here and a LOT of indecision, I eventually settled on this setting: http://www.jamesallen.com/engagemen...uise-shape-diamond-engagement-ring-item-49489. I say "settled' because at the time, I was not convinced it was exactly what I wanted, but it was the best I could find. My concern was that it didn't look delicate enough. I was concerned that the round and marquise shaped sections would appear bulbous. (At the time, the photos of the ring on a hand did not exist.) I could not have been more wrong. When I received the ring, it was more petite than I expected, and I mean that in a good way! The setting is literally perfect. With that being said, had I done the smart thing and really paid attention to the width, I would have known exactly how wide the setting was and would have been less nervous about the purchase. Also, I probably wouldn't have bothered with an inscription. The band is so thin, it's hard to read. Not because the engraving is not done well, simply because of the size.
Now it was time to choose a stone. Again, there's a lot of options. I was leaning toward WhiteFlash since they have so many IdealScope images, but the thought of purchasing a setting and stone separately, then sending one item to the other company to have the stone set... it was too much. I decided to stick with JamesAllen, and I'm very glad I did. Here's how I searched:
First, I narrowed down to the items I knew I wanted. A weight of 0.7 - 0.85 ct, a cut of either "Ideal or TrueHearts", color from D-I, clarity no worse than SI1. From previous research, I knew all of these criteria would give me items within my budget. Still, that returns a couple thousand matches. Still overwhelming. So then I turned to my secret weapon: diamondnumbers.txt. I had seen some diamond measurement numbers repeatedly mentioned around the site as ideal to stay within. They are:
table: 54-58
depth: 60-62.3
crown angle: 34-35.0
pavilion angle: 40.6-41.0
Putting in these numbers as advanced criteria got me down from 2-3k options to under a thousand. Better! Here's where I decided to narrow things down some more. I knew I didn't want to go above .85 ct so I didn't need to maximize size with my budget. Instead, I could start tightening the qualities in some other areas. Instead of accepting an I color, how about making the minimum an H or a G? I decided that strong florescence wasn't something I wanted, so let's only accept medium or less. Making all of these adjustments got me down to fewer than 50 diamonds. Now I was getting somewhere!
JamesAllen does not provide IdealScope images for all of their stones, but they DO have highly magnified 360 degree images. I found that incredibly useful. I was able to reject some stones just from this. If one caught my eye, my next weapon was the Holloway Cut Advisor. I could plug in some numbers and reject some more stones based on this. Per the PriceScope community, you want to stay under a ranking of 2. I took this further and decided that I only wanted stones that ranked Excellent in 3 of the 4 categories. This allowed me to reject some more stones.
Finally, I got down to a slender few. As I said before, JamesAllen does not provide IdealScope imagery for all of their diamonds, but they DO provide it for their "TrueHearts" collection. Since about half of my remaining stones were in the TrueHearts collection, I decided to limit my search to only those stones to avoid the process of requesting IdealScope imagery. Also, admittedly, I was getting impatient and didn't want to wait any longer.
When all was said and done, I ended up with this stone: http://www.jamesallen.com/loose-diamonds/round-cut/0.73-carat-f-color-vs1-clarity-ideal-cut-sku-550664
Did I really need VS1 clarity and an F color? No. I probably could have saved some money by expanding my options a bit. But this stone had everything I wanted, great quality, and it fit within my budget. Having all of that information ahead of time made this purchase a lot easier.
James Allen review
I basically chose everything without JA input, so I can't speak to the process of getting a gemologist consultation. Here's what I can say...
The good: Ordering was easy. I ended up ordering over the phone due to my payment method and the person I spoke to could not have been nicer. It was an absolutely painless process. The estimated ship date was spot on and I received the ring 8 days after purchase. Ordered on a Monday, received the following Tuesday. The packaging is gorgeous. Most importantly, the ring... the photos do not do it justice. It is stunning.
The room for improvement: There was nothing bad about the experience, but there are a few things I'd have liked to see. First, the order status. It simply went from Paid to Shipped. There were no updates on the process, which would have been nice to see. Also, at the time I ordered, there were no images of the setting on a hand. That made it hard to visualize. I contacted customer service and they said they didn't have any, but now they do. So kudos to them for listening to their customers, it just would have been nice to have when I was ordering.
Overall, I am thrilled with the ring. It blew even my highest expectations out of the water. I'm sure my soon-to-be-fiance will feel the same way on Saturday. And now... pictures!
First, if you go to http://www.jamesallen.com/engagement-rings/side-stones/14k-white-gold-round-and-marquise-shape-diamond-engagement-ring-item-49489 one of the rings is the one I ordered. Click the one that says 0.73 F-VS1. Fun fact, I actually saw that BEFORE I got a shipping notification. They put the images up FAST and it was my first peek at the ring.
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