Help finding an Ideal Canadian Diamond

[Evert P Botha]

Hi Hameljon,

Glad you found a Canadian Diamond.

 

[hameljon]

Hello again, hameljon

I'm glad you were able to find some nice Candadian stones! BN doesn't show images, but the JA stone looks really nice and has a good HCA score (at 1.3). It looks to be eye clean as well. Personally, I wouldn't pay extra for a diamond with VVS clarity if I could see that a less expensive one was eye clean.

Thanks for the input

I don't have anything to add to your search,

BUT

You can get idealscopes from James Allen.
I'm surprised no one has suggested this yet.
Choose 3 diamonds and get the idealscopes and the Gemologists review, come back here and post the IS and review and the experts here can tell you how truly good a buy the JA one is.

It will also give you a bit more peace of mind, as I suspect you still have a bit of apprehension about buying online.

(I'm not one of those experts who can read an IS )

This is good to know, thanks for sharing!

Hi Hameljon,

Glad you found a Canadian Diamond.

Thanks

 

[hameljon]

Hello PriceScopers ,

It's been a while but my search for an ideal Canadian Diamond came to an end when I received a shiny new ring in mail on Monday. At the time of my last post I had the options narrowed down to BN, JA and a Canadian based option: The Diamond Shopper – Aaron Kelman out of Toronto. I think a few of you from PS may have heard of him as he used to be active in these forums.
I decided to go with The Diamond Shopper:

http://www.ivouch.com/the-diamond-shopper-toronto-on-ca
Best way to contact Aaron is by phone/e-mail. He generally works on a case/appointment basis.

By fluke I found a thread on a Canadian Deals website. **edited to conform with policies**

It was a great thread, meant as a way to help inform buyers like myself and help them make an educated purchase. It has been a great help to a lot of information seekers and buyers. RFD actually prohibits people from starting threads as a direct selling source as well, so this was comforting. After going through the thread it was clear Aaron knew his stuff and I asked him a few questions myself through PM. Turns out he was able to find what I was looking for, ideally cut Canadian sourced diamonds with CanadaMark cards for traceability! Right away he found me three diamonds in my criteria (this was late in April). At the time I was a little uncomfortable as I still felt like I hadn't done my due diligence on evaluating all my options. Towards the end of May however I was ready, I was a lot smarter than I was in knowing what to look for in diamonds and as you can see in this thread I went through ALL my options lol . By the end if I wanted a Canadian Diamond within my budget I had three options, JA, BN and The Diamond Shopper. I'll be honest I was a little worried about going with The Diamond Shopper as his business is still fairly new and he's still establishing his consumer reputation. I actually ended up privately messaging a couple people who had dealt with him prior to ask about their experience, after this checked out there was nothing to hold me back from going with The Diamond Shopper (I'm from the other side of the country which is why I went to this length).

The diamonds he found back for me back in April had sold and this time when he did a search for me there was nothing, he actually even went on to say that there is nothing currently available matching my criteria that he would be comfortable selling me! WOW, that's a first and definitely a breath of fresh air . It was clear that Aaron truly cared about what I was asking for and wasn't just looking for a quick sale. After about 2 weeks 5 options did come available. Each had a magnified image and computer generated Sarin images with it along with a brief analysis from Aaron on what I could expect from each.

After much thought I chose the GIA XXX 1.07 H VS2 from the 5 he listed w/ CanadaMark Card to verify traceability. This was priced better than both BN and JA. One nice thing as well was Aaron even went a step above to quote me a better CAD conversion price than the bank could offer me, savings of about 1% extra on the margin. To bring the diamond in I put down a refundable 10% deposit, basically if I didn’t like the diamond he'd refund the deposit and I would have to pay to ship it back ~$30. Better policy than one of Calgary's local retailers which was pay 100% upfront and if you don't like it - too bad. Upon bringing it in Aaron would do a full analysis (in the form of a video) including ASET, IDEAL, H&A, Ray Trace, Color Comparison, Clarity and Fire & Scintillation rotational views. If these weren't to my standards I would be refunded. Luckily they were definitely to my standards and I kept the Diamond . Search is over! – See next post for a couple pictures, haven't had time to photograph it myself.

For the setting I went with The Diamond Shopper as well. I wanted a French Pave setting similar to "Enrichment" by HOF without the ridiculous price tag. Despite going the custom route it was significantly cheaper than other options to even get the setting Platinum and w/ H&A Melee Diamonds! I told Aaron what I wanted and gave him example pictures to aide, he provided me with a Computer-aided Design to approve and had the wax mold made. This checked out and the ring was cast and the diamonds set, he even threw in an extra melee diamond w/ the mail package, JUST IN CASE! After the ring was set he prepared another video for me to see the finished product for my review. It was perfect.

Aaron was extremely helpful through the whole process, even when I was just someone asking questions with limited intention to buy. As an expert he has a wealth of knowledge and is honest at all times. He is not a pushy sales person and genuinely cares about delivering what you as for. Aaron was always quick with replies and very flexible in working through e-mail. I was updated throughout the whole process, quotes were always reasonable and accurate. Timeframes were quick all things considered, especially with a custom setting. The package delivered was very professional, next day air mail insured w/ tracking number. GIA Certificate, Appraisal, CanadaMark Card and a nice ring box. The Ring itself was exactly what I asked for, spot on and couldn't be better. All in all I spent less just less than $11,000CAD (about $9,900USD) for both the diamond and setting. I'm within budget and very happy customer with no buyer's remorse! I would definitely recommend Aaron Kelman - The Diamond Shopper. Please let me know if you have any questions.

Pictures below.

 

[hameljon]

Here are some pictures The Diamond Shopper prepared for me, I'll take some of my own when I get a chance - just been extremely busy!














AND

Videos here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTAGwA5OYZ0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jH-t6NCbjdA

Now to plan the proposal! Wish me luck and thank you all for your help!

 

[CanuckAB]

I'm SO happy you were successful!!! That ring is to die for! Good luck!

 

[canuk-gal]

HI:

I also live in cow town. I look forward to hand pictures--and perhaps being surprised IRL by blinding flashes across the room.

cheers--Sharon

 

[Roqsteady]

Congratulations! Glad you found a great diamond that you love.

Not trying to be cynical but do the hearts and arrows images look a little too perfect or is it just me?

 

[moesymoe]

Hi Hameljon!

First of all, many thanks for providing such detailed account of each step of your process. The information has really helped my as I embark on a similar journey.

I am also in the market for a Canadian diamond. The main reason for this is due to the ethical concerns which my fiance (asked the question with a placeholder ) has with the diamond industry and peace of mind (as much as possible) is high on the list of her requirements. From the research that she has done and given her ethical concerns, Brilliant Earth is the leading contender due to their "beyond conflict free" policy, and their attempts to address some of the ethical issues more so than other retailers and therefore standing apart from other companies that don't seem to be trying to improve things in the same way.

However, I am obviously quite concerned with the premium they charge and the disparity in pricing that you were able to find for individual diamond options that were available on the BE website but also available through other online retailers for much less.

I tried to do a similar comparison search but could not figure out how you did it. I was able to find the GIA cert number for some of the diamonds on BE but I couldn't figure out how to use this number to search other websites. Is there a simple way to do this or am I missing something here?

Thanks,

 

[RockyRacoon]

Hi Hameljon!

First of all, many thanks for providing such detailed account of each step of your process. The information has really helped my as I embark on a similar journey.

I am also in the market for a Canadian diamond. The main reason for this is due to the ethical concerns which my fiance (asked the question with a placeholder ) has with the diamond industry and peace of mind (as much as possible) is high on the list of her requirements. From the research that she has done and given her ethical concerns, Brilliant Earth is the leading contender due to their "beyond conflict free" policy, and their attempts to address some of the ethical issues more so than other retailers and therefore standing apart from other companies that don't seem to be trying to improve things in the same way.

However, I am obviously quite concerned with the premium they charge and the disparity in pricing that you were able to find for individual diamond options that were available on the BE website but also available through other online retailers for much less.

I tried to do a similar comparison search but could not figure out how you did it. I was able to find the GIA cert number for some of the diamonds on BE but I couldn't figure out how to use this number to search other websites. Is there a simple way to do this or am I missing something here?

Thanks,

Moesymoe -

I was actually the one who started the discussion about finding Brilliant Earth stones on other vendor websites, as this was something I discovered a couple of years ago, while shopping for my wife's ring.

You can search the GIA number via Google, but some vendors also provide an option to search by Report #.

In addition, you can provide the report # of diamonds that interest you to a vendor (I personally recommend High Performance Diamonds, Whiteflash, Good Old Gold, or Brian Gavin) and that vendor can see if the stone is available to them.

From there, you would have your chosen vendor bring in the stone to do light performance analysis (there may be a fee associated with this, which will be folded into the final price you pay), and confirm that the stone you found is a winner.

Best of luck!

 

[John P]

Here are some pictures The Diamond Shopper prepared for me...

Since the above was posted some time ago, this clarification is simply offered as a technical point-of-order for future readers:

These H&A graphics are not actually pictures. They're computer-generated animations. In this case the diamond's basic measurements were entered into software to generate H&A graphics. No problem, but with single data-points standing for multiple facets the results are "perfectly imagined" wire-frame graphics, which lack the real-life variances actual H&A pictures would show.

The other images - Mag, ASET, Ideal-Scope - are actual photos and demonstrate the diamond's strong light performance pedigree. Compliments to the seller for providing so much detailed information and proof-of-quality.

 

[thediamondshopper]

Thank you kindly John for the gracious compliment, it means a lot coming from an esteemed member of the trade such as your self.

Yes absolutely the H and A images were generated using software on the OGI numbers as we didn't have a HA scope in hand when doing the video. I completely agree that these computer generated images are second to actual images which are similar but certainly more accurate and detailed.

 

[CharmyPoo]

I just came across this thread and started reading ... I was going to suggest going to Aaron but glad to reach the end of the thread and saw that you did and got the diamond you were looking for!

 

[hameljon]

Just some over due pictures