RashanGary
05-16-2009, 09:35 AM
If anyone ever wants to call me, I'll give you my number. I worked really hard to not get ripped off and I can help you.
Buying a diamond goes against everything I believe in but isn't that what love is all about.
Getting the most for my money is a disorder for me. Learning a market and then finding value within it is a high for me. When I set out to buy a diamond for my wife, little did I know, I was going into one of the last markets remaining in the wild wild west. The crux of diamond pricing is plain and straight forward, but it is hidden by employees that either don't know what they are selling or don't want you to know what you are buying.
Truth be told, buying a diamond is very simple once you know the basics. Finding the information needed to make a smart decision is the extremely hard part because you will be straight faced lied to or manipulated by people who work in pressure sales.
OK, here is what you do and why.
1st - Where to buy. Blue Nile is an online diamond company. They sell more loose diamonds than any company in the world. They have 100's of diamond wholesalers putting diamonds on their site. By getting all of the supply in one room, what do you think that does to price? Do your research, but I believe Blue Nile is a great company and would do business with them over and over and over because they bring integrity to an otherwise disgusting market. If you can't bring yourself to spend thousands online, then find your diamond on blue nile and demand the same price from a small shop. They can usually find the same diamond because they have access to the same wholesalers. The difference is Blue Nile gets them for cheaper because of the volume they sell at and the price is being set by each wholesaler (all competing against each other) instead of the price being set by the store, after huge mark ups. Once you go in with a diamond picked out at blue nile, trust me, you are going to get a whole new range of prices and whole different treatment. They will try to sell you on diamonds they can make more money on, but they know you know what you can get and they know they can't screw you around. I still recommend Blue Nile. Talk to them about the steps they take for security. They are so much bigger than the couple thousand you spend. They do millions of dollars in diamond sales every year. They have an amazing business model that they build in a way that you know they want to last.
2nd - Cut/Carat/Color/Clarity (in that order)
Get a GIA cert. First they have the most stringent grading system so you know what you buy is what you're getting. 2nd, it's the easiest to read. When it comes to clarity, some other certs become very hard to distinguish a bad inclusion from a harmless one. And know this, GIA labs know more about what makes a diamond show than you ever will and more than any store sales man with a bunch of lights can manipulate you to believe. The cert is EVERYTHING becuase it's made by people who know diamond grading better than anyone else.
The common trend on getting better value from a diamond is to go just below what people consider ideal to get the most beauty for your buck. The idealist mentality drives up the price. Remember one thing, these diamonds are graded by pros on a scales that are barely visible to the human eye when in a lab setting. You want to buy based on what you can see with your human eye when it's on your wifes finger. You don't want to pay double for higher grades that you cannot see with your human eye. Literally, you can pay $4000 for a diamond that looks better than a $10000 diamond on the finger. The only difference will be markup and you have a better cut where they have better color and clarity (using grades that you can't see with your eye but stores love to sell you on because they make more money).
Also, pricing is set by the rappaport diamond pricing sheets. They change ever so slightly each month, but the bottom line is pricing is straight forward. You should be able to get your diamond for about 25% below the rap sheet price. Rap doesn't include cut grade, so you remember to get a good cut.
CARAT: I chose .90 ct because 1 ct is the idealist number. Everyone wants a ct so they can say, "it's a carat". Well, let them say it. You save about $1,500 dollars to say yours is "about a carat" and it will look the same. If you're searching in higher or lower ranges, look at the rap sheet to find value. I found great value at .90 ct and I think you can build a pretty impressive ring in that range (unless you're completely loaded and can afford more). In that case, get your paws on the sheets and find where the huge jumps are. Wherever you find a price huge jump, go with the level below. Ask the blue nile people if there are good value carat ranges. They're very smart and they have NO REASON TO LIE. They do not make commission and do not have to sell you something shitty. They have enough GREAT diamonds that they never have to sell you a bad one.
CUT: If you buy a GIA certified diamond with Excellent cut, you can't lose. Very good is also, well, very good. See how much you can save. I really wanted my diamond to shine, so I went with excellent although you have to balance that against budget. Cut is largely what determines sparkle. If you've ever seen a diamond just exploding with fire, that is because it's cut well. The proportions of the cut determine whether light will be bounced back out or shoot out the bottom of the diamond. Stores tend to sell you on color and carat and you end up with a dull diamond that doesn't dazzle. If you're doing a raw diamond search on Blue Nile, search for ideal only (don't worry about signature ideal. It's ever so slightly better and much more expensive). An idealist will pay 20% more in price for signature ideal for 1% better performance. Don't do this. Also, you can spend 40 hours researching cut for what makes it work. You don't have to. GIA is the gold standard in diamond grading. They know more than you'll ever know and their grade is all about what you can see with your eye. It's the ultimate practical grade.
Color: These diamonds are graded on scales so stringent that you literally cannot tell the difference between a D and E or an E and F. DEF is colorless. GHI is near colorless. That's all you need to know I is kind of a bigger drop. I don't recommend it unless you are setting on yellow gold. People will pay a premium to say it's "colorless". You don't have to do that. G and H are very small notches down (to the point where will not see the difference unless you're in perfect light and comparing against a D). I recommend G or H. If you going under a carat set on white gold or platinum, I'd say go G or H. If you have a huge diamond and setting it on white gold or platinum, I'd say go G. This saves you money because you are focused on getting the most beauty for your buck, not getting the most idealist grade that you cannot see with your untrained eye for your buck.
Clarity: This has almost zero effect on the beauty of your diamond except the price you pay because of your idealist personality. There are inclusions that will visually hurt your diamond or make your diamond prone to cracking. STAY AWAY FROM THESE. VS to SI is the big drop in price. VS is very slight inclusions. SI is slight inclusions. You're better off with a slight crystal inclusion than a very slight feather (a feather is a crack). Look at the SI1 grades (not SI2). When you're looking in SI1, you want crystals or clouds. The other inclusions may be on the surface or may be cracks. As the people at blue nile. The diamond I bought had a cloud and crystal inclusion. And realize that these "clouds and crystals" are so small that you can't see them without 10X magnification and even then they are barely visible. If they're not right on the top of your diamond, don't worry about it. They have almost zero effect on the beauty of yoru diamond. This is one of the hardest things to search for though. You have to look at the cert to find what type of inclusions it has (ask blue nile how to browse their site. You'll be able to shop best on a huge online inventory instead of going to a shop where they will bring in 5 diamonds each week and you can only shop 5 certs at a time. Eventually you just get burned out and buy something you don't want. Again, use the huge blue nile inventory to set the price and find your diamond. It's takes some work to find a good SI1 diamond but it's worth the $500 you can save over VS).
Here's how you do it.
Go to bluenile.com
Search for a loose diamond
Set the carat to what you want (I recommend .90-.99 ct if you have about 5G to spend after the setting).
Set the color you want (I recommend G/H because it's a lot cheaper and you can barely see the difference from the DEF)
Set the clarity you want (I recommend SI1 and then make sure it has no cracks or dark inclusions. Call blue nile support. They have zero reason to sell you a crappy diamond. They'll just direct you to a better one because they have so many)
Set the cut you want (I recommend excellent or ideal on bluenile.com and make sure it's a GIA cert. This is the most important quality if you want a sparkly, impressive rock)
Then start at the lower price, click on the diamond and check it's cert. Most of the lowest price ones will either have extreme flourescence or feathers/cracks. Learn on the site were you can see the flourescence (on the right if you have your icon over the diamond). Click on the diamond if the it has slight flourescence or medium if the price is better because it really doesn't matter unless it's under a black light. Click on the gia cert. See if it has any feathers or other versions of cracks or dark inclustions (again, clouds and crystals are safe). Once you find one with low flourescence, excellent polish, very good or better symmetry and no dangerous inclusions, you are set. This takes some practice and don't even do this unless you are smart enough to understand what I'm saying to you. If you're not smart enough to do it yoruself, the bluenile people are actually very well educated and trust worthy because they have so many diamonds and don't ahve to sell you a crappy one. They want to sell you the most beautiful diamond for your dollar and one that you know will last forever (not crack). They want to do that because as soon as people see what you have, they will tell their friends like I am right now.
The bottom line is this. The people at GIA labs can tell you more about a diamond than any idiot trying to sell you one. Don't let jeweler tell you, you can see a diamond perform better than GIA can. YOu cannot. Buy based on the GIA cert and the rappaport pricing guide. That's all there is to it and if you want to save money, go a notch below ideal in ever category. Also, use the brilliant business model of blue nile to set the price. Research them. They are completely trust worthy and I say buy from them just because they do such a great thing for people in a market that is usually out to rip you off and laugh about it when you leave the store.
Buying a diamond goes against everything I believe in but isn't that what love is all about.
Getting the most for my money is a disorder for me. Learning a market and then finding value within it is a high for me. When I set out to buy a diamond for my wife, little did I know, I was going into one of the last markets remaining in the wild wild west. The crux of diamond pricing is plain and straight forward, but it is hidden by employees that either don't know what they are selling or don't want you to know what you are buying.
Truth be told, buying a diamond is very simple once you know the basics. Finding the information needed to make a smart decision is the extremely hard part because you will be straight faced lied to or manipulated by people who work in pressure sales.
OK, here is what you do and why.
1st - Where to buy. Blue Nile is an online diamond company. They sell more loose diamonds than any company in the world. They have 100's of diamond wholesalers putting diamonds on their site. By getting all of the supply in one room, what do you think that does to price? Do your research, but I believe Blue Nile is a great company and would do business with them over and over and over because they bring integrity to an otherwise disgusting market. If you can't bring yourself to spend thousands online, then find your diamond on blue nile and demand the same price from a small shop. They can usually find the same diamond because they have access to the same wholesalers. The difference is Blue Nile gets them for cheaper because of the volume they sell at and the price is being set by each wholesaler (all competing against each other) instead of the price being set by the store, after huge mark ups. Once you go in with a diamond picked out at blue nile, trust me, you are going to get a whole new range of prices and whole different treatment. They will try to sell you on diamonds they can make more money on, but they know you know what you can get and they know they can't screw you around. I still recommend Blue Nile. Talk to them about the steps they take for security. They are so much bigger than the couple thousand you spend. They do millions of dollars in diamond sales every year. They have an amazing business model that they build in a way that you know they want to last.
2nd - Cut/Carat/Color/Clarity (in that order)
Get a GIA cert. First they have the most stringent grading system so you know what you buy is what you're getting. 2nd, it's the easiest to read. When it comes to clarity, some other certs become very hard to distinguish a bad inclusion from a harmless one. And know this, GIA labs know more about what makes a diamond show than you ever will and more than any store sales man with a bunch of lights can manipulate you to believe. The cert is EVERYTHING becuase it's made by people who know diamond grading better than anyone else.
The common trend on getting better value from a diamond is to go just below what people consider ideal to get the most beauty for your buck. The idealist mentality drives up the price. Remember one thing, these diamonds are graded by pros on a scales that are barely visible to the human eye when in a lab setting. You want to buy based on what you can see with your human eye when it's on your wifes finger. You don't want to pay double for higher grades that you cannot see with your human eye. Literally, you can pay $4000 for a diamond that looks better than a $10000 diamond on the finger. The only difference will be markup and you have a better cut where they have better color and clarity (using grades that you can't see with your eye but stores love to sell you on because they make more money).
Also, pricing is set by the rappaport diamond pricing sheets. They change ever so slightly each month, but the bottom line is pricing is straight forward. You should be able to get your diamond for about 25% below the rap sheet price. Rap doesn't include cut grade, so you remember to get a good cut.
CARAT: I chose .90 ct because 1 ct is the idealist number. Everyone wants a ct so they can say, "it's a carat". Well, let them say it. You save about $1,500 dollars to say yours is "about a carat" and it will look the same. If you're searching in higher or lower ranges, look at the rap sheet to find value. I found great value at .90 ct and I think you can build a pretty impressive ring in that range (unless you're completely loaded and can afford more). In that case, get your paws on the sheets and find where the huge jumps are. Wherever you find a price huge jump, go with the level below. Ask the blue nile people if there are good value carat ranges. They're very smart and they have NO REASON TO LIE. They do not make commission and do not have to sell you something shitty. They have enough GREAT diamonds that they never have to sell you a bad one.
CUT: If you buy a GIA certified diamond with Excellent cut, you can't lose. Very good is also, well, very good. See how much you can save. I really wanted my diamond to shine, so I went with excellent although you have to balance that against budget. Cut is largely what determines sparkle. If you've ever seen a diamond just exploding with fire, that is because it's cut well. The proportions of the cut determine whether light will be bounced back out or shoot out the bottom of the diamond. Stores tend to sell you on color and carat and you end up with a dull diamond that doesn't dazzle. If you're doing a raw diamond search on Blue Nile, search for ideal only (don't worry about signature ideal. It's ever so slightly better and much more expensive). An idealist will pay 20% more in price for signature ideal for 1% better performance. Don't do this. Also, you can spend 40 hours researching cut for what makes it work. You don't have to. GIA is the gold standard in diamond grading. They know more than you'll ever know and their grade is all about what you can see with your eye. It's the ultimate practical grade.
Color: These diamonds are graded on scales so stringent that you literally cannot tell the difference between a D and E or an E and F. DEF is colorless. GHI is near colorless. That's all you need to know I is kind of a bigger drop. I don't recommend it unless you are setting on yellow gold. People will pay a premium to say it's "colorless". You don't have to do that. G and H are very small notches down (to the point where will not see the difference unless you're in perfect light and comparing against a D). I recommend G or H. If you going under a carat set on white gold or platinum, I'd say go G or H. If you have a huge diamond and setting it on white gold or platinum, I'd say go G. This saves you money because you are focused on getting the most beauty for your buck, not getting the most idealist grade that you cannot see with your untrained eye for your buck.
Clarity: This has almost zero effect on the beauty of your diamond except the price you pay because of your idealist personality. There are inclusions that will visually hurt your diamond or make your diamond prone to cracking. STAY AWAY FROM THESE. VS to SI is the big drop in price. VS is very slight inclusions. SI is slight inclusions. You're better off with a slight crystal inclusion than a very slight feather (a feather is a crack). Look at the SI1 grades (not SI2). When you're looking in SI1, you want crystals or clouds. The other inclusions may be on the surface or may be cracks. As the people at blue nile. The diamond I bought had a cloud and crystal inclusion. And realize that these "clouds and crystals" are so small that you can't see them without 10X magnification and even then they are barely visible. If they're not right on the top of your diamond, don't worry about it. They have almost zero effect on the beauty of yoru diamond. This is one of the hardest things to search for though. You have to look at the cert to find what type of inclusions it has (ask blue nile how to browse their site. You'll be able to shop best on a huge online inventory instead of going to a shop where they will bring in 5 diamonds each week and you can only shop 5 certs at a time. Eventually you just get burned out and buy something you don't want. Again, use the huge blue nile inventory to set the price and find your diamond. It's takes some work to find a good SI1 diamond but it's worth the $500 you can save over VS).
Here's how you do it.
Go to bluenile.com
Search for a loose diamond
Set the carat to what you want (I recommend .90-.99 ct if you have about 5G to spend after the setting).
Set the color you want (I recommend G/H because it's a lot cheaper and you can barely see the difference from the DEF)
Set the clarity you want (I recommend SI1 and then make sure it has no cracks or dark inclusions. Call blue nile support. They have zero reason to sell you a crappy diamond. They'll just direct you to a better one because they have so many)
Set the cut you want (I recommend excellent or ideal on bluenile.com and make sure it's a GIA cert. This is the most important quality if you want a sparkly, impressive rock)
Then start at the lower price, click on the diamond and check it's cert. Most of the lowest price ones will either have extreme flourescence or feathers/cracks. Learn on the site were you can see the flourescence (on the right if you have your icon over the diamond). Click on the diamond if the it has slight flourescence or medium if the price is better because it really doesn't matter unless it's under a black light. Click on the gia cert. See if it has any feathers or other versions of cracks or dark inclustions (again, clouds and crystals are safe). Once you find one with low flourescence, excellent polish, very good or better symmetry and no dangerous inclusions, you are set. This takes some practice and don't even do this unless you are smart enough to understand what I'm saying to you. If you're not smart enough to do it yoruself, the bluenile people are actually very well educated and trust worthy because they have so many diamonds and don't ahve to sell you a crappy one. They want to sell you the most beautiful diamond for your dollar and one that you know will last forever (not crack). They want to do that because as soon as people see what you have, they will tell their friends like I am right now.
The bottom line is this. The people at GIA labs can tell you more about a diamond than any idiot trying to sell you one. Don't let jeweler tell you, you can see a diamond perform better than GIA can. YOu cannot. Buy based on the GIA cert and the rappaport pricing guide. That's all there is to it and if you want to save money, go a notch below ideal in ever category. Also, use the brilliant business model of blue nile to set the price. Research them. They are completely trust worthy and I say buy from them just because they do such a great thing for people in a market that is usually out to rip you off and laugh about it when you leave the store.