Hello Folks,
I would like to buy my wife a diamond, but I have no idea how to ensure that I get value for the money. When I buy other big-ticket items like a car or major appliances, I have non-biased resources like Consumer Reports to guide me, but there doesn’t seem to be a trustworthy source of information for jewelry.
Any suggestions?
Thanks.
In order to buy a diamond and not get ripped off, I would suspect one would have to be a DeBeer’s exec. If you’re buying a diamond, just assume that you’re going to be bent over a barrel.
If you’re worried about being sold a diamond that’s not as good as advertised, just make sure you go to a reputable retailer.
Well, my first reaction is to explain that since you’re determined to buy a diamond, there’s no way you’ll get around being ripped off. Basically, you’re trying to purchase a crystalline mineral which is present in obscenely huge amounts in the earth’s crust. Unfortunately, there’s a cartel which controls the commercial supply of diamonds, making an artificially high price. Also, a large number of diamonds come from areas where guerilla or national armies use slave labor to mine the diamonds and then use the proceeds to finance more war. Diamonds do not increase in value, so they make lousy investments. They are basically a way to show off the fact that you have expendable income.
That being said, there are four major factors to consider in buying diamonds. They are the four C’s: Color, cut, clarity, and carat.
Color is pretty obvious - what color is the diamond? Some colors are highly sought after - like blue. Others totally trash the value of the diamond. For a person of modest bucks, you’d want to go for the clearest diamond you can afford.
Cut refers to the proportions of the diamond and how the diamond is shaped. Some cuts show off the brilliant refraction of a diamond more than others. If the cut of the diamond is too steep or too shallow, it won’t reflect light well, and the sparkle of the stone will be diminished.
Clarity is also pretty obvious. How clear is the stone? Are their flaws? Inclusions? Cracks? All natural diamonds will have some sort of flaw. The question then becomes how much those flaws detract from the stone. Many are completely unnoticeable. Others are extremely distracting.
Carat is the weight of the stone - how large it is. Used to be that a woman could be quite happy with a 1/4 carat diamond engagement ring. Now it seems like you can’t get by unless you’ve got two full carats on a platinum band. Shows you how successful the diamond cartel marketing is.
Canada has recently discovered some diamond deposits, and the mine owners are not members of the cartel. However, because they are conflict-free diamonds with a certain cachet, their prices aren’t much, if any, better than the others.
You might want to make a point of asking your wife what kind of gemstones she likes. The answer might surprise you. Me, I’m very fond of semi-precious gemstones and some of the precious ones like emeralds and rubies. Go that route, and you might find that you get more for your money, please your wife, and come up with a unique gift.
You can find more info on diamonds at: The Diamond Buyer’s Education
I’m aware of the critical factors, but without extensive training, I haven’t a hope of personally determining the quality of the gem. I guess I would have to rely on the reputation of the retailer…?
BTW, thanks for the link phouka, this is a start…
Not exactly. Most diamonds are certified by an independent lab. One of the best known and most reliable is a GIA certification but there are others. The retailer should show you the certification with the stones details on it. That is where you need to know about all the C’s. That isn’t something the dealer should say for example “this diamond has fewer flaws or is more clear than this one”. Those measures are done as part of the lab report and you just need to know what they mean. Quick, the dealer hands you a diamond and says “This one has good color, it is a G”. Is he telling the truth? How do you interpret that. He could say, “this one is nearly flawless, it is cerified SI1”. Is that good?
The certification process isn’t always perfect however.
You can read the bad and good here.
Here is an overview of the four C’s and how to interpret them when you see actual diamonds graded. This site also has prices for loose diamonds that can give you a feel for what quailty diamond you want to buy and know if a dealer’s prices are comparable.
If you’re looking to save some money, I’d suggest trying pawn shops. Seriously. Ex-fiances sell their rings there, folks in need of extra cash offload grandma’s jewelery . . . I’ve seen some really nice pieces in pawn shops, and the prices are much more reasonable. Even if you just buy a piece for the stones and have it reset, you’ll still save considerably from jewelery store prices.
The only thing I can say would be to spend your money on a smaller, more perfect stone, and not on a bigger, less perfect one.
Make sure you get the certificate showing what grade it is.
My engagement ring (bought 2 months ago) is a 1/3 carat round cut diamond set in yellow gold on a platinum band, but because it’s an F grade diamond with only tiny flaws, it looks absolutely stunning.
Are you asking your wife what style she wants? You should check, some people have particular cuts (eg pear or oval) they dislike. If in doubt, round cut is the most traditional, and emerald, princess or asscher are simple and elegant.
MY advice: determine how much you can spend. Then, buy a nice white sapphire or cubic zirconia of the same style, size and cut…have the ring set with it. Then take the 97% of the money you had planned to spend, and put it in US Savings Bonds in her name. 25 yeras later, your wife (if she is still your wife) will be able to buy a nice facelift, boob job, or whatever with the money she saved.
Note: any suspicion on your wife’s part (about whether the “rock” is in fact a geniune diamond, shouldbe met with comments like: "Honey, would I lie to you?’, etc.)
What sort of diamond are you thinking about purchasing? We talking about one that would be put in an engagement style ring?
Cut is argued by many to be the most important C, but is also the hardest one to quantify. There are a variety of scopes and tests and charts you can use, but there is no defined cut quality, especially if you’re talking fancy cut rather than round brilliant cut.
Color is quantified by the grading labs, as a letter score going from D (colorless) on up. D-H are pretty much colorless with I and up getting more and more yellow.
Clarity has a variety of names
F - Flawless
IF - internally flawless
VVS[sub]1,2[/sub] - very very slightly included, 1 is better than 2
VS[sub]1,2[/sub] - very slightly included
SI[sub]1,2[/sub] - slightly included
I[sub]1,2,3[/sub] - imperfect
Generally, anything that’s an SI[sub]1[/sub] or better will be ‘eye clean’ with no visible marks when viewed from above (that’s how they are graded)
Carat is, of course, the size. Watch out for diamonds that are ‘just over’ a certain size, like 1.01 carats. Many of them are poorly cut in an effort to get over that magic mark and sell for more. For instance, a thick girdle (the widest part of the stone, where the top and bottom meet) will jack up the weight, but not improve the brilliance or apparent size. A better cut would drop it below the 1 carat mark and command a lower price.
Now, what’s interesting is that I went through this whole learning process when looking for an diamond engagement ring. Thinking that people who just walked into Kay jewelers and picked off the rack were silly. After going through all this, checking out a variety of websites and sources, it turns out that all of these numbers and ratings are nice, but the only way to truly grade the diamond for yourself is to look at it. The price will be highly dependant on the grade, and GIA is considered the best grader, but there’s no substitute for a good look.
I like this site PriceScope for reference materials and diamond chat.
I don’t really know how it would be set - perhaps not a ring - maybe earrings or a necklace or something. Perhaps just a loose stone that she could set how she likes.
We’ve been married for 26 years [sub](seems like decades…)[/sub], but I have never bought her a “sparkly” before, other than her wedding ring, which she picked.
Hee - funny story relating to this. My husband won my diamond by being able to guess which was a real diamond and which was cubic zirconia. Trying to enter the same draw, I couldn’t tell the difference, so he knows that I can’t tell a real diamond from a fake.
There’s a diamond cut shaped like Cher’s ass? :eek:
You’ll probably get more ripped off in the setting.
You can save a few bucks shopping around for stones, but the retail markup on diamonds isn’t huge (my wife gets diamonds wholesale). The money on the stones is made before they get to retail.
I’d spend more time figuring out what kind of setting you like than worrying about the stone.
Priceless advice: when you go into the jewelry store, tell them you’re looking to give your girl an icy wrist. That’s the lingo. They’ll know you’re a high roller – not just some schmuck who fell off the turnip truck yesterday.
Ay! Don’t do this! I worked in Jewelry for a while and everytime we would take a piece form someone, we would have to check that it was a diamond in front of the customer.
Well, one time it turns out that a woman’s engagement ring was a cz…
it was not a pretty site.
As for getting a smaller stone that is more perfect, it all depends. Personally I agree with that. My own stone is smaller but of a higher quality. It is my experience, however, that 9 out of 10 women wanted a BIGGER stone, inclusions be damned.
In answer to the OP: it’s not possible, so don’t buy a fucking diamond.
Stop the madness.
Don’t buy diamonds. Simple.
They aren’t that wonderful. They aren’t that rare. They’re pretty useful for industrial purposes (such as drills and the like), but heinously overrated for any other purpose.
Buy her something else, something useful.
If you are going with a round brilliant cut, there are ratios in the shape that make the cut more or less ideal; ask to see the diamond’s certificate and write down the measurements. If you can do the math on the fly (calculating 60% is pretty easy) then you should have an idea of how close a cut is to ideal. Pay attention to the lighting in the jewelry store: the counter is lit from below, and sometimes there are spotlights above the counter recessed into the ceiling. These can make an inferior diamond appear very nice.
For clarity, ask to be shown any major inclusions with a loupe. I went with a VS1 and had him put the major inclusion under a prong in the setting.
As far as color goes, ask to see a similarly sized diamond the next color up and down the scale. I went with G, which was very nice. His selection of F and E stones was reasonable, but the premium I would have paid to go up in color was better spent on getting a nice clarity and a nice setting.
Carat weight is tricky – there’s a premium for getting a “magic” number like 1.00 carats, and it’s pretty arbitrary. Shoot for a few points above (why not?) the mark you’re thinking of, and you’ll get more for less. If you want to get her a one-carat stone, look for a stone of the same quality that weighs 1.01-1.04 carats. You’ll pay the same and it will be slightly larger.
Last but not least, always compare diamonds to diamonds. You are not a gemologist, but you are footing the bill. If you’re paying for the difference between a VS1 and a VVS2, make sure you can see the difference. Realize that your wife will only see the one you give her – so if you can see the difference, but you think “that’s not $500 worth of sparkle”, save yourself some money.
My father was a jeweler. I worked in his store and two others for probably about 10 years. I’ve never heard of this.
Get her one of these. Even if the diamond is crap, at least she will have had a hell of a drink.
I suspect your sarcasm meter needs to have the battery replaced.
You’re in California, so I highly recommend going to the Shane Company. They don’t work on commission, so I found them to be a lot less pushy and annoying than traditional jewelry stores. Also, they strongly encourage choosing the diamond first and then the setting, rather than showing you a bunch of rings and having you pick one. Some jewelers will arrange a diamond in a setting so that the flaws are hidden by the setting. Or you may simply end up buying more of a diamond you want because you want a given setting. Better to pick them out individually.
Also, wherever you go, don’t let yourself get talked into spending more than you want. How much you spend is not a measure of your love, and your fiancee will love it no matter how big or small it is.