Let's talk about diamonds
0I'm no stranger to jewelry shopping, and I'm very familiar with diamond grading scales. The scales were very helpful for my wife's engagement ring and I appreciated the jeweler's help because it was a huge purchase for me at the time.
Now I'm looking for diamond studs. Not enormous but large enough to sparkle. My question for you all is how much does the clarity matter in smaller diamond jewelry? I've seen .5C studs for $1500 and for $500. Is it worth the extra cost when buying something like this? By worth I mean can I (and she) really see the difference? another way
I realize I can save money is by buying IGI instead of GIA certified diamonds. I plan to do this because I don't care about the prestige of the certifying group. Not for this purchase.
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it's kind of an eye of the beholder type thing. if they look good to you, that's all that should matter. one thing, if they let you, try to look at the diamonds under natural lighting instead of bright jewelry store lighting. (maybe take it over by a window so it's not directly under the spotlights) that will give you more of an idea of how they will look under normal circumstance.
@carl669 Excuse me for a moment while I check these with outside light. I will be "right back".....
@carl669 Agreed. When I bought my fiance her ring, the lady actually suggested we go outside to look at the stone in the natural light. A good jeweler is hard to find ;)
@Nikodemus On a cruise ship a jeweler let me take a $3,000 Alexandrite ring out on deck to see it change color in the sunlight, and she didn't ask for anything, even my sign-and-sail card for security. I was pretty amazed. Alexandrite is rarer than diamonds and although I'd heard of it I'd never seen it. In natural sunlight, the gem appears greenish blue; in soft incandescent light, the gem appears reddish purple.
@moondrake I love purple.
For a few years of my life, I worked at a resale store that bought and sold jewelry, including diamonds.
You will save a whole lot of money buying used. Even more if you buy something synthetic that looks good.
When buying used jewelry, the store paid based primarily on the value of the precious metals. Only if there were large nice looking stones, would the store pay more for jewelry. A 0.5C diamond might be worth a few dollars. Anything smaller, wouldn't be worth anything.
When selling used jewelry, the store used most of the same slimy techniques that the upscale jewelry stores used. They priced them at about half the mall store price. But they could discount from there.
They only sold a small percentage of the jewelry they bought. Most of it got melted down for the gold.
The large diamonds would be unmounted by hand. The small diamonds and the diamonds that were deeply mounted were left in the jewelry. The larger chunks of gold were snipped off and sent to the regular refinery. The bits with diamond in them were sent to a place that used an acid to dissolve the gold. A few weeks later, we would get a check for the gold, and a little glass bottle with loose diamonds in it. The store would get hundreds of thousands of dollars for the gold, the diamonds would be worth hundreds of dollars. This would be valuable enough to make it make sense to pay for the more expensive "acid melt". But, it becomes easy to see why the diamonds in an individual ring, aren't worth much to the store.
"Moissanite" is gem quality silicon carbide. The index of refraction is slightly different from diamond, so the cut is slightly different to get the right sparkle. A very skilled professional can tell the difference in under a minute with the gem in their hand with just a jeweler's loupe. Most folks need some specialized equipment. The US patent on synthetic moissanite jewelry will expire in 2015, so this stuff will become much cheaper next year. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moissanite
Cubic zirconium is a lesser diamond substitute. Under the right light, some people can tell that a gem in a ring is cubic zirconium, while the person is still wearing the ring. Those same people would have to get uncomfortably close to your wife to see what was in her earrings.
@hamjudo Wow- you really are an amazing source of knowledge on lots of things.
@hamjudo I love hearing the truth...the diamond industry is full of crock...rather like OPEC
As @hamjudo said, I've heard a lot about Moissanite and how it's pretty much the same thing at 1/10th the price of most diamonds with no worries about any kind of conflicts involved. When I buy an engagement ring it's definitely going to be Moissanite.
I also got my SO a pair of these that she loves, they look great and as a bonus I won't be out $500 if she loses them, I even got her another smaller pair because she liked them so much.
@JonT Moissanite is crap. No jeweler worth his loop will sell that shit. I'd go with well set cubic zirconia, not too big, looks too fake. Studs are easy to lose. I got so paranoid about mine I had them put in a ring. They are really high quality stones, and wasted on earlobes.
@Teripie This is honestly the first time I've ever heard anyone say anything bad about Moissanite, can you tell me why you think that? All I've heard is how they're chemically the same as a diamond but with even less imperfections because they're made without them. And of course jewelers won't sell them, they'd rather make 10x as much on blood diamonds :P
@JonT Several of the TV jewelry channels pop up with them occassionally at god-awful prices. I got curious and have asked a couple jewelrs about them and was told they are not even as good as good CZs. On the topic of CZs, there are good and bad ones there too. The better quality will loose their luster a little slower than most. But they all will do that. I have couple pair I inherited and they're getting cloudy, but for studs they're great.
@Teripie QVC's Diamonique CZ has a lifetime limited warranty. Against chipping, scratches and clouding.
@Teripie I still don't think that's necessarily the Moissanite's fault, it sounds like some TV jewelers are taking advantage of people not knowing enough about it. And if your only other evidence against them is from jewelers that are directly and negatively affected by their existence, can't say I buy it.
@JonT You don't trust a jeweler when they recommend you stick with the artificially inflated diamond as opposed to the market rate alternative? Just follow along and check out their new "chocolate" diamonds that totally aren't colored to hide flaws and inflate the price
@JonT I'm surprised that no one has mentioned lab-grown/manufactured diamonds. They are structurally identical to mined diamonds, without the mining and massive markup by the De Beers cartel. http://www.renaissancediamonds.com/lab-grown-vs-mined-diamonds.html
@Teripie Jewelers prefer CZ to silicon carbide, because it only takes a little training to tell CZ from diamond. On the other hand, gem quality silicon carbide is almost indistinguishable. The standard way to make gem quality silicon carbide is protected by patent. Non-gem quality silicon carbide has been made commercially since the 1890s. An easy way to avoid patent issues is to make silicon carbide that is not gem quality, but is at least mostly transparent. This scam is a lot harder to prosecute than violating the patent and making good quality stuff. The general rule applies, never buy as seen on TV merchandise, at as seen on TV prices.
@rockblossom And you can have one made from your mom or your dog. Seriously. They can be made from a lock of hair, so you could actually have the diamonds in your wedding set made from one another's DNA. Talk about a binding symbol! However, it may all be BS. http://www.cremationdiamondreport.com/
@moondrake I can see that. "My grandma died last month, so I got this necklace." "Your grandmother left you the necklace?" "No. The necklace is grandma. We thought she would like going out to parties rather than sitting around in an urn."
@JonT
@JonT Instead of deciding now...why not see what your to-be wants? I NEVER wanted a diamond. Got one because HE wanted it, and I hated it. Currently, if I'm engaged again, I'd prefer a fossil inlay.
@Mavyn Oh I've talked about it with her and she definitely doesn't want a real diamond. It'll still be a little while before I actually purchase a ring, but Moissanite is what it'll be.
Brads Deals had a pair of diamond studs in their daily newsletter today. 1 cwt, you can pick solitare or princess cut, $579 shipped. Brads Deals
@bluedog They are I- and I-3 in clarity which isn't too bad for earrings. The color is good. Pretty good deal for 1 carat TGW.
CZs set in gold or small clean diamonds set in gold will be a homerun if you include really nice jackets. And if she really likes the jackets you're future jewelry gift ideas are taken care off. I've got bunches of jackets and love every pair.
We had the original diamond from my wedding ring changed out for a little better one and had it put in a setting so I could wear it as a necklace. Somewhere, I lost the necklace. And the diamond.
Our insurance company covered the cost of a new diamond, wrote us a check and I bought some CZ stuff. No more real diamonds for me.
@Collin1000 Ha! That was pretty great, gonna have to watch more in the series now.
@Collin1000 I have never liked diamonds, they are just too cold. I chose star sapphire for my engagement ring.
@JonT https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLuKg-WhduhkksJoqkj9aJEnN7v0mx8yxC