Reply With QuoteAlso, are the "Hearts on Fire" and "Signature Cut" stones worth the extra money? Do you get what you pay for when it comes to sparkle??
She wants sparkle!! :-)
It seems the diamond trade is as much a minefield as the vintage Rolex trade!
I'm after a round 1ct+ solitare diamond, possibly set with a baguette flanking each side.
I popped into De Beers recently and found a gorgeous ring with a price tag of "from £14,400" for a 1ct stone. It's perfect, but I can't afford it.
http://www.debeers.co.uk/db-classic-...ettes-j1ex03bp
Had a look on BlueNile and find a host of G IF 1ct stones with excellent cuts that are all £7k to 8k
You look on another loose diamond site and find the same G IF 1ct stone for £5k. I don't get why...
I have done my research about the 4 Cs, and realise cut is the most important, but I'd like an internally flawless stone, for the usual gushy reason. I also understand that it's a bit pointless paying for colour, with G/H being the sweet spot.
Are there any dealers or pros on here who can help direct me please. Is there a quality shop/website who won't take advantage of me? (London to Cambridge areas)
Here's hoping the Mrs doesn't read this thread......
Also, are the "Hearts on Fire" and "Signature Cut" stones worth the extra money? Do you get what you pay for when it comes to sparkle??
She wants sparkle!! :-)
I've done a fair amount of research on this and unless you want the worthless 'bragging rights' of having bought a stone from De Beers or Tiffany - the online sites are 100% reliable and have the same quality stones (e.g. VS1, colour F, etc). You're effectively paying almost 'wholesale price for the diamonds from Blue Nile or 77 Diamonds.
I feel sorry for the poor mugs who pay full retail!
FWIW I know one of the VIP sale assistant in Tiffany's. She gets a very good staff discount but she is getting engaged and she has "hinted" to her fiancée NOT to go to buy an engagement ring from the usual de beers and co.
Hi Greg, I use Dom Hackett he seems to know exactly what he is doing
Hi Adrian,Originally Posted by adrianw
Googling Dom Hackett only brings up his watch stuff, can't find any hint of diamonds......
Give him a call, I think he does more diamonds than he does watches, he has had made a couple of fairly expensive rings for me, I purchased the stones separately from him, he made the process very easy and was easily the most competitive. Also he came to me so I didn't have to go into London.
Is it me or have stones massively gone up in price recently?
I'm sure a stone like this used to be about £4k, now they're about £8k!!
I'd rather buy her a nice Daytona for that price!
I also was looking for a nice diamond and Dom h showed me some great stones. I didn't pull the trigger and unfortunately the pound tanked and as Dom explained stones are bought and sold in dollars so I'm now waiting for the pound to recover and then il buy.
First off - diamonds are a rigged market and a "con", but you know that anyway so...
I'm sure there are many who know more than I, but from my investigations when I bought my wife's ring:
Try not to buy "exactly" 1ct - it's an expensive price point and something like 0.98ct is virtually indistinguishable.
You have the right idea on colour
Cut.
Just to say... Cut. With current technology a perfect "hearts and diamonds" cut is much more common and although it's subjective should give a much better "sparkle". An "Excellent" cut is not necessarily the same thing as a perfect H&D.
Flawless is nice, but you honestly will NEVER see a VVS -it will come at a huge reduction on IF that will porbably allow you to go up significantly in size for the same budget
I used James Allen in the USA to buy my diamond and was very happy - you can choose 2-3 dimonds and ask them to physically compare all 3 and give you an opinion on them. The import duties on loose diamonds are very low but with current exchange rates plus VAT they might not be as competitive now
No. Avoid the brand name gimmicks as they just add 50% to the price for extra bits of pretend certification for characteristics which most diamonds have anyway.
In both your cases, it is just a made-up grading for what we used to call "Triple ex" diamonds; excellent cut, polish and symmetry.
Bear in mind all diamonds are cut by laser now, so these grades are always going to be very high. In the case of HoF and Signature Ideal they are always perfect, 100% symmetrical diamonds, but even a "bad" cut is in the high 80%'s for symmetry and polish, and still has damn near the same sparkle to anyone but a trained gemologist.
In their defense, they will sometimes cut away more excess from a rough diamond to make an "Ideal" cut. For example there may be 50% waste cut away to make an ideal cut 1ct, whereas it might make a "Very Good" grade by changing an angle and cutting away 48% - it's hard to explain better than that.
Anyway, to the pricing question. Blue Nile are one of the best known sites now for loose diamonds. They're still much cheaper than buying retail/high street, but it's run as a commercial enterprise rather than a "Trade only" site, so the margins are a little deeper these days (they used to be damn near trade price when I first used them). In their favour they already include VAT on their advertised prices and I've found most other diamond dealers quote you pre-VAT price, so if you were to chuck an extra 20% on the £5k diamonds then the number starts approaching Blue Niles.
There is still no substitute for going as close to source as possible. In the old days that meant a flight to Antwerp for a bargain, but those days have looooong gone, Antwerp is too commercial now and the stones are more expensive than here. So, unless you fancy a mooch around Africa for a conflict diamond from a friendly local Warlord then the jewellery quarter in Brum or Hatton Garden down in London have a wealth of diamond experts and dealers.
If you know the exact spec you want (and preferably where you're willing to compromise a grade or two) then have a day visiting a handful of specialists perhaps. You already have a ballpark price to aim for, if you find the right diamond just haggle.
Last edited by kevkojak; 9th February 2017 at 15:51.
very informative, cheers!
There are some good and very knowledgeable diamond guys on here, kevkojak being one. Speaking only from my personal purchasing experience, Alexaff of this TZ-UK parish has done me some decent deals on Platinum jewellery and some very nice diamonds, he is also friendly, approachable and knows the trade. If you want the 'eyes on' choosing experience there is much to see in the Birmingham Jewellery quarter if you have a decent loupe and are confident that you have a good(you will never know too much) grasp of the 4 C's and have a fair idea on price, finally 'Haggling' is your friend, be a nice man and no dealer will let you walk away if he can help it.
Good luck!
Last edited by KavKav; 9th February 2017 at 16:33.
Fantastic help Kevkojak!! Thank you.
And the other comments too, very helpful.
It sounds like a day in HG is on the cards then.
Shame the price will be 20% higher due to Brexit though, not easy to stomach for a remainer ;-)
Any recommendations on places to visit in HG other than Mr Hackett?
Funny I was reading up a bit on this a couple of nights ago and although not as good value as blue nile it did say that Tiffany,s did not have as massive a mark up on diamonds as a lot of other high street stores.
Took me by surprise I must admit.
I am looking at similar to OP but yeh since the pound tanked they are significantly more expensive.
I find that hard to believe. Tiffany, Cartier etc you are paying for the name.
Kev has pretty well covered it above but my 2p worth: The short answer, trust GIA as they are the gold standard. Trust IGI and HRD too but they can often be a grade more optimisitic in colour & clarity vs a GIA graded stone and as such should be cheaper. Don't trust anything else as it can be plain made up. EGL for instance write more inventive fiction than J K Rowling. Regarding cut, it is governed by listed measurements and ratios and isn't subjective so can be relied on, go for XXX on a GIA, that is as good as anyone needs, everything else is marketing. DIF is a waste of money, FVS1 is virtually indistinguishable from flawless under anything less than 20x magnification to most and costs roughly half as much, HSI2 may be half as much again and 99% of people wont know the difference without a loupe though inclusions will become obvious under a loupe in the SI range and the colour will look warmer. Avoid the I clarity range since inclusions can be eye visible.
No Bond St Brand will be cheap, the mark up over the materials cost could be as much as 300%, much more in the case of multi stone jewellery, it will be much less if you buy from an independent or specialist, cheaper still if you source the stone yourself form the likes of Blue Nile and have it set somewhere like B'ham or Hatton Garden. The discount for a 0.99 ct stone over a 1ct is not as great as you may think, no more than 10-15% in my experience since punters have cottoned on to the fact that they look indistinguishable. What else do you need to know?
Last edited by Padders; 10th February 2017 at 10:38.
You can get a very decent certificated loose 1ct solitaire stone for around 3k, then getting it set should cost no more than 1k.
If you really want to do it properly, go for a long weekend trip to Dubai and hit the diamond and gold park on Sheikh Zyed Road!
Could you link to one please mate? I can't find a "decent" 1ct stone for less than about £6k. (By decent, I mean G colour or better, VS1 or better, no strong fluorescence and an excellent cut, all on the GIA scale of measuring.)
I also find that the IF stones don't seem to cost that much more than a VVS1/2 stone. The colour seems to make far more difference to the price.
I've just found a 1.1ct Flawless, Excellent cut, faint blue fluro, in H colour for £6300. Same thing as a VVS2 is about £5500. But the same thing in F colour - FL - Excellent cut etc is about £12k. Scratch head again.
Last edited by mr noble; 10th February 2017 at 17:29.
Nope. He's our one stop shop for any jewellery. He'll make the right introductions to the right people and is well known on here.
Sorry mate, I don't have any links to give you.
I spend many a downtime day travelling shops in the Middle Was and Asia looking at diamonds, watches etc., so have seen a lot of prices on stones.
I purchased a 1ct, Si1, F colour stone in Dubai last year for £2k, it is GIA certificated and a nice stone, good symmetry fluorescence etc. Get it in the sunlight and it looks brilliant. I bought it as an investment, so it will be kept long term.
Sorry I can't be more helpful than that.
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