Way to go chobby100! I too am in Boston and did almost the exact same thing as you (see my previous post). I looked at regular jewelry stores, Costco, diamond stores in NYC, BlueNile, etc. I ended up using Pricescope.com was excellent and I found a great (no, take that back, amazing) diamond for my girlfriend (now wife).

This may be a silly question, but are diamonds cheaper in other countries, like SE Asia? When I was there, I noticed a lot of jewelry stores (in Singapore and around Thailand) toting cheap diamonds. I would imagine, however, that it would be difficult to certify the authencity of a diamond unless you were an expert.

Anyone have any thoughts?

bump... anyone?

There is so much bad advice on this thread I don't know where to begin or really have space to address everything. But having just been a buyer I would offer the following:

(1) If you don't do anything else, go to pricescope for sound advice on buying a diamond (yes I know it's referenced above - one of the few helpful tips).

(2) A diamond is a big big investment. The most important thing is to find a trustworthy jeweler who will sell you a certified stone at a fair price. good heavens I love miles as much as anyone but they are really secondary at best. 20 years from now those miles will be spent, but that diamond is forever and you will be pissed if you get stuck with a crappy one because you wanted a few thousand miles.

(3) As is true with most things, you get what you pay for. If you go to costco, you will get a costco quality diamond. Really. It will be a crappy cut and worth every penny you paid - but no more. If you go to Tiffany you will get an excellent diamond but pay a premium for the blue box. Your best bet is a reputable local jeweler. If you live in a small town and don't have one, then perhaps you should consider bluenile or ashford, but they would not be my first choice.

(4) While online merchants such as bluenile are reputable, online shopping is is NO substitute for shopping in person. You really can't see the subtle differences in cuts or color on a screen, and the inclusions are highly magnified and therefore a bit overstated. When you shop in person, you may find (as I did) that inclusions are less noticeable but color is very important. Or vice versa.

(5) Do not buy overseas. You will have no recourse if you get shafted (which is highly likely) and the prices are not any lower as diamonds are traded worldwide. If it looks too good to be true, you are probably getting a diamond that is not what it appear, usually not as good a cut, but possibly deceived on color, clarity or one that has been modified (laser filled).

(6) If you remember nothing else, the most important item is the CUT. That determines how much your diamond will sparkle. Everything else is secondary (provided of course that you don't go with too low of a color or clarity). The advice to go for the biggest carat you can afford is laughable. How will your wife feel when her big diamond looks yellow and dull next to her friends? Yes, it may look great in the store, but it won't look great by comparison if it is poor quality. Like most other things in life, it pays to buy the best quality you can afford.

Good luck!

And to those who are curious, I found that blueniles prices and quality were excelllent, but they could not beat the price or service of my local dealer. And yes, I charged it on my Citi AA card. Why not get the miles? :cool:

It appears that my husband was not the only man that needed a little education on buying a rock for his better half. Forget about the miles. Let’s not let the tail wag the dog.

1. Find out what she wants. Is she into the biggest rock possible? Does she like antique jewelry? Does she want to design her own ring? Jewelries are very personal. She may not even want a diamond.
2. Decide how much you want to pay.
3. Go to several local jewelers and get a good idea of what you can get for what you are willing to pay. Make sure you understand the trade off between the size and quality.
4. Your choice may be more limited on the antique jewelries. For antique jewelry find the best deal you can from an antique dealer or jeweler. Make sure they will let you appraise the jewelry before you finalize the transaction.
5. For “regular” rings, find a diamond (or stone) wholesaler. You will always get a better deal buying diamonds separately and have them mounted by a trust jeweler. Too bad you are not in Houston, or I can recommend a good one.

A reputable jeweler or wholesaler will let you appraise the merchandise before you finalize the purchase.

Congratulations!

Could you purchase on your credit-card, and then get a line of credit through your bank (prime-plus 1-ish%) to pay off your credit card? :)

In response to Bortaxo's post I would agree on most points and can not stress how important Pricescope was (and is as we look at the bands). It really is the cut that matters. i can make the diamond look so much more brilliant and larger.

But, I'm not sure the costco diamonds are any worse (although I would not buy it mounted first). The same goes for online dealers.

This is what we did. We first went to standard B&M jewlers to figure out what she wanted. Then we did some pricing. Then I spent far too much time on pricescope so I undertsood the market and exactly what I was looking for. Then we shopped around. When it was an online dealer I made sure that they had a generous return policy (at least 10 days). Then I took the diamond to a independent appraiser who did not sell jewelery (none of that "well it's nice but I could sell you ..."). While I purchased the stone from an online jeweler, it was independently appraised by a GIA appraiser (who also happens to be a professor of gemology). Then i had the stone set by a local jeweler who i shopped at first. They could not even come close to touching the price for similar stones.

Note: my approach was made mcuh easier by the fact the I was looking for and bought a round brillliant solitaire. With some funkier design (round solitaire in a platinum setting is not funky by any means) it may make the process more difficult.

I wanted to share my recent experience to stop anybody from making the same mistakes I did. We found a fabulous diamond at Blue Nile for 1/3 less than a local jeweler would charge - $18k vs $27k. I decided to triple-dip on the miles/points by a)using my Starwood card, b) buying gift certs via links to giftcertificates.com, and c) redeeming the GCs at blue nile via Marriott rewards link.

The first problem was the credit limit on the Amex. We asked for an increase but because we asked for >$25000 it had to go through a review so it took 3 days. So keep that in mind if you have a specific card you want to use - ask for your credit limit increase before you find a diamond/ring that you must have today. :)

It got worse when I started dealing with giftcertificates.com. I was willing to deal with the $250 max, but I also had to deal with a $2499 per order max for earning points on the GCs. After placing 6 orders for a total of $13700 I decided that was enough (it was a total of 56 $250 and $100 GCs) and that I would pay the rest to Blue Nile directly with the *wood Amex. GC.com immediately put all my orders on hold for "review" but meanwhile, a hold for $13700 had been placed on my Amex. After multiple phone calls & e-mails to both GC.com and Amex over 3 days to get the order approved I was finally told this morning that it was approved. Then an hour later I was called by gc.com to say they just weren't comfortable with an order that size, despite the authorization from Amex, and they would cancel my order and release the hold on my card. :confused:

So I finally got to order my diamond today after about 10 days of dealing with Amex and then GC.com. I got fewer points than I wanted, but still quite a few - 50k Marriott Rewards points and >18,000 *wood points. It is on its way and will be here Monday! :D

Personally, I would be disappointed to find out that the man I'm about to marry would make such a huge purchase and not get ANY miles for it. But then, that's a FT lady talking.

congrats on getting so many pts... i am not real sure about the value of the pts. you received. but bluenile is definitely one of the more expensive online jewelry sites. then again, maybe the points you earned is more than the overhead :)

remember to checkout http://www.pricescope.com/ many of the exact same diamonds that are found on BlueNile.com can be found in this diamond pricing database as well. (The GIA certs and other sometimes match exactly with BlueNile.com)

I searched around and called a lot fo places, etc, etc before buying in the end from bluenile.com. In the end, they were the only one's with the exact setting that I wanted and were comprable in price for jsut the loose center stone, too.

You can call them and ask them to pull the stone and give you and eye-clean report as well as send the sarin reports along. If you're not happy with it when it comes and you get your hands on it, you can return it without much hassle.

I ended up getting something *perfect* from them that actually exceeded my expectations and even though I had to work out details of my order over the phone, the phone rep worked with me on doign the order online and then her modifying it so that I could still get AA miles for it through their online mall. It was extra work for them, but great customer service. The miles didn't play into my decision of where to buy, but I looked at them as just a little bonus for me.

peace,
~Ben~

hi ben,

it's great you got the *perfect* ring you wanted!

fyi, it's unlikely that they pulled the stone and gave you an eye-clean report... since most of the stones are inventory lists of stones from other people. unless you happened to pick a stone they had in stock... but i think bluenile tends to not buy inventory... none of the web sites can afford to buy inventory and sell at those prices. they probably just looked at the report to tell you if it was "table clean" or not.

anyway, still good service is what's important.

While they don't have inventory in stock, they will put in a request for the guys in NYC who do hold the stone to pull it from the vault and report back to them. Twice, requesting this yielded information that wasn't available on the report -- which is available online for you to see anyway. Of the four times I made a request for an eye clean report, twice it took roughly 48 hours, once 3 days (they explained that since it was over Yom Kippur, the guys with the stone wouldn't be available to pull it from the vault until after the holiday), and once they had an eyeclean report on hand since it had previously been requested by another customer for that particular stone.

I think that its good to be cynical when making a big purchase like this and buying a diamond, but the folks at bluenile really do their best to help you and be forthright. Twice, I had a CSR tell me not to buy a stone that I was interested in since it probably wasn't what I was looking for in terms of quality/appearance. Since they don't work on commission, I have less fear of being bull....ted than when I talked with other vendors.

I ended up getting a round cut / 1.1 ct / F / SI2 (looks like a VS1 - only flaws are twinning wisps not visible w/out a microscope/UV light). :cool:

peace,
~Ben~

hi ben,
not being cynical at all... my gf's family manufactures jewelry... that's why i know the business ;)
i was just noting that the bluenile guys can't pull the stones, while the suppliers can. but not all online websites will go thru the trouble like bluenile.
so kudos for them on good customer service.