--Colour--

Another one of the 4Cs, Colour...

Colour
For those new to ring shopping, this colour grading does not refer to coloured diamonds like purple, red, blue, yellow that are naturally or synthetically made that way. Those kind of coloured diamonds cost much more than a white diamond.

The colour that this category represents is how 'white' a diamond is. It ranges on a scale from D, being the most white, or absolutely colourless, all the way to Z, a diamond that is extremely yellow. Of course, the whiter a diamond is, the more expensive it'll cost.

The broad range of most commercially sold diamonds will hover around D to J/K/L. They can be generally grouped into:

Colourless: D, E, F
Near Colourless: G, H, I, J

The colourless range will cost a pretty penny and you cannot tell the difference just by casually looking at it. Even the near colourless range are still fairly white and again, unless put beside whiter diamond, you cannot tell what colour grade it is. The ones below J are a different story. The lower the grade, the more significantly yellow it gets and will probably be visible without comparison by the naked eye.

In my opinion, anything above G/H is already really good, and you don't have to get D or E to get an awesome diamond. In general, anything within the near colourless category is buyable.

Keep in mind, even gemologists grade these stones using comparison. They have a set of diamonds from D to Z and they just compare one by one until they find what colour grade it is. In other words, to tell the colour grade of a diamond, you will always need to compare with another colour.

GIA / AGS vs GemScan

For all the fellow Canadians, this post might be worthwhile to spend some time to read up.

Since my quest for the perfect ring, I've learnt a few things regarding the diamond grading system. First, of course, you always want good or great specs if your budget can accommodate. Secondly, however, and often even more important, is WHO or WHERE the grading certificate came from. I don't think there is much debate that GIA and AGS are the highest and most authoritative grading institutions in North America at least, but probably worldwide too. If the diamond you're looking at has a grading certificate from either one of them, rest assured the specs are accurate and have been through strictest grading possible. However, make sure the certificate is authentic (later blog on this)!

GemScan is a reputable appraisal and grader that is based in Toronto, Ontario. A lot of the wholesalers and retailers in the GTA area get their grading certificates from them. I've heard good stories as well as not so good stories regarding their grading. From what I conclude, their standard is definitely not as strict as GIA or AGS, so take their grading with a grain of salt. I would safely subtract a grade to the specs they give you. So if they give you a G colour, VS2, consider the diamond a H colour, SI1.

The reason behind GemScan's "loose" grading is that most of the jewellry dealers in the GTA area give their business to GemScan. By grading diamonds higher for the dealers, the dealers in return can sell more diamonds and get a higher profit. Then they give more wholesale, loose diamonds to GemScan and thus a mutual benefit is created. That is not to discredit or say GemScan is not reputable, but to gain a better understanding of the background of how it works will yield a better judgement call on your behalf.

Even worse is when a vendor gives you a sheet of paper stating the grades and authenticity of the diamond without any body of appraisal. These likely come from their in-house grader and obviously is very biased in their grading. Definitely try to stay away from this type of seller.

In conclusion, you will pay a premium for GIA or AGS certified diamonds. And that's the very reason why some friend of yours might have gotten a diamond of higher spec than you for a fraction lower than yours. But keep in mind, you get what you pay for. I would strongly recommend getting a GIA/AGS certified diamond and make sure it's the same one as the one stated on the certificate!

New Hope?

I just went to a new store today with a friend of mine who's also looking at engagement rings. I looked at their website and they had a surprisingly decent inventory of GIA/AGS graded diamonds (not sure of the authenticity). I asked to see some of the GIA diamonds as my friend was looking at the GS (GemScan) ones. They told me they did not have any in the store, but could bring in ones for me to see. So I gave them my specs and they put in an order for me. We'll see how that goes. But their prices seemed decent. Now I have to research if this place is authentic or not.

After ring shopping with my friend several times, I realized that I'm really picky when it comes to diamonds. Perhaps, obssessive. My friend brought along another friend who had already bought a ring for his girlfriend. While the three of us were looking at the rings in that store, it seemed like I was the only one who actually put thought and cared about the actual specs of the ring, the symmetry, what colour grade, and not just the price! When I asked for GIA stones, they thought oh what's the difference besides the fact that they cost twice as much? And maybe there isn't much of a difference, but to know that I will buy a diamond that is graded by one of the strictest, prestigious diamond governing bodies, makes me that much more comfortable.

They even fell for the sales trick "look at all of them, aren't they just shiny? You wouldn't regret picking any one of them!" Obviously, because you have a zillion spot lights shining on them. Even crystals will look shiny under those conditions. My friend only paid attention to the price and as long as it was reasonable specs, he was okay with it. He ended up picking a SI2, E colour, 1 carat, while a G colour, VS2, 1 carat only cost a fraction more. He looked at all of the loose diamonds before I met up with him and he advised me they were perfect. I looked at hte SI2 and immediately saw a feather and an inclusion right at the dead center of the diamond...

Ah well, as long as he's happy (and let's hope his future fiance too), then that's all that matters. I guess I put myself through way too much in choosing this diamond ring. But hey, at the end of the day, that's what matters to me and I want to find The Perfect Ring ... =P

Bad Sales?

In the past few months, I have been in this certain "big" retail store shopping around for rings. There was this nice girl who offered to help and had great customer service. As usual, they ask you for specs on the ring you want and if there isn't anything in the store, they will offer to look around their "global inventory" for you. So I was happy to give her the specs I want, and my contact information (Tip: Don't leave your cell phone number in case you're shopping for a ring secretly and a store calls you telling you the great news that they have found your Perfect Ring. This goes for email accounts as well if your girlfriend has access to it. Bottom line: Leave contact information that your girlfriend can't check or you will not be contacted at a time where you might not be available. Of course, if you're shopping together with her, then that's no problem at all...)

Anyway, getting back to the point, after a day or two, I receive an email from the girl with information on a few particular rings in within my spec range and above my price range. That's no problem since it's their responsibility to upsell. (Tip: If your budget is $8000, tell the sales it's something closer to $7000 or $7500. They will upsell you) We email back and forth several times narrowing the specs down even more and she said she would contact me once the rings I was interested in came to the store.

Days passed... Weeks passed... and I'm still waiting for her confirmation. Since it's been forever, I decided that I would continue shopping around. Well, literally several months later, I went into the store again just to look around and guess who serves me? That's right, that girl. She had no idea or recollection that we've talked several times in person before and emailed each other numerous times. I reminded her that we've talked before and nicely left out the part that she never emailed me back. Again, she was enthusiastic and had great customer service, so we proceeded to the information collecting and spec narrowing again.

Once again, she was prompt with email replies and was very thorough and informative. The same thing happens... and yeah, literally, the same results. I've now waited almost a month for her confirmation that the rings I was interested are in.

It's sad that as a potential buyer and customer of this "big" jewellry store, that this type of scenario can happen. How much commission could she possibly make if she only followed through thoroughly with each and every customer? It doesn't take that much time or effort does it?

Now I'm left with the question should I email her back or just go with another sales rep? I'm also confused as to whether she actually put in the request to have the rings I was interested in sent over or not. Because if she did, how can she not be reminded to follow up on this customer when the rings she had transferred over for me came in.

Argh, ring shopping is sooo time consuming!

Updates

Please check out the post on Clarity that I made earlier here. I have updated it with lots and lots of good information =)

For those who live in the US, Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day. For those of us in Canada, enjoy work tomorrow and feel free to drop by my blog!

Online Vendor vs Local Store

I'm going to keep this post short and sweet... perhaps discuss the topic in more details in subsequent post.

I was on a particular message board and read a thread where someone suggested buying from an online vendor.

In my opinion, it is not in your best interests to buy from an online vendor unless you are extremely knowledgable about diamonds and have done your research (and know of the few reputable online vendors). Here are the reasons why not to:

• You cannot truly see the diamond, even with all the fancy images that online vendors post, it's hard to believe 100% that those images are from the same diamond that will be shipped to you, or they're not enhanced in any way to hide inclusions or black dots, or the pictures merely do not show them due to the angle or lighting in which the picture was taken.
• You cannot truly estimate any broker, customs, duties, taxes, and/or other fees that could come with your purchase. Typically, these are estimated at 25% on top of the final price, after tax of your diamond/diamond ring. Some could be less, some could be more. But the point is, you never know and any unknowns when it comes to money should be avoided.
• There could be procedures and documentations that you have to fill out and fax and distribute to different parties before you can properly receive the ring from your online vendor (of course, we're talking from another country)
• Returns (if they have such a policy) may be difficult since shipping time could come into play.
• At the end of the day, you're making a pretty big purchase without ever even seeing or touching the diamond. What if it comes to you and you're not in any way satisfied?

There are however, some pros in buying online...

• Price! Online vendors tend to have lower prices than local retail stores due to the fact they have much less overhead in running their businesses. There is probably a whole slew of other reasons as well.
• You can find higher quality diamonds such as Hearts & Arrows, AGS000 (more about these as well) and in different carat weights from online vendors. Even Tiffany may not have these high quality diamonds in their selection and you wouldn't be able to tell from their certification.
• Accompanying these high quality diamonds, sometimes, are idealscope images or those "red x-ray" pictures of the diamond which show how much light is reflected, resulting in a more brilliant, fiery, shiny diamond.

Always, Always, ALWAYS see the diamond before you make a purchase. And when I mean see, I mean take your time, use a loupe, use a idealscope (more about this later too), use whatever higher magnification means you have to view the diamond. Look at it from different lightings (retail stores, especially Tiffany's has superb spotlight and other means of making any diamond shine with fire, so beware!), different angles. Heck, look at it on different days, get your friends to look at it, and then look at it yourself again. When you're truly satisfied with the diamond, that's when you can confidently pay for it.

So much for a short post, I hope you find this helpful! =)

--Clarity--

The next 'C': Clarity

Clarity
This 'C' grades how much inclusions, imperfections, black dots, white dots, blemishes, feathers..... all fancy words which boil down to stuff in or on the surface of a diamond. There is a wide range of grades for Clarity:

• FL Flawless. Nothing. Zero. Nada. This diamond has nothing bad inside. Completely clean and uncontaminated. Extremely rare and extremely expensive.
• IF Internally Flawless. Keyword: Internal. The surface of this diamond is the only place where any miniscule imperfections live. These imperfections are much better than the ones inside because with further polishing, they can be eliminated or reduced. Still extremely rare and extremely expensive.
• VVS1/VVS2 Very, very slightly included. Just as the name suggests, these are very, very slightly included. "Included" = has "inclusions". Inclusions is a common term for any type of imperfections in the diamond. Next time you visit a store, ask "Where are the inclusions in this diamond?" to sound professional =P. Back on topic, these diamonds are more common than the above two, but are still very expensive.
• VS1/VS2 Very slightly included. These diamonds have inclusions that be can viewed under 10x magnification. The difference between this category and the above category is generally the location, size, and type of inclusion. White dots vs black dots (black dots are worse...), feathers, or inclusions that are easily identified will make the stone fall under this category.
• SI1/SI2 Slightly included. Diamonds in this category have inclusions that may be visible to the naked eye. This depends on how bad the inclusion is, the location of the inclusion and most importantly, how well trained or experienced the person viewing the diamond is. Most experienced or trained appraisers, gemologists and buyers can usually spot the inclusions without magnification after carefully examining the diamond. Diamonds in this category are, in my opinion, the best bargain because this is sort of the tipping point from bad diamonds to better diamonds. SI's cover the broad range of diamonds in between the good and the bad. If you plan on buying a diamond with this clarity grade, try to make sure it is a "eye clean diamond". What "eye clean" means is that after a diamond is set (remember from my previous posts, this means the diamond is already on the band/ring), vieiwng the diamond faced-up, it is hard to see the inclusions with the naked eye. However, viewing it from the side or bottom/upside-down, you may see the imperfections easily.
• I1/I2/I3 Included. These diamonds have inclusions and are probably clearly visible with the naked eye from several feet. Basically, if you're not low on cash, try to stay away from this grade.

Wow, another long, yet informative post! I hope you found this information useful =) Again, please remember these represent my personal opinion. At the end of the day, it's what you feel most comfortable with. I'm just trying to educate you, so you are armed with all the knowledge and experience that I've been through.

Here are a couple last pointers:

• Lower end stores tend to carry SI's and I's
• Tiffany's only carry VS or higher BUT has recently started having a limited selection of SI's as well. They said it'll cater to a broader range of customers since their diamonds are crazy expensive.
• VVS are usually not worth the money as downgrading to VS will cost less and probably, the inclusions are still not visible
• Having said that, FL and IF are obviously not worth the money either. But how cool is it to say "I have a FL/IF diamond ring" =P
• Some VS2s are worse than SI1s. There is a fine line between these grades and keep in mind, every diamond in this world is graded by a human being, so there'll always be discrepancies.
• Following the above point, the appraiser or appraisal body of the certificate is extremely important to these grades. A SI1 from one appraiser might be a SI2 from another. I'll blog about this in subsequent posts.
• I am looking to buy a VS1 or VS2. I feel this is the best range for me =)

--Carat--

The long awaited first knowledge post... I'm going to start talking about the first C...

Carat
This is probably the 'C' that most people know about or they don't think they know, but really talk about. Carat, or carat weight is the quantitative measurement of how much the diamond weighs. Carat is actually the unit in which this spec is measured. If there was one most important thing to know about this 'C', it is that the Carat weight IS NOT EQUAL to how big the diamond is or looks! It is merely, the weight of the diamond and is measured in carats (1 carat is equal to 200mg in case any of you wanna know =P)

Obviously, the bigger the carat weight, the bigger the diamond is generally going to be. However, many factors come into play when determining how big a diamond looks. For example, you can have 2 round diamonds with the exact same carat weight, say 0.75 carat (or in diamond industry terminology, "75 points"), but 1 diamond could look bigger than the other. For the sake of argument, let's assume they have the same specs in terms of the 4C's (which will be discussed in subsequent posts). Now how is that possible you ask. Remember, 0.75 carat is the weight of the rock, not the size. When a diamond is "set" (placed on a ring/band/setting), what is visible to the eye is usually only the "table" (see diagram below). Therefore, a diamond can look bigger because it has a bigger table, which is the visible attribute. The rest of the actual carat weight could be elsewhere in the diamond. Of course, given different grades in the other C's, it can affect how big a diamond looks relative to another.



The Carat is actually the only 'C' which does not affect "brilliance" or "fire" (how sparkly the diamond looks).

One might ask, then how big of a diamond should I buy my beloved? That is a very, very subjective question and only you can answer that... and only after you've done your own research and shopping around. The best advice I can give you, is to go to different stores, and ask to look at rings of different carat weights, first, on the same setting and shape, then secondly, compared with different settings and shapes. Lastly, you want to look at different stores as the worksmanship and quality of diamond jeweller is different and may affect your perception of 'how big' 0.50 carats is.

Some random pointers:

• Don't be afraid to pick a carat size that you're comfortable with after looking at many.
• Be realistic financially and try not to overspend beyond your budget or what you can afford to get a bigger diamond
• Hopefully, your significant other will appreciate the effort and time (and money!) you spent on the diamond ring regardless of the carat size or any of the other specs (and that is the bottom line...)
• ....however... the truth is, different societies, cultures, social groups, sometimes do impose a certain "standard". By no means does that mean you have to obey it, but it's worth noting here.
• I would say, from my experiences so far, the most common "standard" is a 1 carat diamond... (My ideal size is just above 1 carat =) )
• The higher the carat weight, the more expensive the diamond! (Duh!) But, no I mean it doesn't grow linearly, but the price difference between a 60 points and a 70 points diamond is much less than the difference between a 70 points and a 80 points diamond and so on.

Let me actually go ahead and invent my law

Perfect Ring Law #1:

"The higher the carat weight, the more expensive it is to move incrementally higher"

This can be proven because it is more rare to find a clean and good spec diamond (high grades in the 4C's). Also, the bigger the diamond, more diamond is lost when cutting from the raw diamond into the retail diamond shapes to be sold.

--The 4C's--

For all the beginners who are about to start their own quest, this is probably the first primer you'll need to equip yourself with. For those who have played RPG games in the past (or still do =P), learning and having knowledge about the 4C's is kinda like obtaining the first map to the first area of the game. I would've compared it to learning about the objective or background of the main story... or even obtaining your first sword, but having access to the first map is a much better comparison.

In analogy, if you don't have the first map, you're just wandering around the darkness, trying to figure out way around, and not knowing what's out there.
-You could wandering forever and not find the way out, or what you're looking for.
-You could be going around in circles.
-You could potentially wander into a dangerous area and have your charactered heavily hurt or even killed.

When applied to the 4C's...
-You have no idea what you're shopping, and therefore cannot truly compare quality and pricing
-Because you do not know of quality and pricing, you can go around in circles forever and not be able to find a good diamond
-And due to those 2 above points, or similar to wandering into a dangerous area in a RPG game, you could fall victim to those malicious, insane priced, low quality, or even CZ dealers and pay double, triple, for a ring of inferior quality.

Therefore, as you can see, learning about the 4C's is vital to the beginner.


*** The 4C's ***

• Cut
• Clarity
• Carat Weight
• Colour

--The Story (Part 1)--

And this is how the quest begins...

I've been together with my girlfriend for over 10 years. We're each other's so called "High School Sweethearts". We were always the ideal, model couple that all other couples envied.

Fast forward almost a decade, both of us are in the workforce and trying to save up money to buy a place to move out. Work pressure and everyday life takes its toll and you sort of end up in a routine lifestyle that evolves around work and rest. No pressure of getting married, no real financial burdens, life just goes on.

When I was young, I always wanted to get married at an early age and start a family and possibly having a baby as well right after. I guess life takes you in different directions than what you would've wanted or dreamed of. Or maybe childhood dreams and imaginative adult life is far from the realistic, everyday adult life.

I casually started my quest about less than a year ago. Being a perfectionist, and a smart shopper, I always research thoroughly about a product before I make the purchase. And obviously, a ring is no different... and if anything, should be researched even more thoroughly.

To be continued...

--Intro--

The reason for starting this blog is to detail all my experience, stories, tips, knowledge... basically, my quest to search for the perfect engagement ring. Most guys will have to face this at some point in their life, whether it'd be in their early 20s, mid 30s, or even late 40s. But at some point in time, they will ultimately have to embark on this quest for their Perfect Ring.

Hopefully, followers of this blog can learn from the experiences and tips that I have come across, and perhaps share theirs with me. Even if this is just a good read, or followers can just get a good laugh out of it, I'll be grateful.

So whether you're an experience rock buyer... or on the receiving end... or you're wanting to know more about why that tiny rock costs you a fortune... or if you have many of those rocks sitting nicely in a box in your room... if you're a coloured princess-cut gal... or a classic round brilliant type of girl.... looking to buy Hearts & Arrows... this blog may be for you. So read on!

Let the quest begin...