--Tiffany Price Increase...--

I just got word that Tiffany US has raised their prices 8%...

This pretty much removes the idea of possible cross border ring shopping. With the recent CAD-USD conversion rate and the lower sales tax in the US, it made sense to make the drive across.

I was able to get the prices in both CAD and USD from Tiffany and in general, the Canadian stores have a markup of about 15-20%. Factor in US sales taxes, roughly 6-8%, the conversation rate, roughly 5-7%, you're still looking at saving quite a bit. The only question remains how you can bring it across the border. I do not endorse not declaring the ring, but that is where you'll see the most savings. Factoring in Ontario taxes of 13%, you're looking at saving about $500-700 at the end of the day.

I have heard success as well as horrid stories of cross border shopping. It's up to the individual of making that decision and how it may be the carried out. Please know the consequences before making your final decision.

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!

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!

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! =)

--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.