How to buy a good diamond ring: general and specific advice

Intothesea

When you start heading down the road of looking for a diamond engagement
ring, how do you know where to look or what constitutes a good deal? Prices
for apparently similar items may vary wildly from shop to shop, where is the
base line in it all? Below I will outline a general approach, tips and tricks that
will help you to meaningfully evaluate what you are being offered by
jewellers. My interest in this is consumer education; I am in no way allied
with any retail (or otherwise) jewellery outfit.


General Background ‘The 4 Cs’

The much-discussed 4 Cs refer to the Carat, Colour, Clarity and Cut of a
diamond. Carat refers to the weight (not the size) of a stone. Colour
describes the body-tint the stone might sport. This runs from D colour (the
whitest), to Z, a deep yellow, brown or grey. Clarity indicates the density of
inclusions or blemishes within the stone; and last but certainly not least, cut
indicates the level of accuracy in the way the diamond facets have been
formed by the diamond cutter. Cut grades generally are: excellent, very
good, good and poor. More on this later.


First things first: determining what you’d like

Before getting into the detailed possibilities, the most important thing to
know before you seriously set out is what suits your (or your girlfriend’s)
hand. There’s no point in scoring a good deal if it doesn’t do what it’s
supposed to: delight you both as a beautiful symbol.

Head to any and all of your local jewelers, try styles on your hand to find
out what carat range/colour appeals to you the most. Try on a selection of
solitaires (single-stone rings), three stones (or more) and halo styles. Check
to see if you prefer a lower or higher mounting, and in what metal or metal
colour. Keep in mind that the more simple the setting, the easier it is to
change its size and maintain later on. Keep a mental note of all details, along
with the cost. This can be used in your analysis later on.


Viewing Jewellery: how-to notes; gauging cut quality

In the average jewelers the sales persons won’t know too much more about
diamonds than the average shopper. For this reason, do the ‘trying on’ part
with the advice of the sales person, but involve the shop-owner or qualified
sales associate when getting the low-down on the statistics (i.e. as many of
the 4 Cs as you can). Doing this as a couple invites extra sales pressure from
staff, so be prepared! If they’re closing in very hard on you don’t be shy
about stating “we think this is beautiful and really like it but we’ll have to go
and figure out how we’d approach paying for it”. Hardly a lie, is it? Leave
with a smile, rinse and repeat. Information gathering is easier if one partner
carries it out, plus it leaves the other partner free to walk in with a specific
request and push for a discount that has been calculated beforehand!

Another trick is to compare and contrast what different stones (of the same
shape) look like in more natural lighting. Jewellers are usually fairly unhappy
to do this, mostly because they’re worried that their precious cargo will
disappear down a side-street, as you’d expect. If you can get the rings or
stones as far as close to the window (i.e. away from spotlighting), you’ll
probably notice that some stones look more ‘dead’ than others when
under more diffuse natural light. This is a good way to weed out better
‘performers’ (i.e. stones with better cut typically) without any special tools
or reports. Remember though that the winner is the best of the lot – and the
whole lot mightn’t be such a great lot!


Worked Example: How to analyze and influence the deal

For the sake of example, let’s assume a hypothetical girlfriend prefers a
‘really white’ look, in the ‘as big as we can afford’ range or ‘0.5 carats
minimum’, in a round shape and on a high white gold setting with four
prongs holding the stone. An example would look like this wonderful link:

White Gold Solitaire.JPG

Weight and pricing: magic markups

As your aim is to do well and squeeze out as much value for money as you
can, the first thing to calculate is how far the size requirement is removed
from the size ‘big hitters’ in the diamond consumer world. These sizes are 0.5
carats, 1 carat, 1.5 carat, 2.0 carats, 2.5 carats, and so on. In short, prices
mysteriously ‘jump’ at these marks – this is because consumers love to
achieve these particular weights. When asked about the size of a ring, it’s
nicer to deliver a “1 carat” rather than “0.93” carat – that doesn’t sound
quite as impressive does it! The answer to this is to add the word “almost”
to the answer – and everyone is happy Jewellers who sell uncertified
diamonds can make the most of this price-jump expectation by selling you a
supposed 0.5 carat stone that could be just a little less in reality (i.e. 0.47
carat) – you almost get what you think you’re paying for and your jeweller
cashes in on the discrepancy!

More to come...