How To Buy A Diamond Engagement Ring Before Proposing, Avoid Retail Tricks And Getting Scammed

Choose a diamond jewelry provider who offers personalized service and is prepared to discuss different diamond options with you. Think about the certification, it is one of the most important things and choose a diamond classified by the GIA (Gemological Institute of America). Choosing the right diamond can be tricky and it’s a great feeling to make an informed decision before investing in such a major purchase. Before you buy a diamond, ask yourself: do you know who the GIAs are? Do you know what the 4Cs are? Do you know the polishing and symmetry of the cutting degrees? Do you know what enhanced diamonds are? These are just a few of the points one should consider and if you have answered no to any of them, avoid buying a diamond until you are fully informed.

It is very important to understand the vital attributes of a diamond before choosing the right one and making that investment. You wouldn’t buy a house without knowing the number of rooms and dimensions and you probably wouldn’t buy a car if you didn’t know its color, so why should a diamond be any different? For consumers, we suggest that you consider the following before committing to purchase your diamond engagement ring or diamond jewelry.

1- Request a report from the GIA (Gemological Institute of America). The GIAs are the creators of the famous 4Cs grading system and the foremost authority on diamond grading. You may be surprised to learn that GIA is a non-profit establishment, investing all of its income in equipment, training, and research. All labs in the world are compared to the GIA and it is not uncommon for the GIA to downgrade diamonds that have been previously graded by other labs due to their superior grading techniques and technology. As a result, diamonds graded by other labs with apparently the same attributes are often cheaper than a GIA graded diamond. As all of GIA’s grading labs are integrated and strictly supervised for quality control, checking your diamond report online with GIA is much easier than with the other grading labs that operate more disparately.

2- To ensure you get value, you need to know the carat (weight), cut (shape), color, and clarity (visible natural inclusions in the stone). Color and shape are a matter of choice, but clarity should be a more careful consideration. We strongly recommend that you choose a diamond with a minimum of SI2 in clarity, do not buy a diamond with a grade of I1 2 or 3 as these diamonds have inclusions that are visible to the naked eye. For round diamonds, it is equally important to know the cut grade (as opposed to the cut shape). Other shapes known as fancy shapes, such as princess or emerald diamonds, do not have a cut grade on a GIA report (beware of retailers who give you a cut grade for shapes other than a round diamond, as GIA does not have a fancy shape cut grade). Other vital attributes include polish and symmetry, this applies to all forms. We suggest that you avoid any diamond with poor/fair to good grades on any of these attributes. Why is this important? A diamond is like a small set of mirrors that interact with light to create the appearance of the stones. Each angle and each facet affects the amount of light returned or lost. Therefore, the quality of the cut, symmetry, and polish determines the brilliance, fire, and scintillation of a diamond.

3 – When you buy a diamond, we want you to make an investment and not have an asset that depreciates. With this in mind, avoid buying a diamond that has been set and ungraded. It is very difficult to grade a set diamond and would need to be removed from the ring to accurately assess it. It is also likely that you will be expected to pay well in excess of the actual value of the piece of jewelry.

4 – Improved and Treated Diamonds: Modern technology has made it possible to treat diamonds in various ways. It can induce or decrease color and improve clarity. As these enhancement technologies advance, so does the need to advance detection technology and techniques. Some of the techniques used to enhance diamonds include coatings, combinations of heat and pressure, irradiation, and laser technology. The value of an improved stone is somewhat less than that of its improved version. Be careful and check diamond grading reports to see if any improvements have been detected. It’s a common trick for retailers to advertise a diamond with all the right-sounding attributes, but when you review the report, you can tell it’s been improved. How could he have known this unless he was aware of enhanced diamonds? Retailers love it because you get what you think is a great diamond and pay full price, but it actually has an enhancement procedure that greatly reduces its value and affects the structural integrity of the stone.

5 – Tricks of the trade – There are a few tricks that unsuspecting customers should be aware of. Most retailers take advantage of the fact that most people don’t know what to look for when buying a diamond.

Trick 1: Drop-Down Selection – When browsing online retailers and selecting your own diamond, you have the opportunity to select the shape, color, and clarity. Most consumers are aware of these attributes. What you should be aware of is when you come across retailers that offer you a certificate selection menu. You may be offered a number of certificates, including your own and possibly a GIA/IGI certificate. This is not acceptable, you need to know exactly what certificate you are getting, insist on seeing the report for the diamond you are buying. When they say you’ll get a GIA or other lab report in the same select box, it’s an excuse to charge you the price of the GIA graded diamond, but you’ll probably get the other one on sale as it will be cheaper for them to buy.

Trick 2: Sometimes you can also select the cut grade of a round diamond, some retailers trick you by offering good to higher grades in their selection criteria. The problem is that within the premium category they can sell you a very good cut diamond and charge you for an excellent cut diamond because you haven’t been able to specify your exact requirements. The price difference between two diamonds with exactly the same attributes but with a grade difference in cut, symmetry and polish can be as much as £500 or even more depending on the size of the diamond.

Trick 3 – The retailer allows you to select most of the common attributes, you buy the diamond but don’t know the polish or symmetry, you think you might get a great deal but if you don’t know these attributes how can you be sure? A diamond dealer would never buy a diamond unless all the information about the stone was available, so why should you?

Trick 4: You buy a ring to go with your diamond and you don’t know the weight. Metal prices are per gram. Don’t pay for a 3g platinum ring when you could have had a 5g ring. Also consider the quality of the ring, if the ring looks cheap it may look cheap and the quality of the finish is not up to your expectations.

Trick 5: The retailer offers you their own certificate, you think it’s a great deal and you do it. Ask yourself why one diamond with exactly the same attributes as a GIA certificate and another is priced differently. The answer is because they are not the same, lower grading from another lab or in-house retail grader will never be able to show you the true attributes of the diamond, so you think you are buying something that would otherwise be downgraded by the GIA. Also, when a retailer grades their own diamond, it is not an unbiased assessment, it is entirely in their best interest to upgrade the attributes by a grade or two to get a higher price.

Trick 6: Beware of retailers who claim to offer GIA certified diamonds but cannot deliver, always ask to see the report before you buy. There is a well known online retailer that offers GIA graded diamonds on the site, but when you ask about them, they claim that they do not deal in GIA graded diamonds. Always call the company, talk to someone, if you can’t get through before you buy, what if there’s a problem and you need to contact them after you place an order.

Trick 7 – Beware of misleading upfront prices and then VAT tacked on at the end of your order by some of the non-UK based companies.

Other areas that affect value include fluorescence, stripe thickness, and weight/surface area ratio. Stay tuned for more articles where we will go into detail on these points.

Don’t risk it, choose a GIA certified diamond, it’s the difference between wondering and knowing.