Q&A: Looking for Best Round Brilliant for $9000. Puts His Trust in Me – Does he End up Happy?

Ira,

Your site is excellent!! Plan on doing an online diamond purchase (Blue Nile or James Allen). Not huge $$$, but I am totally obsessed with finding some value out there! And its seems your the guy. So here’s an easy one:

Total budget 9k (USD) for the stone (keeps me around 10k all in)

Parameters: Round. Thats it.

After reading every article you’ve written, I’m cutting you loose. Find me a stone 🙂 summon all your creative powers and make my future wife smile!

As per your writings, color can be low, clarity is hit or miss, carats don’t tell the whole tale. So I don’t want to curtail you. Take some chances, I implore you. Looking for a hidden gem that might escape a less discerning eye. I’m not a stickler for ”grades” and I don’t care what its assessed value is,and don’t mind a singular large flaw that makes an otherwise unaffordable diamond within reach. Just hoping to find a stone that has ”bang for the buck”

(and if you have anything offline available I’d pay the 10% gladly if you made it an offer I can’t refuse, though I understand my purchase price isn’t heavy enough to have you sorting through the whole of Israel)

Thanks for in advance for anything you can do,

I contacted JA.  we’ll see how they respond.   But your selection is right up my alley.   Thanks and I’ll be sure to follow up.

They said it was eye clean, I’m gonna give it a shot.  Thanks for your help. I’ll follow up upon delivery.

Ira,

Just received the diamond you suggested….

I am utterly satisfied. First off, the diamond pops nicely. In the daylight the thing just makes noise. So it was very well cut, and the light loved it. Secondly, the 1.7 was bigger than I initially thought given my budget.

Which leads me to my Aha! moment when buying round diamonds, thanks to you. The color of a round diamond MUST be sacrificed by value-hunters. When mixed with medium fluorescence, my J/SI1 diamond, to my eye, looks like ice. I mean – its perfect. Its got a white/black/ice blue/ sparkle thing going on that is just mesmerizing. I just took it to a jewelry store to compare it to some F’s and G’s side by side, and really you couldn’t realistically say either one had any yellow in it at all. I know I am biased, but I would strongly recommend not paying up for color in a round. Take a leap of faith and slide down the color scale and up the size scale.

The stone I got cost 8.5K and has the look of a much more $$$$ diamond. She’s gonna be happy with it. Good work my man…