Q&A: “Looking for Most Bang for my Buck” for Round Diamond with $3500 Budget

I am so glad I stumbled across your website! I began my search for a diamond for my girlfriend at Blue Nile. Right off the bat I was skeptical about paying a bunch of money for something I couldn’t see. Luckily I found your site before I made any purchasing decisions. My knowledge of diamonds is very limited and I am essentially looking for the most bang for my buck. I will spare you the details of how wonderful my girlfriend is because I’m sure you hear that every day. She told me that I could go to JC Penny and get her a ring and it wouldn’t matter. This gives me a huge opportunity to surprise her with something she is totally not expecting. I want to be able to give her something that makes her feel special and give her that feeling of total surprise every time she looks at it. Now, the unfortunate thing is that I don’t have a huge budget because I am a poor student getting ready to start medical school. My parameters are essentially these: budget of $3,500, round cut diamond, as close to “flawless” to the naked eyes of non-diamond expert as possible, and a carat weight of .75 or greater. Please let me know if you might be able to help me out. I start school in August so I want to get the diamond before this and have a local jeweler set it for me. Here is a link to the best one (in my very uneducated opinion) that I have found so far:

https://www.jamesallen.com/diamonds/I-SI1-Ideal-Cut-Round-Diamond-1383273.asp

I would like to purchase from James Allen if possible. Thank you so much and I look forward to hearing from you!

Thank you so much for your quick reply! I have done a little bit more searching and am essentially deciding between two different diamonds. The first is the one I sent you last night (round, .81 carat, ideal cut, I color, SI1) which measures 6.01*6.04*3.70. I also found another one located here:

https://www.jamesallen.com/diamonds/J-SI1-Ideal-Cut-Round-Diamond-1379643.asp

The reason I am considering this one is because of its measurements. As you can see it is round .90 carat, ideal cut, J color, SI1. It measures 6.20*6.22*3.81. My question is whether the color difference would be noticeable to the naked eye. I can detect a slightly yellow hue in the photo but I can’t tell if that’s just the lighting from the picture. Also, do you think the difference in measurement and color of the two diamonds would justify the $460 price difference? If you think the difference between would be miniscule I would just go ahead and pocket the $460. However, if you think the more expensive diamond would be noticeably better, then I would gladly fork over the extra money. Please let me know if you have a chance! Thank you so much for all your help!

Thank you again for getting back to me…I really appreciate you sharing your wisdom with me! I think I am definitely going to go with the cheaper one. I will let you know once I make the final purchase! Thank you again so much for all your help. Please let me know if I can write a review for you or anything like that!

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I went ahead and purchased the diamond via wire transfer. I will meet with my local jeweler next week about getting it set. Thanks again for all your help and I will keep you updated!

Thanks again