Finding A Deal On A Diamond

Diamonds are forever, as the saying goes, and at the price you pay for them they should be.

But if you think you can’t afford a sparkler for your sweetie, Consumer Specialist Jee-Yun Lee will tell you about some hidden gems across the city that might just offer you a better price.

Here are some general diamond buying tips:

• Make sure you’re buying from a reputable jeweller. Many of those offer warranties against loss of the stone, as well as certifications from the Gemological Institute of America (G.I.A.), and sometimes a return policy.
• Before going into a store, figure out how much you can afford to spend.
• The weight of a diamond is measured in metric carats. A single carat weighs about the same as a small paper clip. Carats are divided into fractions or decimal points.
• What you want to look for then is quality – that’s going to depend upon the stone you’re looking for, the price range you have in mind.
• You can pay anywhere from $5,000 to $40,000 for a stone that’s a carat in weight. It all depends on the stone’s quality – the higher the quality, the more rare and the more expensive.
• Learn about the four Cs – cut, carat weight, clarity and colour.
• Remember that diamonds are graded under magnification, so you won’t always be able to see the differences – for example the inclusions (a stone’s blemishes, or its ‘fingerprint’, which makes it unique), until you get down to the lower grades.
• What really makes a difference is the cut, or the proportions. Because they’re so small, when you’re talking about angles and degrees and proportions, it’s very difficult to tell.
• Overall, if a diamond is round, it’s supposed to be round – it shouldn’t be out a little bit. The human eye can see up to about two-tenths of a millimetre difference, if a diamond is out by that much, it’s not round.
• Make sure the culet – the point at the bottom of the stone, is right in the middle of the diamond, not off-centre. You have to have the proper angles of all the facets, or sides, of the stone in order to give a proper reflection of light so that it comes back to your eye. If it’s not cut properly the light will leak out of the side or bottom of the stone, and won’t have the same sparkle.
• Educate yourself – but be aware that a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing. For example, a person might know about stone clarity, but not colour. So you can find a high clarity stone that has a low colour grade, which might result in a diamond with a yellowish tint. Conversely, a high colour grade that looks colourless may have a low clarity, which means a lot of inclusions. And if the cut is poor, it’s not going to sparkle, no matter what.
• To get an ideal cut, you get a diamond that’s only about half the size of what you started out with. If you change the dimensions slightly, you can get a larger stone without sacrificing the brilliance.
• Most diamonds aren’t perfect, they’re not ideal – they just don’t exist. If anyone tells you all their stones are perfect, walk out of the store.
• If a deal sounds too good to be true, it probably is.