Featured Jewellery - Diamondes

Diamond Ring

One term with which you should familiarize yourself is ideal cut, which is the term
used for a diamond with perfect dimensions. Ideal cut diamonds will often cost
about 15 or 20 percent more than comparable diamonds that are not ideal cut. You’ll
want to make sure the seller produces a certificate (see the next section) proving
the diamond is ideal cut before you invest your time and money in buying it.
When all is said and done, a diamond grade will look something like this:
1.2 carat E VS1
Translation: The diamond is 1.2 carats in weight, E in color (which means
the stone is almost colorless), and is very slightly included, meaning you
won’t be able to see the inclusions with your eyes. Depending on how it’s
cut, this would be a desirable diamond.
Buying with a Certificate
If the diamond jewelry you’re buying contains larger stones or a prominent
center or single stone, your seller should sell the piece accompanied by a certificate
from a gemological laboratory, such as the one shown in Figure 4.4.
Diamond dealers send their diamonds to these independent gem labs,
which examine them and provide objective, official evaluations of the diamonds’
quality. They document the diamonds’ grades on paper certificates,
which dealers then use to “certify” each diamond’s quality when selling it to
a customer.
You won’t find certificates for diamond jewelry that uses many smaller
stones, such as with a tennis bracelet, pavé ring, or diamond-studded
brooch. But if you’re purchasing diamond stud earrings, a diamond solitaire
pendant, or especially a diamond ring, you’ll want to look for sellers that
ship certificates with their wares. Often, eBay sellers will include a scanned
image of certificates in their auction descriptions. When bidding, be sure to
download a copy of the image of the certificate and match it up with the
certificate that comes with the jewelry when you receive it.
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Certificates typically come from one of a handful of recognized gemological
labs around the world. These include the Gemological Institute of America
(GIA), European Gemological Laboratories (EGL), American Gem Society
(AGS), and International Gemological Institute (IGI). Although there are
other independent gem labs that might certify diamonds, these are the most
common acronyms you’ll see.
Figure 4.4
Laboratory certificates, such
as this certificate from
the gemological lab GIA,
should accompany any
piece of diamond jewelry
with a major central stone.
Note
There are countless stories about dishonest sellers who mismatch certificates with
stones. In other words, they send a real certificate made for a good diamond to
accompany a bad one and hope the buyer won’t be any the wiser. If you believe your
diamond doesn’t match the certificate you receive, take it to an independent
appraiser to make sure. If the stone and the certificate indeed don’t match up, ask
your seller for a refund, and report him to eBay if necessary. See Chapter 8, “The
Good, the Bad, and the Ugly,” for more details.
Red Flags
You’ll see it all on eBay, from rock-bottom prices to staggeringly high ones, with
sexy descriptions and photos designed to entice even the wariest buyer. This is
all the more reason to never forget the “too good to be true” philosophy, and
to keep your eyes open for red flags indicating that the diamond might not be
what you think it is at first. Here are a few common red flags to be aware of:
■ Created or synthetic diamonds. Some companies re-create in a laboratory
the same conditions that cause a diamond to form in the earth,
thus manufacturing synthetic, or lab-created, diamonds that have virtually
the same properties as a diamond mined from the ground. These
can potentially offer you a pretty diamond for a fair price, but because
the process of “growing” the diamonds in a lab can be precarious and
expensive, they’re not plentiful and certainly not dirt-cheap. You
should also know that many sellers on eBay inappropriately use the
terms “created diamonds” or “synthetic diamonds” to describe cubic
zirconia, or CZ—a synthetic, and relatively worthless, gemstone that’s
often referred to as an “artificial diamond.” If your seller doesn’t clarify
what kind of created diamond he’s selling, as in the auction shown in
Figure 4.5, don’t hesitate to e-mail to ask him before bidding.
■ Clarity-enhanced diamonds. These are natural diamonds that,
without enhancement, contain highly visible inclusions or fractures.
The clarity-enhancement process involves coating these inclusions
with a glass-like substance that contains refractive and optical properties
similar to the diamond itself, making the inclusions invisible to
the naked eye. Another option involves laser-drilling, or shooting a
laser beam into the diamond to eliminate the inclusions.
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■ Precarious settings. A piece of beautiful diamond jewelry won’t do
you any good if the diamonds fall out! It never hurts to take any
piece of jewelry to a reputable jewelry repair place once a year or so
to have the prongs or setting checked for strength, but there are a few
settings in particular with which you must take great care:
■ Tension settings. Avoid bidding on tension-set rings, which are
rings that suspend a diamond between two pieces of metal and rely
on the pressure and strength of the metal to hold the diamond in
place. These kinds of rings must be manufactured precisely, or
you’ll lose the stone. You’ll probably want to personally know the
jeweler who sells this kind of ring to you.
■ Invisible settings. These involve square diamonds that are set
side-by-side to create the look of a large area of diamond. This is
another setting that, if not well-made, can put you in danger of
losing the diamonds. Take care when purchasing invisible-set
diamond jewelry at very low prices.

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■ Channel settings. In these settings, round diamonds “float” beside
each other in a row, held in place by a rim at the top and bottom
of the channel. If the rims are not manufactured carefully, the
diamonds can pop out.
■ Retail prices. Take any “suggested retail prices” with a grain of a salt.
A diamond ring with a starting price of $1 would probably not really
sell for $9,500 in a retail store, no matter how high the markup is in
that store!