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How to choose a diamond online: A step-by-step buying guide

It’s not easy to buy a diamond. This purchase is costly and unique and requires extreme care and deep expertise from you. So, make sure you have enough time and knowledge before starting a tour around various jewelry stores.

But what exactly you need to know to choose right and avoid making a costly mistake? Ideally, that’s full-fledged education in understanding diamonds. But this training lasts for years. Nobody has that much time, especially if you need a diamond before making a proposal or celebrating a special anniversary. So, professionals recommend starting with the basics: getting acquainted with the 4Cs of a diamond. Before entering a jewelry store, make sure you understand and can distinguish cut, clarity,color, and carat weight in a diamond. Otherwise, the true value of this precious stone and the language jeweler speaks to you become hard to comprehend.

But, of course, there are many nuances you need to know beyond these diamond parameters. To make it easier, Diamond Registry specialists agreed to share their secrets of a successful purchase. By reading this guide, you’ll how to choose a diamond with true value-for-money.

How to choose a diamond online

How to use knowledge of essential 4Cs to buy a diamond

Although many people admit there is nothing complicated about the 4Cs, only an expert has a true understanding of each diamond element and their interplay. In most cases, the knowledge people get is superficial — no matter whether you conducted a full-fledged study or saw a short presentation in a jewelry store. And the problem is not in the lack of time or dedication: many experts simply don’t share their secrets on the Internet because they save them to their clients. Once you spot a talented and trustworthy jeweler in a store or get a high-quality diamond consultation, everything goes easier. This story doesn’t work with online purchases, though: you have only reviews in Google and GIA (or AGS) certificate that goes along with a diamond to rely on.

But if this is everything you consider, you’d better pray before giving your money.

If you have nothing but basic knowledge about diamond 4Cs and a couple of nice Google reviews about your jeweler, you risk a lot

So, what to do if you really want a great diamond? Be ready to dedicate your time and energy to understand every single detail in what jewelers offer you. In this guide, we’ll uncover all the basic principles of buying a diamond — but even this text is not enough. You’ll either need to conduct deep research or contact a true diamond specialist to guide you through the buying process. By the way, Diamond Registry experts will be glad to be of assistance in this. We do free consultations for over 60 years and connected reliable diamond wholesalers with happy clients.

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5 Key Steps in Selecting Good Diamonds (You’ll Later Choose From)

Getting the best diamond is easier when you know how to distinguish a good stone from a bad one. But before you choose this set, consider one thing first and foremost: the amount of money you’re ready to spend. Basically, any nice-looking diamond can be yours — the point is how much you can pay for it and how far can you go in sacrificing the quality of the 4Cs to adjust your choice to this budget.

A diamond purchase doesn’t start with the question, “How much does this diamond cost?”.

It starts with the question, “How much are you ready to pay for a diamond?”

Here are 5 steps to help you make the best choice and select good diamonds:
  1. Set your budget.First, you should decide how much you can give for a diamond. It’s always hard for a reliable jeweler to answer the question, “How much does this diamond cost?” because diamond trade doesn’t play by these rules. On the contrary, a diamond vendor will ask you, “How much money are you ready to pay for a diamond?”. That’s because your budget restrictions are the starting point in the pursuit of a reasonable choice. By selecting your limit, narrowing your choice can actually start. Don’t worry: almost all online stores have sufficient volume and assortment to create a setting for the budget you’ve selected.
  2. Filter cut qualityDiamond experts may have different opinions on the 4Cs of a diamond, but all of them agree that cut is the key factor for a good one. So, you should know how to select a diamond wisely. That means you should disregard all the diamonds that have Fair or Poor cut for your budget in a jewelry store.
  3. Filter carat weight
  4. Many diamond buyers are surprised that carat weight is the last diamond parameter to invest money in. But it’s logical: a smaller stone of a perfect balance of clarity, color, and cut is better than a large blurry rock. When it comes to your budget, omit large stones and save room to play with other 4Cs of the diamonds.

  5. Filter clarity and color.
  6. You’ve ranged diamonds by your budget limits, cut quality maximization, and carat weight minimization. Now, choosing a diamond becomes trickier — it’s time to narrow your set with clarity and color. Here, the assistance from a diamond expert can really come in handy. To check the professionalism of this person, make sure that he recommends you diamonds that have:

    A clarity grade that doesn’t go below VS2. Check the diamond certificate — you should see one of these combinations of letters: FL, IF, VVS1, VVS2, VS1, or VS2.

    A color grade that doesn’t go below H. Again, check the diamond certificate — you should see one of these letters: D, E, F, G, or H. Sometimes, I, J, and K grades can be a good choice. Nevertheless, ask your diamond consultant why he recommends considering them.

    The best cut category possible. Make sure your diamond consultant didn’t disregard cut quality while offering you stones of good clarity and color. Check the diamond certificate — you should see “Excellent” or “Very Good.” For fancy shapes, “Good” can also be a fair deal.

  7. Start comparing the 4Cs of the diamonds left.
  8. After you narrowed your choice in the previous steps, you can be sure you’ve selected the best diamonds for your budget. And here, rely on the professional advice and your taste in making the final choice. Diamond Registry experts recommend relying on a combination between clarity and color, not increasing your budget or sacrificing cut quality. If fewer carats are not a problem, you can reduce the diamond weight a bit too.

When it comes to satisfactory diamond purchase, everything starts with your budget and the best cut quality you can afford

But what if you cannot find anything good after completing these 5 steps accurately? Diamond Registry experts do not recommend doing this, but if you really have no choice, you can start reducing the quality of the 4Cs a bit more.

Here’s the most tolerable way of doing this:

  1. Reduce the carat size to 1 carat maximum,
  2. Include the diamonds that have SI1 and SI2 clarity grades in your range. This trick doesn’t work for bigger diamonds because the imperfections in these stones are already eye-clean,
  3. If you‘ve saved the brilliant diamond cut by this step, feel free to include the stones with L and M color grades,
  4. If nothing helps, reduce cut quality for 1 grade: “Good” for round diamonds and “Fair” for fancy-shaped stones.

The interplay of diamond 4Cs is so complex that only a professional can tell which diamond works best for your budget and taste

Also, consider these things about diamonds while making the best choice:

  • Some diamond shapes can mask the small carat weight. Thus, if you don’t like the idea of reducing the carat number, you can tolerate this move by choosing an oval or marquise shape.
  • Diamond shapes cost differently. Thus, if you switch from round diamonds, you can get the better option for your budget.
  • You can tolerate a certain extent of fluorescence in the stone because it reduces the diamond price. But first, check if it doesn’t interfere with a diamond color.
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    Step-by-Step Guide: How to Choose a Diamond with Diamond Registry

    Even though buying a diamond is not the hardest task ever, the professional help of a diamond expert significantly facilitates your buying process. If you’re open to saving your time and energy and interested in buying the best diamond for a wholesale price, the doors of our office are open! Reach Diamond Registry through the contact form, and get the information about the top diamond purchase directly from our expert.

    Once you’re ready to buy a diamond engagement ring with us, expect the following sequence of steps to happen:

    1. You send us a request on the website,
    2. Our expert contacts you to clarify your request and arrange our meeting,
    3. You visit our office. Alternatively, we come to your office if that’s more convenient for you,
    4. You view your diamond, and we negotiate how the engagement ring will look,
    5. We make an accurate model for your custom-made design,
    6. You confirm the ring,
    7. You pay for the purchase and pick it from us in 2 weeks.

    With us, you won’t spend days learning how to evaluate the 4Cs and finding the best diamond ring in a jewelry store. Since 1961, we work hard for saving your time and letting you simply enjoy the top diamond for your money. And we’ll be glad to assist your diamond purchase.

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