Money Savers
As you look for the perfect diamond you might find yourself worrying a little about staying within your budget. Well, let your worries go. You can find many money savings tips for your personal situation by working with any Abazias Diamond Specialist.
For right now though, let's take a look at several general ways in which you can save money on your diamond and diamond jewelry. And we'll even show you how to use the 4 Cs of diamonds to do just that.
For now, let's start with shape.
In order to save money in the area of the shape it is helpful to know that some shapes are more wasteful of the raw diamond than others.
For example, the Round Brilliant Cut diamond, which you may have heard much about, is the most wasteful of raw diamond as far as shapes go. Accordingly, they have a higher pricing scale. The modified brilliant cuts and the Emerald cuts require much less of the diamond to be cut away so are offered on a lower price scale.
What this means to you is that a Modified Brilliant Cut of the same size and grade to a Round Brilliant Cut will be far less expensive. The quick savings tip?
Choose a shape other than the Round Brilliant Cut and you will bring down your overall price-tag.
Once you have selected your shape, you now must look at the first C, Cut.
To start, we need a quick definition of 'cut'. Cut is the actual cutting, polishing and the resulting overall look of the diamond. The cut grade is awarded on an overall assessment of the qualities that contribute to the brilliance, fire and scintillation of a diamond.
These contributing factors are the proportions of the diamond, the polish, symmetry and girdle. Since an Excellent cut grade is attributed to maximum light performance there is often a premium price connected to such a grading. By selecting a stone with qualities just below the Excellent grade, such as a Very Good cut, you will see a noticeable decrease in price with very little visible difference to the untrained eye.
Next we come to Clarity. Clarity is the quality of the diamond as it relates to the existence and visibility of inclusions under 10X magnification. This is where it can be useful to be somewhat familiar with the clarity grading scale.
In the GIA scale, which is the most recognized in the world, the clarity grades run from 'F' or 'flawless' down to 'I' or 'inclusions visible'.
The term 'flawless' can sound ideal, but remember, the gemologists giving this grade are trained professionals who are grading unset diamonds in laboratories under a magnification of 10X stronger than the unaided eye.
What this means to you is that you could go many steps away from 'flawless' and still see absolutely no flaws with the naked eye. On top of that, once the diamond is set, the ability to spot flaws often diminishes even further. So, by choosing a diamond that has a clarity grade below 'flawless' you will greatly reduce the price of the diamond.
To get the most for your money it is best to select a stone that is a VS2/ SI1 clarity to maintain an eye-clean quality without paying for something you can't see.
Now let's look at color. Color, the actual color of the diamond and is graded on a scale from 'D' to the rest of the alphabet. The grades of 'D-F' are considered to be 'colorless' or 'white'.
Now, like we saw with the high clarity grades, to the naked eye the high grades are not going to look much different from some lower grades. And, again as with clarity, once the diamond has been set, spotting color differences becomes more difficult since color can be diffused by mounting a lower color into a yellow gold setting or accentuated by mounting a higher color into a white gold setting.
It's not by accident that diamonds are only graded when they are loose, or unset. By choosing a grade that falls lower on the color scale than 'colorless' or 'white' you will be able to find remarkable savings on your diamond.
Our money-saving tip for color, we suggest selecting either G or H color to maintain a bright white appearance, without paying significantly more for very minimal differences.
This brings us finally to carat. The good news here is that carat weight can be the easiest and least troublesome way to find savings. This is thanks to the fact that carat pricing increases dramatically at the carat and half carat points.
In other words, a diamond that weighs one full carat and one that weighs .97 carats will look nearly identical in size. However, the diamond that weighs .97 carats will be less expensive than the one carat diamond. This goes for each half carat point upwards. A 1.45 carat diamond will be notably less expensive than a 1.5 carat and so on. So, by choosing a diamond that weighs in at or just below the full carat or half carat points, you will find noteworthy savings.
The savings found in the areas of clarity, color and carat are known as 'price points'. These are areas between grade points or weight points in which the price will take a notable jump higher or lower.
In clarity, price points can be found between each grade, while in color, the most notable price points are found between grade groupings, such as the grouping of 'D-F' and the grouping of 'G-I'. And of course, the price points for carat come at each full half carat mark.
Remember, the 4Cs represent the best place to find savings, but not the only place. You can also find savings by choosing a good setting. A good setting can hide flaws, make a diamond look clearer and even make the stone appear larger than it actually is. The right setting can often make a nice diamond look like an exceptional diamond.
There are even more ways to save money on diamonds. The best way to discover these is to contact one of our Diamond Specialists and discuss with them what it is you are looking for. They will be happy to help you with your specific needs so that you can find the right diamond at the right price.
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