Starting a diamond search can be a daunting task, but we try to make the process as easy going as possible. Unlike many other jewelers, we do all of our diamond searches on a custom basis, meaning we don’t keep an inventory on hand for selling. Why? Because we don’t want to pressure our clients into selecting a diamond just because we have it. Instead, we listen to our clients’ personal goals and tailor our search accordingly. Our clients leave our consultations feeling educated and confident about their diamond selection, which is the best feeling one can have after starting in uncharted territory.
1. Trust your own eye
This may be contradictory for a list where we’re giving you expert advice, but our number one rule when buying diamonds is: don’t put too much weight in “expert” opinions or in diamond grading certificates.
We think that the guidance of a salesperson or the grade on a certificate are better appreciated as tools for you to use when picking out a diamond rather than as The Authority on what to buy. This is especially true when searching online since all you, as the consumer, have to go off of is the certificate. When we have clients come to us looking for very specific graded qualities, we always take some time to walk them through what these grades mean and how they can vary between different grading authorities. It’s true that some grading houses are more scrupulous than others, and we have also noticed that even within a single grading house you can see a huge variation in standards depending on factors such as where exactly that diamond was graded. For example, GIA has grading houses in Mumbai, New York, Bangkok, Johannesburg, Tokyo, Carlsbad, Ramat Gan, and Surat. Each of these houses has its own reputation for adhering to strict grading standards, so you can’t necessarily trust that a “GIA certified diamond” will look exactly how you expect.
Diamonds that look identical on paper may look noticeably different to your own eye – and even to the salesperson who is showing you the diamond. Always remember that you are buying the diamond, so you should be shown and walk away with a stone that hits the marks for you – not for the salesperson who insists you need a certain color grade or size.
2. Be confident in your budget
There are, of course, times when we meet with a client and find that their expectations and budget don’t align. For example, you won’t find a 2-carat diamond on a $1k budget. Aside from this consideration, we always encourage our customers to stick with their own comfort level and ignore the noise coming from other salespeople (or nosey family members) about what they “need” to spend on their diamond. We like to work backward from a client’s comfort point to educate them on what they can buy at that budget and what type of value they get from their diamond in this range. By working through what they want most out of their diamond – is it a big “look?” A beautiful colorless hue? – we can determine which other factors can be compromised on in order to meet their budget.
3. Ask questions
The old adage of “there is no such thing as a stupid question” is very true here. The fact is, unless you work in the industry, you probably know very little about diamonds and what to look for in them. To make matters more difficult, so much of the industry is swept up in marketing, so it can be very difficult to educate yourself about this purchase from an objective perspective. So, we always encourage our clients to ask tons of questions no matter how trivial or obvious they may seem. This is not only a big financial decision, but it’s also a presumably permanent one. Of course you can re-do your engagement ring down the road, but the goal is usually to avoid that, so it’s important to try and get it right the first time around.
This is also why we always expect to go through at least a couple of consultations with a client before they make a purchase. The first consultation is usually a little overwhelming in the amount of information we go over. More often than not, clients say that there is so much more to understanding a diamond than what they appreciated before coming in. We think that’s great because we want our clients to feel educated about their purchase. Usually, by the second meeting our clients come prepared with a few questions based off of our first appointment and feel more comfortable jumping in with their thoughts as we go through our review. By the time our client makes his or her decision on the diamond they want to buy, they feel 100 percent knowledgeable and confident in their choice, which is the best feeling for us as the people who helped them get there.
