Tips for Buying Diamonds

Diamonds are a girl’s best friend. Well, ask any woman and she’ll agree to this. But with the markets flooded with all kinds of sparkling jewels, fake diamond jewelry, and natural as well as synthetic diamonds it has become hard to procure the genuine precious stones without at least a little research. Unless you buy from retail jewelry stores that price the item higher than conceivable. So how do you go about it? How can one buy a natural diamond of good quality without the fear of getting stiffed or paying more than its worth? Here are some simple tips you can follow to end up with a diamond that is ‘forever’.

Remember that a natural diamond will stand the test of time when put against any lab-grown, synthetic, crystal clear, or cubic zirconias. This is precisely why you pay such a novel price for that small but brilliant stone in the first place. Not only is it beautiful, but you know it will last forever. Diamonds have been passed on as heirloom in many families all around the world. These jewels come in a variety of shapes and cuts such as the round brilliant, square princess cut, the rectangular emerald cut, the teardrop pear shaped, the marquise, the heart shaped, and so on. You are at luxury to choose the shape and cut you like best. If you are not familiar with these shapes and cuts, it may be wise to go to your nearest jeweler or browse through some images online to get a better idea about them.

It may be safe to say that you cannot buy a diamond without knowing about the 4 Cs. What is that? Well, if you have to ask, you need to do some homework before going diamond shopping. The 4 Cs stand for Carat weight, Cut, Color, and Clarity. In fact there is another C you should insist on, and that is certification. Do not purchase any diamond without a GIA certificate. Not only does the certificate impact the price you pay for the diamond and its future appreciation, but also give you the relevant details regarding the stone. So, read up a bit about the 4 Cs online beforehand to have the basic know-how about what to look for.

You may be tempted to buy a jewelry piece like a ring or pendant that you see in a retail store, but remember that this might end up costing you a lot more. It may be much cheaper to buy a loose diamond or diamonds from an online dealer or well-known diamond trader and get it set in a design of your choice. The Internet is the best resource for this. Not only will you find a host of different diamond dealers online but most of them have their official websites providing all sorts of services and information for individual consumers. Many websites even let the consumer design the ring starting from the shape and cut of the diamond, its clarity and color grades, and its carat weight, to deciding the design, prong setting and the precious metal to be used. There are websites that offer discounts from time to time and smart shoppers can end up saving up to 30% on the total piece of diamond jewelry.

If you have your heart set on a particular jewelry design, colorless or colored diamond check out a few online stores and retail jewelry stores before deciding the place to buy it from. In many cases you may find that the same diamond will fetch different prices at different stores, and the price difference can be of up to 20%. For example, two pink diamonds possessing the same color grade, clarity grade, carat weight and cut can have a price difference of almost hundreds of dollars.

Ben is a freelance writer who has several blogs on the Internet about pink diamonds, diamond information, diamond market in Europe, etc. He is also a journalist and writes for a local newspaper. In his free time he likes browsing through interesting websites online and taking long walks by the beach. Being a diamond cutter’s son, he hopes to someday work for a major diamond producer of the world.