Proposal Ring - Part 3

[Hunter_L]

You cant compare diamond with bag, the bag is very prominent with the branding and people will know it with one look. For diamonds, people notice with the sparkles, not the brand. First comment on diamond: WAH so big and sparkly, not eh so nice, where did you get the diamond from?

So my 2 cents worth, go for sparkly, big and affordable instead of brand =)

maybe not a good analogy for the case. instead, take anything with one luxury brand and the other cheaper or less well known brand, then. hypothetically speaking, this is most likely the case.

quite the opposite scenario actually. some of our friends had never heard of JannPaul, including cousins, aunties, uncles and all. literally those people gave a blank, confused or disappointed look. we didnt care nonetheless. our choice our life. seriously who can blame them? i mean JannPaul has only one homepage (facebook and youtube aside) with literally nothing other than contact details on its website, minimal brand awareness campaign locally and even less so in international market. if you go to US or Europe, what are the chances of people knowing Tiffany and Co? and compared to that of JannPaul?

still remember we were telling people and they looked it up online. when they found the homepage, they were like aiyo what is this. how come we never hear one. how come you buy her a ring from this place one... aiya girl, he is so bad buy your ring from this place one... why dont buy from Cartier (insert any other luxury stores)? we were like

nonetheless, some of them knew JannPaul and looked at the stone intensely. said nice nice. good one as well as there were some who just asked how big. every one has his/her definition or approval criteria i guess.

agree on sparkles, as said previously, you can compare sparkles. to compare, only if you have other diamond rings around you. which is like half of the times, give or take. and when you have other rings to compare, lighting plays a role. under spotlight, all diamond shine lights in my SO workplace kinda made it hard for people to tell which is shinier. who has a Gemex machine stashed away in their car, please raise your arm who carry around idealscope in their pocket all the time? sure, higher facet diamonds have more sparkles which are easily distinguishable. only my SO and i get to see it sparkle most of the times.

whichever is more desirable and feels right for the couple, it is the right choice. my SO and i love our purchase, it is our right choice and it doesnt mean all other diamonds bought elsewhere are not right.

lastly, there are some people who look for specific things for symbolic reason. flawless clarity, maybe. certain colour similar to her initial, for example. or the carat with her birth year. the carat with special number to the couple. or even the GIA/AGS certificate number that coincide with special number. others also go with colored gemstones for their preference and additional meaning. are they wrong not to purchase like us? nope! i think they made their right choices. always go with your heart

 

[Lynntoh]

maybe not a good analogy for the case. instead, take anything with one luxury brand and the other cheaper or less well known brand, then. hypothetically speaking, this is most likely the case.

quite the opposite scenario actually. some of our friends had never heard of JannPaul, including cousins, aunties, uncles and all. literally those people gave a blank, confused or disappointed look. we didnt care nonetheless. our choice our life. seriously who can blame them? i mean JannPaul has only one homepage (facebook and youtube aside) with literally nothing other than contact details on its website, minimal brand awareness campaign locally and even less so in international market. if you go to US or Europe, what are the chances of people knowing Tiffany and Co? and compared to that of JannPaul?

still remember we were telling people and they looked it up online. when they found the homepage, they were like aiyo what is this. how come we never hear one. how come you buy her a ring from this place one... aiya girl, he is so bad buy your ring from this place one... why dont buy from Cartier (insert any other luxury stores)? we were like

agree on sparkles, as said previously, you can compare sparkles. to compare, only if you have other diamond rings around you. which is like half of the times, give or take. and when you have other rings to compare, lighting plays a role. under spotlight, all diamond shine lights in my SO workplace kinda made it hard for people to tell which is shinier. who has a Gemex machine stashed away in their car, please raise your arm who carry around idealscope in their pocket all the time? sure, higher facet diamonds have more sparkles which are easily distinguishable. only my SO and i get to see it sparkle most of the times.

whichever is more desirable and feels right for the couple, it is the right choice. my SO and i love our purchase, it is our right choice and it doesnt mean all other diamonds bought elsewhere is not right.

lastly, there are some people who looks for specific things for symbolic reason. flawless clarity, maybe. certain colour similar to her initial, for example. or the carat with her birth year. the carat with special number to the couple. or even the GIA/AGS certificate number that coincide with special number. others also go with colored gemstones for their preference and additional meaning. are they wrong not to purchase like us? nope! i think they made their right choices. always go with your heart

You are absolutely right, what boils down in the end, is that the couple should both be happy with the purchase, regardless if the diamond is from a branded boutique or private jewellers.

Not only to diamonds, there is no point comparing. Endless comparison will only leads to unhappiness.

 

[Lydia.Tan]

As promised, here are my scopes I realise their quality is very high and everyone scope is almost the same. One thing I learnt is that if the cut is good, you don't need to go for such a high color as it will make the diamond look brighter and less yellowish.

I used this as a guide when checking my diamonds. You guys can use it too

 

[Lydia.Tan]

Why don't you set it this way? I think it looks more fancy this way. I did mine this way too

Here's also a video guide

I decided on that orientation too! but with side diamonds

 

[dearmisterj]

As promised, here are my scopes I realise their quality is very high and everyone scope is almost the same. One thing I learnt is that if the cut is good, you don't need to go for such a high color as it will make the diamond look brighter and less yellowish.

I used this as a guide when checking my diamonds. You guys can use it too

wow very nice and symmetrical! what are the specs of this diamond?

 

[Euqorab]

Need some feedback...I am thinking whether this 0.55ct E VS1 is priced too good at $4.3k? Cut grade, symmetry and polish all excellent according to GIA. HCA score is 0.7.

But clarity characteristics - crystal, pinpoint and cloud - is it too much?

 

[DiCaprio]

Need some feedback...I am thinking whether this 0.55ct E VS1 is priced too good at $4.3k? Cut grade, symmetry and polish all excellent according to GIA. HCA score is 0.7.

But clarity characteristics - crystal, pinpoint and cloud - is it too much?

I got a 0.55 F VS1 for $4150, so I think it's priced reasonably. The clarity characteristics are certainly not visible to the eye, probably only under a high power microscope. For me that's perfectly fine.

Sent from the dark side of the moon using GAGT

 

[dearmisterj]

Need some feedback...I am thinking whether this 0.55ct E VS1 is priced too good at $4.3k? Cut grade, symmetry and polish all excellent according to GIA. HCA score is 0.7.

But clarity characteristics - crystal, pinpoint and cloud - is it too much?

well clarity wise depends on where those flaws are. ask the salesperson to point them out to you in a microscope, question them on whether such flaws will affect the integrity of the diamond etc,l. you should be able to come to a conclusion on that

 

[Hunter_L]

Need some feedback...I am thinking whether this 0.55ct E VS1 is priced too good at $4.3k? Cut grade, symmetry and polish all excellent according to GIA. HCA score is 0.7.

But clarity characteristics - crystal, pinpoint and cloud - is it too much?

i think that is about the current quoted price from JannPaul. decent price if it is Hearts and Arrows diamond as well, i.e. super ideal cut. otherwise, you can probably ask for small discount. apart from HCA, you can use Enchanted Diamond cut score calculator. it was pretty good as it accounts for more criteria than HCA, though it is not widely recognised. the diamond i bought received score of 100. anything above 95 is super ideal i think. i used it when looking around for the right diamond.

there are a few other additional tools such as AGA/NAJA cut class. best diamond will be class 1A. it implies for an excellent cut proportion, quite similar to GIA/AGS cut matrix.

cloud and crystal are common for VS quality but VS is mostly eye clean unless the inclusion is dark in colour or at certain spots. ask for more pictures or view the diamond in person.

lastly, please check the fluorescence level of the diamond. none is ideal. dont buy anything medium or stronger. faint is ok but not ideal. if there is fluorescence, the price should be lowered even more.

 

[martin_lovren]

Hello everyone,

After spending time going through this thread (and the previous 2 parts!), and having read the positive reviews of JP, I decided to go down to take a look and managed to reserve a diamond. I understand that JP's diamonds are mostly good, and I've gone through the images, but like many before, there will still be doubts whether there are any issues with the images.

Here are the images from JP (Image 2 and 3 might require zoom):

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Insufficient post count so cant post images here. Thank you all for taking a look!!

 

[Spee_Dy]

Hello everyone,

After spending time going through this thread (and the previous 2 parts!), and having read the positive reviews of JP, I decided to go down to take a look and managed to reserve a diamond. I understand that JP's diamonds are mostly good, and I've gone through the images, but like many before, there will still be doubts whether there are any issues with the images.

Here are the images from JP (Image 2 and 3 might require zoom):

[Remove this and include http]://s1305.photobucket.com/user/koloyaya/media/Image%201_zps5geczs36.jpg.html?sort=3&o=3

[Remove this and include http]://s1305.photobucket.com/user/koloyaya/media/Image%202_zpszph8olus.jpg.html

[Remove this and include http]://s1305.photobucket.com/user/koloyaya/media/Image%203_zpsrnbn31if.jpg.html

[Remove this and include http]://s1305.photobucket.com/user/koloyaya/media/Image%204_zpsskbps2gl.jpg.html

Insufficient post count so cant post images here. Thank you all for taking a look!!

Uploaded for you Nice Solasfera there

 

[martin_lovren]

Thanks for your help Spee_Dy!!

 

[dearmisterj]

Uploaded for you Nice Solasfera there

yup second this. Very symmetrical diamond. Care to share the specs and damage?

 

[martin_lovren]

yup second this. Very symmetrical diamond. Care to share the specs and damage?

It's a Solasfera 0.652 D VVS2. The quoted price was $7,200 without setting.

 

[dearmisterj]

It's a Solasfera 0.652 D VVS2. The quoted price was $7,200 without setting.

Wow! congratulations, the solesfera is a good choice.. very premium specs too

 

[martin_lovren]

Wow! congratulations, the solesfera is a good choice.. very premium specs too

Thanks! Am thinking if I should lower the specs and get a 0.7x though..

 

[quasar89]

Hi all, I'm quite new to this section. I have some questions and appreciate if my doubts/ misunderstandings can be clarified.

I made a visit to JannPaul this weekend. It was a great educational session and I learnt a lot and appreciated the service greatly. I was quoted two super ideal cuts with the following specs/ prices:
1) 0.80 VS1 E at SGD 9,600;
2) 0.92 VS1 F at SGD 11,600 (both prices are before the setting).

I thought the prices were rather ideal until I made a trip to Lee Hwa and Soo Kee at Ion. Lee Hwa's service was poor so I didn't venture too much into the details. I was surprised to learn that Soo Kee's diamonds didn't seem too expensive.

For a 0.80 D VVS1 it only costs only 6,500!!! The salesperson proceeded to share with me their quotes for 0.90 carat on the Soo Kee website. I was very surprised to learn that (for varying specs of 0.9), their diamonds ranged around 7k to 11.7k. This meant that JannPaul quoted me very very high for the 0.93 carat one.

While I have my suspicions that the Soo Kee diamonds were not super ideal (since the salesperson kept harping that the 0.80 diamond scored Very Good on Cut on the GIA cert), I can't help but feel that I was way overquoted by JannPaul. Was a super ideal cut truly worth the additional 2-3k when our human eyes can only tell so much, especially when we can't compare both diamonds from both companies side by side.

Can fellow forummers enlighten me if there's something I had misunderstood / overlooked. Was I also overquoted by JannPaul? Would greatly appreciate to hear out some views before I make my second appointment with JannPaul to ask as well.

 

[dearmisterj]

Thanks! Am thinking if I should lower the specs and get a 0.7x though..

personally i would be willing to push the specs down to a F color VS2 at the minimum (since the difference won't be visible to the naked eye), however that may only be sufficient to get you a high 0.6x imo..

 

[dearmisterj]

Hi all, I'm quite new to this section. I have some questions and appreciate if my doubts/ misunderstandings can be clarified.

I made a visit to JannPaul this weekend. It was a great educational session and I learnt a lot and appreciated the service greatly. I was quoted two super ideal cuts with the following specs/ prices:
1) 0.80 VS1 E at SGD 9,600;
2) 0.92 VS1 F at SGD 11,600 (both prices are before the setting).

I thought the prices were rather ideal until I made a trip to Lee Hwa and Soo Kee at Ion. Lee Hwa's service was poor so I didn't venture too much into the details. I was surprised to learn that Soo Kee's diamonds didn't seem too expensive.

For a 0.80 D VVS1 it only costs only 6,500!!! The salesperson proceeded to share with me their quotes for 0.90 carat on the Soo Kee website. I was very surprised to learn that (for varying specs of 0.9), their diamonds ranged around 7k to 11.7k. This meant that JannPaul quoted me very very high for the 0.93 carat one.

While I have my suspicions that the Soo Kee diamonds were not super ideal (since the salesperson kept harping that the 0.80 diamond scored Very Good on Cut on the GIA cert), I can't help but feel that I was way overquoted by JannPaul. Was a super ideal cut truly worth the additional 2-3k when our human eyes can only tell so much, especially when we can't compare both diamonds from both companies side by side.

Can fellow forummers enlighten me if there's something I had misunderstood / overlooked. Was I also overquoted by JannPaul? Would greatly appreciate to hear out some views before I make my second appointment with JannPaul to ask as well.

Hey quasar89, are you able to get the gia cert for the soo kee diamond? From what I understand there are many factors affecting a diamond price, not just the specs you see.. for one, there will be a very stark difference in the sparkles between a very good cut and a triple excellent. Even for triple excellent, the HCA score also plays a big factor in determing if the diamond reflects light in a most ideal manner. JP's super ideals have a HCA score of 1.5 or less, making the diamond performance much much better than those above.

Another thing to consider is whether the flaws in the diamonds are in areas which may affect the integrity of the diamond, and may allow easy chipping to occur. The florescence also plays a part and will be ideal to be neligible, if not the diamond may appear cloudy.

Price wise I think there would definitely be a very huge difference. After all if you do put two diamonds beside each other, a sub par one will definitely fail in comparison to an ideal one in terms of the fire and sparkles. Wouldn't know a fair price specific to your diamond size as the one I bought was of a lower carat weight, however $6.5k for a 0.8 definitely sounds too good to be true! if you have a copy of the cert from soo kee (and if they do let you take photo of their diamonds in the scope), you could bring them to jannpaul and ask JP staff to do a comparison for you, they could most probably point out what you are missing in the comparison.

Good luck!

 

[hisGRIMness]

"Very Good" cut quality is a very very far grade difference when compared to proper "Super Ideal" cuts.

Note that any1 can call their cuts "Super Ideal", so pictures / scopes are the only way to judge, certificates are not enough.

So that is the price difference generally.