Smart Jewelry Shopper

How to Buy Jewelry & Gemstones With Confidence

 

Guide to Buying Diamonds Online

Buying diamonds is, in and of itself, is rifled with uncertainty. A bigger than usual expenditure is called for, and there are so many factors to consider in terms of cut, clarity, certification, color, carat and budget. Buying diamonds online without actually viewing the product, thus, poses an additional point of concern.

Many questions will crop up when you have to place trust in an unseen seller and go by what you are told online. This guide will help you out on shopping for diamonds and make your experience a good one.

These are the steps and guidelines that I recommend you to take:

1. Find a reputable website. Don’t make a decision based sole by an advertisement you saw. Recommendations by word of mouth would be great, especially if you have friends who had bought from a particular place before. Testimonials by customers are good, but don’t get reeled in by everything you see and hear.

2. First things first: check to find out about the money back and exchange policy. You should get at least 30 days with most online diamond dealers. This will give you more than enough time to try out the ring.

3. The very next thing you would do is to check the company’s contact information. Make sure there is a phone number and you should test it to make sure that someone is at the end of the line. Also, you could make a list of questions that you want to ask beforehand.

The 4 Cs of Diamonds...

proposal ringCarat is the easiest to understand and measure out of the four: it expresses the weight of the diamond - 1 carat equals 200 milligrams, conversion is simple and linear.

Color also stands for itself: it describes the color of a diamond, where colorless is the best and the appearance of yellow is what lowers the value of a stone. There are special colored diamonds but that is a separate topic.

Clarity describes the material purity of a diamond. For best value, there should not be foreign material inside the stone or on its surface either.

Finally, we have arrived to the most important of the four C's: cut quality of the diamond. This is where the human factor becomes present: cut is what turns a raw diamond that many of us would not even notice into a symbol of power, a metaphor of the sun.

4. Secure transactions online. On checkout or payment pages, you should see a secured https page instead of a http page. Any reputable website handling online transactions will protect your privacy by partnering with trusted internet security providers.

5. If the establishment has a wide variety of jewelry and offers to do anything to make your experience positive, then that tells a lot with who you are dealing with. It shows that customer service is paramount. This is especially so in the case of James Allen & BrianGavinDiamonds.

6. Check out the About Us section to gain more knowledge about the seller to understand how they do business.

7. Many people choose a more established business with several years of experience. Some would go for newer companies. Both have it’s pros and cons. For example, BlueNile is an established company dealing with online diamonds for many years.

Although they are trusted by many, their prices and overheads had also increased significantly over the years. On the other hand, when you are dealing with smaller companies, you would get better customer services as well as better prices.

Check out the rest of the articles below to find out more...

carat weightCommon Mistakes That You Need to Avoid
Follow this guide to buying diamonds to avoid some of the scams out there. Knowing this information will help you to be a knowledgeable shopper and be able to make informed decisions before making a big investment.

What Clarity Grade Should I Choose?
This is one of the most commonly asked questions that readers have. Which grade should I choose? Is it more important for the diamond to be eye clean or mind clean?