Engagement Rings Blog

You have a contradiction in terms when you say the words "Independent" and "GIA certified" in the same description. You see you are probably thinking the word "independent" is being used by the diamond merchant to reference GIA as the independent source of the certificate or appraisal he will furnish you with. However the diamond merchant may very well be using the word "Independent" to describe a certificate or appraisal that will be furnished by someone completely other than GIA. The only reason he is including GIA in the same sentence, is because he is twisting the real meaning to fool you.

You see this diamond merchant knows very well that you are probably trying to teach yourself all about diamonds, by reading everything you can find about diamonds online. And you are probably trying your very best to make sure you get the nicest diamond for the most affordable price. You don’t want to be the one to get rip-offed. I mean who does?

So as you start to browse through the thousands of pages available online to learn about diamonds and engagement rings, you probably start to hear about "GIA Certified Diamonds". There is no doubt that you will hear nothing but good words about GIA certified diamonds. This is because GIA certified diamonds will command the highest price of any type of certified diamond. GIA certified diamonds are the"Gold Standard" when it comes to buying diamonds.

So most people will start to search for diamond engagement rings with GIA certified diamonds. As you browse through the many diamond businesses online and start to see their prices on GIA certified diamonds, most people start to become a little surprised to say the least. You probably have already started to learn a little bit about diamonds by now, so you look for diamonds with good color, good clarity and good cut grade, along with the carat weight you had your heart set on. When you start to see the prices for GIA certified diamonds with all of the characteristics that you desire, most people become very surprised at how expensive they are. After all, you are not in the diamond business and it may very well be the first time buying diamonds for you, so who can blame you for being a little bit surprised to learn that a 1 1/2 carat round brilliant diamond can cost easily $14,000 for something along the lines of an F/SI1 with "Ideal Cut". (That doesn’t include an actual engagement ring setting yet) Now let’s add a setting to that. If you just want a simple & traditional solitaire setting, you are in luck. You are probably only going to have to add a couple hundred bucks to that. But if you want something with some diamonds on it, like the antique or vintage inspired rings that are so popular today, you are probably going to have to add a couple of thousand dollars more to the cost of the center diamond. Thousands of dollars more if you buy the setting from a jewelry store. (And certainly thousands of dollars more for the center diamond if you buy THAT from a jewelry store too) I mean you could easily spend $20,000 on an engagement ring with those specs in any jewelry store. (So much for that idea!) I don’t care if you have the $20,000 to spend, who wants to spend that kind of money on an engagement ring in today’s economic climate. Put it in the bank or invest it, you might need it.

OK. Now if you are like me, you say to yourself, "I don’t believe it, I am going to shop around and find a steal of a bargain. It must be out there somewhere! There is now way every diamond business is charging that kind of money!"

So you keep looking, and yet you still keep seeing pretty much the same prices. You see, the prices on GIA certified diamonds are all going to be very similar online. That’s because you are seeing pretty much the same diamonds and GIA certified diamond prices are "Regulated" so to speak by Rapaport. It’s kind of like the "Blue Book" of car values. The only difference in price you will see is in the markup. And this difference will be very little because you are buying your diamond online and the prices of GIA diamonds online are already marked up VERY LITTLE as opposed to your local jewelry store. So there is not a whole lot of room to discount GIA certified diamonds. The margins are pretty small. You also need to know that the diamonds you are seeing on these diamond websites are not their diamonds. They are part of a national database that is uploaded to their website. You could find the exact same diamond on many different websites. All of those websites that are offering that diamond for sale are buying it from the cutter for the same price, and then marking it up to you as a retail transaction. No-one actually has the diamond in their possession. It is just sitting at the diamond cutter and whoever sells it first, gets it. That’s why it’s always important to call first if you find a diamond online, to see if it is still available. It may have been sold by another diamond website company. I have heard stories from people that purchased a diamond from an online database, only to receive a call from the retailer saying that the diamond has "Just been sold". What they are really saying is that another website sold it before we could. (We actually have our clarity enhanced diamonds in inventory-That’s very rare in a diamond business)

Then all of the sudden "Presto" just like magic, a GIA certified diamond for only a couple thousand dollars. (Or so you think!)

You can’t believe your eyes! The secret source that you have been searching for has just appeared right before you very eyes. You knew that if you searched the internet long enough, it would magically appear sooner or later. You look at the website and it even says that the diamonds come with an "Independent GIA Appraisal" Could this really be? GIA certified diamonds for thousands of dollars less than EVERYWHERE else? Then the skeptic in you kicks in. I better call them and ask a few questions just to make sure. So you call. Yep, sure enough, the person on the phone tells you that your diamond will come with an "Indepenent GIA appraisal". Holy Toledo Batman, you just found the Magic source. Sherlock Homes would be proud of you.

There is just one small little catch though. The diamond has "Been Cleaned Up With A Laser" you know, the same kind you might find in a dermatologist’s office, or for laser eye surgery.

Well that doesn’t seem like such a big deal, after all, technology has come such a long way. Certainly they can do it to diamonds too. It’s still a GIA certified diamond you think to yourself. After all, the guy on the phone told you that it comes with an Independent GIA Appraisal. How could that be twisted around? So now you embark on even more research before you actually but that "GIA certified diamond". You find that there are these things called clarity enhanced diamonds. You may also find that a "Laser Drilled" diamond may be certified by GIA, and they are also referred to as clarity enhanced diamonds. "That must be the diamond that this guy is selling me", you start to think. But that is still not a big deal, because it is still a good deal, and "Laser Drilled" diamonds are still pretty valuable. This guy must just have a really good source that allows him to sell them for thousands of dollars less than EVERYWHERE ELSE.

Well Sherlock Homes, I am going to let you in on a little secret. The diamond he is selling you is not a GIA certified diamond. As a matter of fact, it has not been certified by GIA at all. It’s not even a "Laser Drilled" Diamond. It is clarity enhanced though. But it’s a "Fracture-Filled" clarity enhanced diamond. The only reason he is using the phrase "Independent GIA Appraisal" is because it was certified by a company that has a GIA graduate gemologist on staff, that certifies the diamonds. It’s a twist on definitions. You see the diamond is not GIA certified, the gemologist is. He went to GIA to get his/her graduate gemologist degree, and now he/she is a "Graduate GIA Gemologist". Some diamond ring companies like to conveniently refer to him/her as a "Certified GIA Gemologist". GET THE PICTURE

The bad news is that there is no such thing as a free lunch, and what your mom taught you is true. "If it seems too good to be true, it probably is".
Just like everything else in the world, you get what you pay for when you buy a diamond.

The good news is that a "Fracture-Filled" clarity enhanced diamond can truly be a good deal and still look extremely beautiful. There is nothing wrong with that. You will pay thousands of dollars less and you will get a good deal on a nice looking diamond. But don’t let yourself be fooled in to thinking that you are buying some magically discounted GIA certified diamond. It doesn’t exist. But you are certainly welcome to keep trying.

Almost everyone buying a diamond is going to perform some amount of research first. Some people are comfortable with doing a small amount of research on just the basics such as the 4C’s of diamonds, and yet many others are very thorough with their research. I have spoken with many of our customers that have literally researched diamonds for months, before they even picked up the phone or stopped by a jewelry store. Thorough research in regards to diamonds is not a bad thing. The vast majority of people buying diamonds know absolutely nothing about them before they set out looking for one. Given the fact that you could easily be on track to spend thousands of dollars on this little gem, I would highly recommend that you learn as much as you can before you buy a diamond. If you think about it for a second; Would you spend $4,000 to $10,000 (Or more) on anything else, and not want to know as much about it as you can?

Wanting to learn about diamonds before you spend that much money is not the problem.

The problem may actually be with who you listen to and what you read on the internet. There is a lot of valuable information on the internet explaining about diamonds. There are also many good diamond sellers that will supply you with even more helpful information, and answer your questions honestly.
But on the flip side of that, there is a lot of really bad information on the internet about diamonds, AND there are some diamond sellers that don’t necessarily have your best interests at heart.

Many of the people that buy engagement rings from us, like to to call us first with their questions. I love when they do that, and I always welcome any question from our customers. This gives me the chance to not only answer their questions honestly and thoroughly, but also to make sure that they have been given accurate information by other diamond companies. I have heard some really strange things that my customers have been told, prior to speaking with me. Everything including stuff about the size of diamonds, the shape of diamonds and the cost of diamond engagement rings.

What I have discovered is that when a customer is told something by another diamond company that is way off-base, it’s often because that particular diamond company wanted to sell the customer a particular diamond. Maybe it’s because the diamond company got a really good deal on a particular diamond (through whatever means) and wants to make a huge profit. They don’t really care what you want, they just want to sell you that particular diamond. So they will tell you everything good about that diamond, and everything bad about the diamond that you want. They will try to make you think that the diamond they have, is the best. (Or best deal)

Anyway, enough of that and back to our point about certified diamonds.

THERE IS A HUGE DISTINCTION ABOUT CERTIFIED DIAMONDS THAT YOU NEED TO LEARN ABOUT.

You need to know the difference between an actual "GIA Certified Diamond" and other diamonds that may come with something like an independent GIA Certificate, or appraisal. Only diamonds that have been certified by the laboratory GIA (Gemological Institute Of America) are actually GIA certified diamonds. GIA is not just a laboratory, GIA is also like a college. They train people to become GIA certified gemologists. Once you have graduated, you become a GIA graduate gemologist. (Now you can even start your own diamond grading laboratory.) Some people refer to them as "Certified GIA Gemologists." That is where the confusion starts, and some diamond companies use that confusion to sell diamonds that are not GIA certified, and lead you to believe that they are. They may tell you that you are buying an "Independent GIA Certified Diamond" (Or something along those lines) Many people hear this and assume that they are buying a GIA certified diamond, and they are not. They are just buying a diamond that has been certified by a certified GIA graduate gemologist. That’s why the diamond seller is careful to use the word "Independent".

Now the reason that you need to know about this distinction is this. GIA certified diamonds (That is diamonds that have actually been certified at the GIA laboratory).
Those GIA certified diamonds will actually cost more than almost every other certified diamond out there. That’s because GIA is respected and known to be the most accurate and strict diamond grading laboratory in the world. If GIA says that you have a VS2 clarity diamond, nobody is going to argue with that. Or if GIA says that you have a "G" color grade diamond, no-one will argue with that. You can be rest assured that your diamond is exactly what it says on the certificate.

Now this is not a slam on all the other diamond grading laboratories in the world, or all the diamonds graded by them. You can actually buy a diamond graded by another laboratory, that is actually nicer than some GIA certified diamonds. For instance: A diamond that is graded by another diamond grading lab as "D" color grade, VVS1 clarity grade and an Ideal cut grade, is probably going to be a lot nicer than a diamond graded by GIA as "J" color grade, SI2 clarity grade and just a Fair cut grade. But the point is that if you compare apples to apples (that is 2 diamonds with exactly the same grades as stated on the certificate) a GIA certified diamond will almost always be nicer and more expensive.

So we are ABSOLUTELY NOT SAYING that you should only buy a GIA certified diamond.

Some of the prettiest diamonds, best diamond deals , even most affordable engagement rings are not GIA certified diamonds. What we are saying is that you should know exactly what type of certified diamond you are buying. If you want to buy a GIA certified diamond, just make sure to ask if the diamond was certified by GIA (The actual Lab), and not an independent GIA certified gemologist. Ask to see the actual GIA certificate supplied with the diamond. Don’t let yourself be a victim of this confusion. It is absolutely fine to buy a diamond that was graded by another laboratory, just make sure you know that it was and that you pay accordingly.

The key word here is "Independent".