I believe in online shopping, but I don’t believe you should ever buy loose diamonds from the Internet. At one time, I had thought of migrating to an eCommerce site, but these 10 reasons are what stopped me from pursuing that further than just a fleeting thought in my head.
10 Reasons Why You Should Not Buy Loose Diamonds Online
- You can’t sell a feeling on the Internet. Selling a loose diamond is not just about symmetry and the technicalities of the 4 C’s, it’s also about the feelings that this stone will elicit when it is given and the feeling it should elicit when bought.
- While we are talking about the letters and numbers of the 4 C’s, loose diamonds are so much more than that. A diamond is a work of nature. I could give you the dimensions of a woman along with a picture, but you need to see her to truly experience her beauty. The same goes for loose diamonds. You can’t truly experience the sparkle, shine and depth from a picture online.
- This brings me to where is the inclusion? How bright is the stone? What is the quality? Is there a haze? What does it look like through a loupe? These are things you cannot know if you are buying loose diamonds online with an untrained eye.
- Would you buy a house without taking a tour first? You shouldn’t buy loose diamonds without seeing them first either. A store lets you see them, touch them and more importantly, examine them and COMPARE them to each other. No diamond dealer in the world buys stones sight unseen, why should you?
- Retail prices on the same stone can range from a few thousand to almost $10,000, depending on where you are buying the diamond. If every diamond were the same, then everyone would buy from the store that sold it for the least amount of money. Obviously there are many differences in diamonds, such as brightness; scintillation, position and relief of inclusions and all of these things determine the beauty of the stone. These are all things that need to be seen under a loupe.
- If it seems to good to be true, it usually is. I’ve said this before when it comes to buying a diamond while you are on vacation, but remember no one is giving anything away and there is usually a reason something is priced below market value. If you find something that you can’t pass up, buy it and then take it to your local jeweler to see if it measures up. Chances are when you actually go to buy the too good to be true stone, it will be gone and you will then need to buy a not so good to be true stone instead.
- A diamond is forever and Internet sites come and go. I’m not saying that brick and mortar stores or wholesalers don’t go either; some do, but not as often as Internet sites. In order to make the purchase memorable and special, part of that is sitting in front of a bunch of loose diamonds and choosing the one that speaks to you, not putting it in your cart and paying via PayPal.
- Because a diamond is forever, what are you going to do if your diamond gets a chip or your ring loses a stone? Most Internet sites will not provide maintenance, experience or service and if they do you will have to get your ring to them and hope it comes back as you sent it, with the exact same stone. When you buy from a jeweler you get their expertise and time. You get their guarantee and appraisal. You get to take your ring in to keep it clean and maintained for as long as you own the piece and often you can upgrade your diamond for just the cost of the upgrade.
- There are so many ranges of colors and clarities when it comes to diamonds that is not just as simple as D – Z for color and FL to I3 for clarity. If it were, then all D FL diamonds would look alike and they don’t. You can’t possibly see the differences in these diamonds and compare them on the Internet.
- It is unfortunate but true that diamond dealers and sellers are not always looked upon as beacons of honesty. Between fake certifications and jacked up prices and the misgrading of stones it is important to listen to your friends, go to the Better Business Bureau, read reviews and find a jeweler that you trust so you can avoid these headaches and really enjoy the experience of buying a loose diamond.
