How do you know what a fair price is for an engagement ring with a natural diamond? (Authenticity of Hatton Garden)
Posted by Maleficent-Star3773@reddit | AskUK | View on Reddit | 24 comments
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GlasgowImmigrant@reddit
You haven't described the ring, that could have a big impact.
You are looking at the low end of the scale for sold clarity in a jeweller and those stones by themselves are maybe 2500.
Maleficent-Star3773@reddit (OP)
Added to the description.
From my understanding the ring style/setting is maximum £1k, and the main price difference comes from the diamond. How do you know the stones are worth 2.5?
pointlesstips@reddit
You pay for the four cs, not just the one.
GlasgowImmigrant@reddit
They only mentioned ct, colour and clarity and the colour was alright by low clarity which is why i mentioned it particularly! I had also assumed a single stone and not a cluster.
Either way seems a lot for what they are getting.
pointlesstips@reddit
Possibly, I wasn't assessing the offers, I don't feel I'm competent enough, I was just trying to clarify thar there's more to a stone assessment than carat and there's good places to read up on it.
GlasgowImmigrant@reddit
No worries, that makes sense!
GlasgowImmigrant@reddit
That is how much it costs to buy the stone by itself. You can check online with other retailers to see.
https://www.brilliantearth.com/en-gb/diamond/shop-all/
They have a natural 1.5c good H SI2 for £2150.
Major difference in the setting is just the metal, platinum is more than white gold for example!
Ok-Slip-8663@reddit
I’m not sure if this is the answer to your question but my engagement ring was bought in Bath last year for £900. It is natural diamonds and 18c white gold. It’s a cluster of smaller diamonds rather than a bigger one, your prices sound absolutely insane to me!
Mundane-Topic-8214@reddit
They're not insane for what they are. You can't compare apples with grapes.
Vivid_Sun_5636@reddit
You can. That’s kinda the point with comparisons. You can see how 2 things are similar and how they are different.
In this case, OP is comparing things that have very similar specs and a wide variety of prices - who knows what the difference is as they haven’t given us enough details or pictures. Instead - this poster is comparing 2 things that have the identical function and probably looks pretty similar - a ring with some diamonds in - but is much cheaper. There are obviously differences in raw materials. This is the point of the comparison - the question then comes back to the OP - what is important to them - it seems to be a spec for the cheapest price, rather than the exact look. This suggestion doesn’t meet the spec, but is cheaper. It is a useful comparison.
Mundane-Topic-8214@reddit
Of course you can't compare small diamonds in a cluster ring with a larger centre stone. Don't be ridiculous. Obviously you end up with a diamond ring, but the price of the two can't be compared like for like. One is cheaper for a reason.
Vivid_Sun_5636@reddit
Of course you can. e.g. compared with a large center stone, a ring with small diamonds in a cluster is cheaper.
I thought you must be trolling, but I now realize you don’t know what the word compare means; so I’m sorry for annoying you. Compare doesn’t mean saying something is the same thing. It means to identify both similarities and differences. In many ways a cheaper cluster ring is the same as a more expensive single large stone ring and in many other ways they are very different. Comparing them would allow a person to understand what attributes of ring are most important. Is it spec or price for the OP or something else?
Mundane-Topic-8214@reddit
Why not compare diamonds with cubic zirconia? They're even cheaper. Ffs.
Emotional-Web9064@reddit
Not sure if it’s still around, but Blue Nile sells diamonds individually, so you can see prices. They include UK VAT as well.
13nnew@reddit
I used ai to help my purchase, diamond 77 has access to the market, some tips go either under 1ct so .95 or over there’s a price spike at the 1ct mark additionally the angle of the cut affects the light hitting the stone it’s not something to disregard , set your max budget then tweak the colour transparency etc for the closest options to it! Clarity is diminishing returns at a certain point in my opinion, as the naked eye can’t see it so push other areas! Always get gia
thegentleduck@reddit
"Fair price" and "natural diamond" aren't two things that go together. The entire industry is built on artificial scarcity to drive prices up.
Hell, engagement rings as a whole are intentionally more expensive than they're worth. All the "common wisdoms" of "an engagement ring should cost..." all started as ad campaigns by diamond companies.
Even if you ignore the ethics of the diamond trade, you are going to get ripped off. I proposed with a complicated, custom-made, hand-engraved sapphire ring that came in at under £200 and that was mostly labour.
Laescha@reddit
Yep! My wife and I both have garnet engagement jewelry which probably came to less than £500 together, and we both love them to bits. I'm happy to spend on craftsmanship and that's the plan for our wedding jewelry, but I'll never understand the appeal of spending 10x as much for something that's visually and sentimentally the same.
mdmnl@reddit
"I proposed with a complicated, custom-made, hand-engraved sapphire ring that came in at under £200 and that was mostly labour." That sounds absolutely lovely.
JustUseDuckTape@reddit
Natural diamonds vary a lot, all four C's matter. Cut, colour, clarity, carat. A big cloudy stone is a lot a cheaper than a small clear one, and a poorly cut diamond will never sparkle well no matter how clear it is. There can be £1k's difference between two natural diamonds of the same size and shape that would look identical in a webstore photo, though you'd tell if you had them side by side.
You do also get what you pay for with the ring itself, some places definitely cheap out on that. I definitely found some rings just looked or felt cheaper despite having very similar stones. A big one to watch out for is whether it's got a solid inner band - some rings will be concave, especially near the setting, to save metal. This leads to a pretty uncomfortable ring, but not something you'll see in a photo.
Mundane-Topic-8214@reddit
Sounds about right to me.
flight147z@reddit
Worth checking out prices on James Allen for comparison, remember to include import duties
Maleficent-Star3773@reddit (OP)
Interesting, thanks for the recommendation!
The IGI one comes to about £4.6k with taxes included. GIA is approximately the same as the last one I mentioned
lunaj1999@reddit
Yes, sounds correct. There’s no point buying natural diamonds imo when you can get bigger/nicer for less with labs.
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