Buy Diamonds Online In 2018 – 6 Things You Need To Know

It is now 2018 and there are more than 3 billion people accessing and using the internet for information, news, communication, and buying stuff – tons of stuff. Is it still crazy to buy diamonds online in 2018?

For most Millennials, the thought of buying an engagement ring via the internet doesn’t sound like such a ludicrous idea at all. In fact, most people of any age group think it’s crazy NOT to take advantage of the internet to make a financially smart and informed purchase. Here’s how you can too:

It Is No Longer Crazy To Buy Diamonds Online – Take Advantage Of The Power of the Internet:

1. Get The Basics Down – research the 4 C’s of diamonds and get a basic understanding of how diamonds are valued and priced. This will help you converse with retailers or sales people and offer you an advantage in speaking the same language when evaluating different diamond shapes, carat weights, color and clarity. This is essential and very easy to do.

2. Know Your Budget – your preliminary diamond education will take you to the next step which is understanding what you can reasonably afford. An easy way to assess this would be to take advantage of the various different jewelry websites to search through their inventory of diamonds and play with different shape, carat weight, color and clarity combinations. This will offer you a greater understanding of what realistic budget you need. Not only is this very simple to do but it also empowers you in knowing what your financial limits are and mitigates risk of being swindled in overpriced lower quality diamonds. Be sure to check out ODBA’s diamond search which has four different diamond retailers listed so that you can easily compare and contrast prices.

3. Seeing Is Believing – your next task will take you to actually viewing magnified images of diamonds to get a feel for what is a ‘good’ vs. a ‘bad’ diamond. For example, did you know:

• • Not all pear shaped diamonds have the same shape – some are ‘fat’ pears and some are ‘skinny’ pears.
  • Does your oval shaped diamond suffer from a very dark bow-tie?
  • Do you know if that princess cut diamond looks dark and dead in the middle or shines brilliantly white?
  • What about that cushion modified brilliant? Does it look more like the standard antique cut cushion with a pillow shape or is it more modern looking?
  • Does the round brilliant diamond you are evaluating have 8 distinct dark ‘arrows’ or no discernible pattern at all?

You see where I’m going here – you absolutely, 100%, without a doubt, need diamond pictures.

Never buy diamonds online without seeing actual pictures or videos. A GIA report is great, but without a picture you have no idea what you are getting.

4. Understand That Diamonds Have Been Cut By Humans! – this part gets ignored by 99% of people shopping for diamonds. People understand that diamonds are formed within the Earth and are billions of years old, have natural inclusions and get their color from various different elements in their atomic carbon structure yet they don’t seem to connect the dots with regard to the cut of the diamond being completely man made. This is absolutely critical!!!

Why? The cut of the diamond affects overall brilliance and sparkle. Here is a very easy visual aide to help you understand this concept:

Both of these diamonds are ‘D’ color and have SI1 clarity. Why is the diamond on the left so dark?

In the example above, the diamond on the left is .70ct D SI1 and the diamond on the left is .90ct D SI1. How can the diamond on the left be a colorless ‘D’ yet look so dark and black?! The reason is because this diamond has been cut very poorly. A poorly cut diamond will not sparkle. A poorly cut diamond will not look white and bright. A poorly cut diamond will look dark, dead, and small. Now do you understand why Cut is Queen?

5. You Will Get Overwhelmed – Deal With It. – diamonds tend to be a once in a lifetime purchase usually to commemorate a wedding proposal. This means that people tend to do their research for a few weeks or months and inevitably get overwhelmed. This is common and to be expected – diamonds are actually not the easiest thing to understand overnight and when you consider that they cost thousands of dollars, it is easy to see how people become stressed about the whole process. Expect to be overwhelmed and expect to get over it. There is a learning curve and you’ll get your perfect diamond in the end.

6. ODBA Diamond Advice –  the next step in your search for the perfect diamond should be to contact me for unbiased assistance and help in your purchase. I’ve written tons of diamond education articles, offer a diamond search with pictures/videos, created The Diamond Genie, and send out weekly diamond deals for Diamond Deal Friday.  Yet, nothing really tops working with me one-on-one when you buy diamonds online.

Just tell me your diamond budget and what diamond shape, carat weight, color/clarity preferences you have and I will recommend some beautiful options ASAP.

This is probably the most important advantage in using the power of the internet!

Don’t be shy to contact me and ask questions – you’ve got nothing to loose and everything to gain! I look forward to working with you!

Happy Diamond Buying!