Do not buy diamonds sight unseen!!
We have been involved in internet diamond marketing and sales for over 7 years. We’ve had quite a bit of success in our efforts, and have clients all over North America and even a few overseas. The reasons why our founding partners wanted to market and sell diamonds online are many, but the primary reasons where because large public organizations like Blue Nile and Ashford were having great success do so, and gobbling up market share that we knew we could win over if we only had the chance.
The idea of buying diamonds over the internet sight unseen seemed like a feasible idea because of the relative reliability of certain third party diamond grading standards. Objectively graded diamonds…. Certified diamonds could have their specs listed on diamond website databases and consumers could confidently browse and shop diamonds based on specs. The idea was a good one and it worked for us and continues to work for many online diamond brokering organizations.
But there’s a problem. The problem is that there are inherently subjective components to diamond grading. So even though you may be shopping for the most strictly graded certified diamonds there is still a chance that those subjective qualities of that graded diamond are not going to meet your expectations.
Diamond professionals and those involved in buying or trading gem quality diamonds will very very rarely buy diamonds sight unseen. And if the pro’s won’t, neither should you. Use the internet and the online diamond company databases to browse and learn, but when it comes time to buy, you should see the stone in person and with a professional, in various lighting environments to scrutinize it’s characteristics and establish it’s true value. Hands on in person diamond viewing is a critical component to shopping for diamonds… even certified diamonds.  Boston Diamond Exchange web site provides vast diamond inventories that you can browse online. When you’ve located diamonds of interest call or email us and see if an in person viewing can be scheduled. You’ll be glad you did.