Buying an Engagement Ring?

SmartMoney posted some tips on how to get the most sparkle for you buck. Here’s the full article on buying diamonds online and some of the key tips.

1. Buy shy. Diamond prices jump at the one- and half-carat marks, says John Baird, diamond and jewelry expert at BlueNile. You can save hundreds of dollars if you find a diamond that’s just shy of that mark — say 0.95 carat rather than a one-carat, or a 2.44 rather than a 2.5 — while the difference in size is imperceptible. (If you’re spending $10,000, you can save around $200 or $300, Baird says.)

2. Leave some color. Find a near-colorless diamond (G or H on the color scale) rather than a colorless (D, E or F on the color scale). Very few people are able to tell the difference in color — even though the price difference is significant.

3. Be clear about clarity. The rarest and most expensive diamonds — and those highest on the clarity scale, are “flawless” and “internally flawless.” They’re followed by “very, very slightly included” (VVS1 and VVS2); “very slightly included” (VS1 and VS2); “slightly included” (SI1 to SI3) and finally, “included diamonds” (I1 to I3). (The term “included” means imperfections.) The best value is in VS2 stones, which have slight inclusions visible only under 10X magnification. Once you get in the SI range, you may be able to see those cracks, and with I1 and lower, you’ll likely see your ring’s inclusions every time you look at it, Benowitz says.

4. Avoid ranges. Some retailers, like Overstock.com, list a range for a particular stone’s measurements. For example, we recently pulled up a $3,599 diamond and were told it might range from 0.95 to 1.10 carats in size, have G-H color and I1-I2 clarity. Needless to say, getting the 0.95 H I2 stone will be a bummer compared to the 1.10 G I1, not to mention the difference in actual value.