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The Private Reserve
Ideal Cut Diamonds
In-Stock & Available:
Diamond Inventory
Ideal Cut
Classifications
AGS Ideal 0 Cut
AGS-000/Triple 0 defined
Eighternity
Diamonds
GIA Excellent / Ideal
Hearts & Arrows Ideals
Just Plain "Ideal"
The Ideal Differences
Fancy Shape Desc.
Asscher Cut Diamonds
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Private Reserve Terms:
Glossary of Terms
Inventory Introduction
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Engagement Rings:
Overview of Styles
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Diamond Grading
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Cut = Light Return
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Buyer Beware!
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When
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What is the "Rap Trap"?
What is Ho-Ho-Wholesale
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Independent Laboratories
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Important Stuff
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FAQ's or Fiction
Find an Appraiser
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"More than 50,000 Diamonds in Inventory!!!"
"More than 60,000 Diamonds in Inventory!!!"
"Choose from more than 70,000 Diamonds!!!"
"More Diamonds in Inventory than you can Imagine!"
"We've never actually seen the
diamonds that we advertise!"
Isn't it "funny" that the "Empty House
Listers" never actually make that last statement? We're
referring to our "competitors" who claim to have outrageous amounts of
diamonds in their inventory when in fact they are simply re-publishing
the multiple listing service that is available to the trade by
subscription at a variety of price points in hopes that you're naive
enough not to realize that they've never actually seen the diamond that
they are advertising for sale. We could certainly conduct our
business that way, but we prefer to take a more responsible, hands-on
approach when representing your interests.
"EHL's" (Empty House Listers) may offer an impressive inventory at first
glance, but in reality they offer nothing in terms of customer service,
insight into the actual characteristics of the diamond, or peace of mind
in terms of financial security. Empty House Listers are a blight
upon our industry.
Minimal Information & Inaccuracies + Zero Disclosure = A Miserable Experience
EHL's fail to provide consumers with
adequate information by which to make an informed purchase. Most
of the empty listers offer nothing in the way of information except for
the information which was entered into the multiple listing service
database by the cutter and that information is often riddled with
typographical errors and half truths. For instance, we called to
inquire about a diamond listed on the multiple listing service recently
because it sounded interesting and we were informed that this "GIA
graded diamond" had not actually been sent to the GIA Laboratory yet.
The cutter had merely indicated on the listing what he felt the diamond
would be graded by the GIA if he were to send it to the GIA for
grading. And so the stated characteristics of the diamond being
advertised may or may not be accurate in comparison to the GIA standards
for diamond grading, because the diamond had not actually been lab
graded by the GIA or anybody else who might be considered to be
impartial. Some of you might call this "fraud" or "mis-representation"
or "false advertising" but the cutter simply calls it "an oversight".
Other more legitimate errors like typing or clicking on the letter "G"
instead of an "H" or a "VS-1" instead of a "VS-2" when entering diamonds
into inventory are reflected on the multiple listing service routinely
by data entry clerks who happen to strike the wrong key or skip a line
when entering items on to the listing. Amazingly enough, these
diamonds will always have "just sold" when you call to order them
because the cutter isn't about to lose money due to a clerical error nor
are they likely to admit the error.
Some Empty House Listers are more responsible than others and display
scanned copies of the gemological lab reports for the diamonds that they
advertise as part of their "inventory" but this does not mean that they
have actually seen the diamond or that they ever will. It just
means that they have plugged their script directly into the cutter's
virtual inventory system and they are downloading scanned copies of the
diamond grading reports to their web site along with the general
characteristics of the diamond as stated on the lab report. While
this is a step in the right direction, it still fails to provide
consumers with an adequate amount of disclosure of the diamonds
characteristics by which to make an informed decision. One of the
largest Empty House Listers that we know of uses this technique of
virtual listing to create the illusion of having a substantial inventory
of diamonds that can't be found on any other virtual list, but it's not
that they have the diamonds in-house and it's not that the diamonds
can't be sourced by any other vendor including ourselves, it's just that
they have contracted with certain cutters for exclusive on-line listing
rights to their inventory. So the diamonds that they are listing
as "their inventory" can still be found on the multiple listing service
which is available to every other dealer, the only difference is that
those stones can't be downloaded by the other dealers to appear on their
virtual inventory lists.
We are aware of one cutting house which provides their EHL virtual
customers with a single picture of their diamonds which can be magnified
to show the inclusions within the diamond by moving a "magnified lens"
around on the surface of the diamond by way of a Macromedia Flash™
plug-in and while that is yet another step in the right direction, it
leaves a lot to be desired because while the technology is "cool" the
unfortunate reality is that the accuracy of the representation is fuzzy
at best. We had an opportunity to buy the equipment, heck we had
one cutter who offered to give it to us because he couldn't make it
work, but we weren't impressed with it and decided not to waste our
time.
The Classic "Bait & Switch"
Pick ten diamonds from our Private Reserve and pick ten different diamonds from the virtual list of your favorite Empty House Lister and click the links associated with each listing. The first thing we expect you to realize is that more often than not, the diamond details pages usually load for the diamonds listed in our inventory when on the EHL inventory you will be greeted by an error message indicating that the diamond can not be found, is no longer listed or has been replaced by something similar. Technical mistakes happen, we've already acknowledged that. There are days when we forget to load a page that we have built, but we're human, we're not an automated script that is gleaning information from a database that is constantly being updated. So all you have to do is pick up the phone or send us an email asking to see the diamond details page and with a few clicks of a mouse we can load it for you and talk to you about the characteristics of the diamond. But more often than not what you'll hear from the Empty House Listers is "that diamond just sold" or "that diamond sold yesterday" followed by "but we have one just like it, but it happens to cost $500.00 more" or "but it's a J color instead of a G" and that my friend is what is known as a "classic bait and switch". Some Empty House Liars, Oops! We meant to say Listers take it one step further and actually pad their lists with make believe diamonds that will tempt people to call or set their script to automatically price their inventory at ridiculous prices and respond to inquiries by explaining that "diamond prices just increased this morning and the script hasn't updated my inventory page yet and there is nothing that I can do about it" and quite often a customer is willing to pay a little more for the diamond just to end the misery of sifting through the endless lines of virtual possibilities and page not found errors. We've talked with several of these dealers personally about this practice and their attitude seems to be that the practice is acceptable if it gets people to call because they have a better chance of selling you a diamond if you're on the phone than if you're just staring at their web site... Sleazy. Another practice is to list the diamond slightly below cost in hopes of attracting your business and convincing you that their prices are better than everybody else's and then tell clients that the diamond is sold when an inquiry is made and then switch you to another diamond that is being sold at the regular price. Don't take our word for it, we're not asking you to, we're just trying to make you conscious of the tactics so that you realize what is happening when you experience it.
"The Lowest Prices Guaranteed!"
(when something seems to good to be
true, it usually is...)
It is easy to offer "the lowest
prices" and "guarantee to beat any price" when you have nothing invested
in your business except for a telephone, a fax machine and a little
script designed to spider the multiple listing service. Amazing
claims that seem too good to be true, usually are. If your
primary focus is price, buy from one of the Empty House Listers and with
the money that you perceive as savings, you might be able to catch a
budget flight to Vegas where you can take another roll of the dice.
Of course, you might also "crap out" completely and end up spending more
in time and frustration trying to return the diamond and get your money
back, but "nothing ventured, nothing gained" right?
Based upon most of the conversations that we have had with customers,
there seems to be an assumption that a dealer actually has some insight
into the characteristics of the diamond being advertised for sale.
Yet most of the EHL internet dealers never see the diamonds that they
sell. But this doesn't keep them from talking about the
characteristics of the diamond! Oh, no... They seem all to
willing to do that based upon the characteristics displayed on the lab
report which has been faxed over to them by the cutter and the verbal
description provided to them by the cutter who also just happens to
think that every diamond in his inventory is absolutely gorgeous and the
best! We actually have a customer who purchased a diamond from us
who had been discussing the characteristics of the diamond with another
virtual dealer who also happened to have the diamond listed on their
virtual inventory because we had sourced it on behalf of the client who
found it on the virtual inventory and asked us to bring it in to be
evaluated using our normal process.
The cutters are supposed to send us the original lab report when they
send us diamonds for evaluation, but sometimes they forget and send us a
copy. There was a cloud of pinpoint size diamond crystals
located within the table facet that we discovered while looking at the
diamond through our lab scope which did not appear on the copy of the
diamond grading report that had been sent to us by the cutter.
We called the cutter and he indicated that there wasn't a cloud
indicated on the lab report, but that he would send us the original lab
report for a.m. delivery so that we could properly evaluate the diamond.
The next day the lab report arrived and the cloud which we had
discovered during our evaluation was indicated on the plotting diagram
on the lab report. Despite the addition of an unexpected
cloud of pinpoint size diamond crystals, the diamond was Drop Dead
Gorgeous and so the customer flew out to our store to view the diamond
in-person based upon our evaluation.
During the days before the flight the customer telephoned us several
times to verify that we actually had the diamond in our store and that
there was actually a cloud located within the table facet. It
was getting to the point where we were beginning to wonder whether our
client was neurotic, but then the customer said "I know that this sounds
crazy, but I just want to make sure that you actually have the diamond
because another dealer is telling me that they have the diamond diamond
and that there absolutely is no cloud in the center of the table facet,
but you are able to provide me with a color copy of the lab report and
they can not. And you are showing me several clarity photographs of
the diamond and they can not. and I'm inclined to believe you,
but I don't want to take a long flight and be disappointed if you don't
actually have the diamond and this all turns out to be some sort of
elaborate hoax".
The fact that numbers on the diamond grading report and the
characteristics of the diamond that we had posted on our diamond details
page matched those provided by the virtual dealer minus the addition of
a cloud of pinpoints went a long way towards convincing the customer
that we actually had the diamond, but we suggested that the customer
telephone the AGS Laboratory who had issued the diamond grading report
and that she ask them whether there was a cloud located in the center of
the table facet which they confirmed that there was... Our
customer made the flight to our store and was definitely not
disappointed. In fact, the customer derived great satisfaction out
of calling the virtual dealer on her cell phone while looking at the
diamond through our GIA Gem Scope and listening to the virtual dealer
insist that (1) he had the diamond in his presence and (2) there was no
cloud in the center of the table facet while the customer was sitting in
our store staring at the diamond through our Gem Scope. When
confronted with the fact that she was sitting in our store and looking
at the diamond and the original lab report and that the diamond did in
fact have a cloud located in the center of the table facet and that the
cloud was indicated on the original copy of the lab report, the virtual
dealer responded by saying "I'll beat their price by fifty dollars!" to
which she responded by hanging up the phone.
One thing is for certain, it is necessary to be in possession of the
diamond to evaluate it and provide the in-depth analysis provided by our
diamond details pages... Anybody can post a scanned copy of a lab report
to the web, but it's pretty difficult to take clarity photographs of a
diamond without seeing it first.
EHL's rely on the Cutter's interpretation to tell you what a diamond looks like...
Since the Empty House Listers don't
actually see the diamonds that they sell, they have to rely on the
cutter's opinion of what the diamonds look like when you call and ask
them questions. But are the cutters accurate? Well...
Um... Uh... No... Not Always. Our personal "favorite" experience thus
far involved a 1.62 carat, D color, SI-1 clarity diamond which the
diamond cutter told us was "completely eye clean" over the telephone.
We actually sat on hold for about eight minutes while he scrutinized it
for our benefit. When he returned to the phone he said "It's a
beautiful diamond, completely eye clean, the inclusions are very light
in color, you're going to love it!" and based upon that statement and
what we were seeing on the lab report, we had the diamond shipped to us.
The next morning, we open up the parcel paper and the diamond crystal
located within the kite shaped bezel facet on the topside of the diamond
was immediately visible to us and the inclusion was dark, not light.
Imagine our surprise when we telephoned the cutter and said "You really
need to get your eyes checked!" and the cutter said "Why is that?" and
we said "Because this diamond is not eye clean." And he said "Yea,
I know..." We almost passed out, but first we exclaimed "What?!?!"
and the cutter said "Okay, okay, don't freak out, but when I talked to
you yesterday I didn't have the stone in front of me so I just sort of
winged it based upon the lab report. The diamond was up the
street at a jewelry store and when I actually got to see it I knew that
you were going to be upset but I decided to ship it to you anyway
because as you know one carat sixties are really difficult to come by so
I figured that you'd get over it". Needless to say, we were a
bit stunned, but we can't say that we were entirely surprised.
The cutters are famous for this type of behavior and they're going to
say whatever they think that they need to say to sell any diamond in
their inventory because they have to take whatever the DTC gives them in
terms of diamond rough. They have to take the darker colors,
they have to take the more included stuff, they have to figure out a way
to sell the SI-2 clarity diamonds that are graded as SI-1's and they
have to figure out how to sell the SI-1's that are graded as SI-2, but
we don't.
We hand select our inventory by cherry picking from what each cutter has
to offer and then we return anything that we don't just love to the
cutters for somebody else to deal with. And you know who usually
ends up selling the stuff we pass on, right? The Empty House Listers end up selling from that inventory because they don't get to
represent the best of the inventory because that stuff goes to people
who buy for inventory like ourselves! If you want to eat table
scraps, go pick through the trash cans behind your favorite
restaurant. But if you want the best that a restaurant has to
offer, walk inside, sit down at a table and be prepared to pay for your
meal. The food may be the same, but there is a definite
difference in the quality and we certainly hope the taste ☺
The Financial Risk:
We are aware of several Empty House
Listers that are being operated by companies which reside outside of the
United States, but which operate by drop shipping diamonds direct to
their customers from the offices of the cutters located here in the
United States. This might not seem like that big of a deal at
first glance, but when you send money outside of the country you can't
fall back on the Universal Commercial Code as an enforcement tool if
something goes wrong with the transaction and you want to return the
item and discover that the seller never had any intention of honoring
their money back guarantee. All of those great consumer protection
practices put in place by the Federal Trade Commission fly right out the
window when you send your money outside of the U.S. because the FTC has
no commercial jurisdiction in other countries.
We are located in the United States and so are our bank accounts.
If you purchase a diamond from us using a credit card, your bank
provides protection for you as a consumer. If we fail to deliver
the product as promised, all you have to do is file a complaint with the
consumers services department of the credit card company and they will
suck the money out of our verified account while they investigate the
situation. If you pay by wire transfer and we fail to deliver the
product as promised, your recourse lies with the Federal Government who
will be more than happy to prosecute us for Interstate Wire Fraud.
Obviously this has never been a problem for us, but you're probably
wondering how we know this right? Isn't it amazing how a company
always knows about the problems being faced by it's "competitors".
Do yourself a favor. Contact the
Jewelers Vigilance
Committee in New York City before you make a substantial jewelry
purchase either on the internet or in your home town. The JVC
knows so much more about the company you're dealing with than the Better
Business Bureau and we're not slamming the BBB, it's a simple fact.
The BBB is regional and used by a variety of business types, the JVC is
industry specific and they know all too well that what we're talking
about on this page is an unfortunate reality.
Buying & Selling Diamonds Beyond the 4C's
Diamonds are a recognized commodity
that are traded based upon their characteristics. Larger diamonds
sell for more than smaller diamonds of the same clarity, color and
shape. Diamonds graded by reputable laboratories such as the
GIA, AGS or HRD trade for more than "comparable" diamonds which have
been graded by gemological laboratories which are recognized within the
trade as being less accurate and consistent. So many people make
the mistake of assuming that a diamond is a "good diamond" because it is
lab graded and nothing could be further from the truth! Diamond
cutters send their best diamonds to the laboratories and they send their
total junk to the laboratories because they know that people "buy paper"
because they mistake paper for security.
The Empty House Listers rely on the paper aspects of the inventory to
sell diamonds because that is all that they have to go on. After
all, that is all that they know about the diamonds that they sell
because they've never actually seen the diamond that they are
advertising. It is one thing to buy a name brand product like a
car "off paper" assuming that you have a basic understanding of the
automobile and the features by way of a test drive, but it is entirely
another to purchase a diamond off of a few lines of text and a one
dimensional plotting diagram! We buy diamonds "off paper" every
day based upon years of experience and we still end up returning more
than 40% of the diamonds that we bring in for evaluation and that is
after we have looked at the lab report, the plotting diagram and a
proportions analysis provided by the cutter! That's a return ratio
in excess of 40% and we know what we're doing! The Empty House Listers expect you to be able to buy "off paper" when they're not even
willing to do so themselves.
We hand select our inventory. That means that we have personally
evaluated every diamond in our inventory. If we are buying while
sitting in the cutter's office we physically look at the diamonds in his
inventory and then we have the diamonds we are interested in sent to our
store for further evaluation. If we are buying "off paper" we have
the lab reports faxed over to us and then when we are finished sifting
through them we have the cutter ship us the diamonds that we want to
take a look at. Then we look at every diamond personally with
just our eyes to determine whether it's first impression meets with our
expectations in terms of visual performance. Is it as Brilliant
as we expect it to be? Does it exhibit the Fire (dispersion) that
we expect from the diamonds that we sell? Does the Scintillation
meet our expectations? If so, we take a look at the diamond
through a standard 10x diamond grading loupe to get a first impression
of the inclusions. If we like what we see, the diamond moves on
to the Sarin where the proportions will be
measured, if the measurements do not meet our expectations, the diamond
is set aside to be returned to the cutter.
Assuming that the diamond has the proportions that we desire and we're
looking for more than just a zero ideal cut rating, we're taking into
account the actual combination of the measurements and keeping in mind
how those measurements relate to each other in terms of the quantity and
type of light return that generally results from the combinations.
The diamond will be examined under a lab scope using a variety of
magnification levels
and this is when we photograph the inclusions for the diamond details
page that accompanies every diamond listed for sale on our web site.
If the inclusions within the diamond meet our expectations and if we
agree with the clarity grade assigned to the diamond, we proceed by
evaluating the facet shape and alignment and the overall finish of the
diamond before proceeding to verify the color and fluorescence rating of
the diamond using our GIA Diamond Light.
If you have had the opportunity to review one of our diamond details
pages, you know that we post a series of detailed clarity photographs
and not just a single picture of the diamond. Our intention is to
provide you with a reasonable representation of what to expect when you
have the opportunity to examine the characteristics of the diamond for
yourself using either a standard 10x diamond grading loupe (which will
be sent to you with the diamond) or the higher magnification provided by
a gem scope. Be sure to bookmark the diamond details page for the
diamond that you purchase because the listing for the diamond will be
removed from our on-line inventory, but the diamond details page will
remain on our server for your future reference. We realize that
there might be some point in the future that you might want or need to
reference those pictures, for instance when you are dropping off or
picking up your ring from a jewelry store and you want to be able to
identify the inclusions.
We continue to evaluate the characteristics of the diamonds being
considered for inventory with the assistance of a
Gem Ex Brilliance Scope,
a SymmetriScope, and a
mathematical ray tracing software called DiamCalc which was created by a
research team at Moscow State University to demonstrate how beams of
light travel through a diamond based upon the angle and alignment of the
facets. If we're happy with the results of our evaluation, the
diamond is listed for sale on our Private Reserve and if we're not, the
diamond is returned to the cutter to be sold to somebody less precise.
May we be so bold as to suggest that you not be that person...
We're not saying that the virtual dealers don't have purpose, they
certainly do. Feel free to peruse their inventory of
possibilities, make believes, and could be's and run down all the
possibilities that are of interest to you. If the dealer is
willing to bring the diamond in for you and provide you with a scanned
color copy of the original diamond grading report as well as an
in-depth proportions analysis and four or
five clarity photographs that provide you with a reasonable
understanding of what to expect from the stone, then by all means buy
the diamond from them. But if they're not, drop us a line and
we'll see whether we can source it on your behalf and if the diamond is
real. And if the listing is accurate. And if the inclusions aren't
scary. And if the proportions look promising. Then we'll bring the
diamond in and run it through our normal evaluation process and if it
passes, we'll offer to sell it to you. But if we don't like the stone,
we'll return it to the cutter along with the others that we reject every
time we buy a parcel and when we finally find you the right stone, we're
pretty confident that you'll be quite pleased because we don't just
rubber stamp the lab reports. We'd
rather postpone a sale by rejecting a diamond that we don't like than
risk our name and reputation by passing on a diamond that we're not
pleased with. Think about this...
If we don't like a diamond enough to buy it, why should you?
Most
Empty House Listers sell virtual inventory which they have never seen.
We have physically examined every diamond listed in our Private Reserve
The details provided for most EHL inventory is extremely limited.
Detailed information is available for every diamond in our inventory,
including:
Scanned color copies of the original lab report
Detailed Sarin DiaMension computerized proportions analysis
Clarity photographs for all primary inclusions
Computerized Mathematical Ray Tracing Analysis & Simulations
Gems Fantasy Scope Images for diamonds exhibiting H&A patterns
Why don't other virtual dealers disclose this type of
information?
What are they hiding? What don't they want you to see?
Don't you have better things to do than play hide and seek on the
internet?
Diamond... Diamond... Who's got the diamond?
We do. Our inventory is 100%
Verified before it's offered to you!
May we help you find the diamond of your dreams?
Send us an email diamonds@niceice.com
and tell us what you are looking for.
Or give us a call at 206.319.8152 or Toll Free 877.844.5443
Copyright © 1996 - 2008 Nice Ice, Inc.
AGS®
is a registered trademark of the American Gem Society (702) 255-6500
GIA® is a registered trademark of the Gemological Institute of America
(760) 603-4000