Gather Little by Little

I previously shared with you that my wife and I decided to purchase her a replacement engagement ring through Amazon.com and we were anxiously awaiting its arrival. We were both excited to see how it would look, but at the same time nervous that it might not be what we expected. After all, we had paid a considerable amount of money for a ring we hadn’t even seen yet.

I am pleased to share with you that the ring was everything we expected and more. We received the ring via UPS overnight shipping (included free as part of your purchase) 5 days after we placed the order. The ring was packaged in a standard Amazon box and well padded as all Amazon.com packages are. Inside the box, was a 5×8 envelope and a standard blue colored ring box. My wife anxiously opened the ring box to find an incredibly beautiful ring that was exactly what we expected and to some extent even more. The diamond is strikingly beautiful, and sat atop the mount and band she selected, exactly as Amazon had pictured it during the ordering process. Here is a picture:

The diamond was much more brilliant than we anticipated and when in bright sunlight, really shines and sparkles due to the quality of the cut and clarity we ordered.

Here are the stats once again for diamond: Round, Very Good cut, .54 carats, F color, VS2 clarity.

To be honest, it wasn’t as large as we expected, but after placing it on my wife’s finger the size was perfect. My wife has very small hands and fingers, and anything larger would have too much.

The gold band seems to made of quality gold and is free of any scratches or imperfections. On the inside is the 14k stamp indicating the quality of the gold, and to our amusement she found the name “Amazon” engraved on the inside. Not as snazzy as Tiffany’s & Co. I guess, but I’m perfectly fine with that!

Inside the envelope that was included, was the certificate for the diamond along with the warrenty and care information. Prior to writing this article, we had intended to have the diamond appraised to see if we over or underpaid and to attain it’s true value for insurance purposes. Due to our family being sick for the past two weeks due to one bug or another, we haven’t yet taken it, but plan to do so this weekend. I’ll write an update on the appraisal and let you know how we did. I am fully expecting it to appraise out at far more than we paid for it based on the similar quality rings we say at various local jewelry stores.

We did learn a few things in the process, so here are a few tips:

You can go with a lower color rating when using a gold band

The yellow gold color definitely shows through the diamond and regardless of how you hold it, tints the diamond a bit yellow. We don’t have a problem with this at all since my wife and I both prefer yellow gold to white. As a result, we probably could have gone with a G, H, or maybe even I color rating and not have been able to visibly see a difference. This would have allowed us to either get a larger diamond or an even better cut for the same price. I would suggest you visit various stores and look at the difference in color when mounted in a gold setting and see if you can tell the difference.

Color is far more important when the setting is white gold as you won’t have any reflection of the setting color through the ring and any color in the diamond will be far more noticeable.

Make sure you are home the day of the delivery

Due to the contents of the package, someone has to be at home for delivery. Fortunately for us, my wife is a stay at home mom, so this wasn’t a big deal for us. If you aren’t home at time of delivery to sign for it, you will be required to go to your local UPS location to pick up your package. UPS was nice enough to provide an automated call to our home during the shipping process to inform us of this requirement.

Play around with the Amazon visualization tools

To my pleasant surprise, the visualization tools provided as part of Amazon.com’s Create your own ring process was very accurate. As I said before, my wife’s ring looked exactly as we expected, and even the diamond size in proportion to the band was accurate. So utilize this tool during your purchase process to try different diamond size, shape, and setting combinations. You can trust that the picture they display is a very reasonable picture of what the delivered product will look like.

Conclusions

Overall, my wife and I are both extremely pleased with the process of purchasing our diamond through Amazon.com. To be honest, I was surprised, although in hindsight I really shouldn’t be. I have been a customer of Amazon.com for a long time, and have always been extremely happy with service and products. Why should I have expected anything less when purchasing a ring.

Looking to buy an engagement ring or replacement diamond ring? I would highly recommend using Amazon.com. As I said in my previous article, we saved close to $1000.00 and got a much nicer ring than we would have purchasing through the local jewelry store. Amazon.com also only works with diamond providers that certify that their diamonds do not “originate from conflict countries or other sources with links to criminal or terrorist activities”. After watching the movie Blood Diamond, this was a concern for us.

Amazon.com also provides a full 30-day return policy for jewlery to make the decision even more of a no-brainer for you. Not happy? Just send it back for a full refund. Just make sure you keep all the packaging and documentation that is provided with your ring.

I’ll write another update for you once we get it appraised!