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Firstly you should consider your reasons for wanting to purchase the diamond online, as opposed to your local jewelry store.

The most common reason is price. Due to low overhead costs, online jewellers and wholesalers are able to offer lower prices. Always beware that a price that is too low is a sure indication of a scam and you should never scrimp when buying diamonds.

One of the major benefits of purchasing online is the unlimited selection. When shopping offline, you are limited to the selection in the stores in your general area. Online, there are no limits. But again, you must use a great deal of care and consideration before handing your money over to someone that you cannot see and have never met!

Before shopping, learn as much as you can about diamonds – especially cut, color, clarity and carat weights. (This website should help you out!)

When you are knowledgeable about diamonds, it will be much harder for a con artist to rip you off.

Take your time. Don’t purchase the first diamond that you see that interests you. Instead, look for similar diamonds for sale. Do some comparison shopping to find the lowest prices. Once you have found the lowest price, start investigating. You know about diamonds, you’ve found a diamond that you love, and you’ve found the lowest price – but there are still a few checks you should carry out.

Ask about the seller’s credentials, such as professional jewellery associations that they belong to. View and print the seller’s return, refund, and upgrade policies. Also enquire about additional services, such as settings and mountings, sizing, and free shipping. Do a search for customer reviews on this particular company around the Internet. (This is a very important point and you should get in the habit of doing this for any and every purchase you make online, above and beyond diamonds!) Also check with the BBB Online to see if there have been any complaints.

Ask for a diamond grading report from an independent laboratory such as GIA, HRD, EGL or AGS. You should see this before making a purchase. Finally, use a reputable escrow service for high dollar diamonds – preferably one that will have the diamond appraised while it is in their possession. The seller sends the diamond to the escrow service, and you send the money to pay for the diamond to the escrow service. The escrow service has the diamond appraised, sends the diamond to you, and sends the money to the seller. This is the surest way to protect yourself…again, make sure that you use a reputable escrow service!

Out of the entire jeweler’s in the world, only about 5% of them are bonded. Buying a bonded diamond will cost more than buying a non-bonded diamond, but when you look at what you get with the bonded option, you will see that it is well worth the extra expense.

1. Bonded diamonds have a buy back policy for the life of the diamond. No matter how long you have had the diamond, you can take it back to the bonded jeweler and sell it back to him or her, for a 100% refund. If a jeweler does not offer a 100% buy back guarantee, for the life of the diamond, then you should take a closer look at the diamond to see what is wrong with it.
2. Bonded diamonds also have a breakage policy. If the stone breaks or chips, the bonded jeweler will replace it with a new one – one time. No jeweler would ever offer such a policy on any stone that was not 100% natural, so just the offer of such a policy should give you piece of mind concerning the quality of the diamond. Bonded diamonds are natural and untreated.
3. Bonded diamonds increase in value, with a fixed appreciation rate that is designed to keep up with inflation. This means that a diamond that is worth a certain amount of money today will be worth more in the future, as the price of diamonds continues to rise. This generally does not apply to buy backs, but typically applies to trade-ins. By purchasing a bonded diamond, you are protected against the possibility of a market crash. If a market crash occurs, the value of diamonds will drop. However, the bonded jeweler guarantees to refund you the difference between what the diamond is now worth and what you paid for it before the market crash.

It may be difficult to find a bonded jeweler in your area, but if you can, this is who you want to deal with, as opposed to dealing with an un-bonded jeweler. Specifically tell the jeweler that you are only interested in bonded diamonds.  You can find a bonded jeweler in your area by using various online resources, or by calling the local jewelry stores.

There is actually a lot of work carried out before a diamond is ready to sell to the general public!

For every one million diamonds that are mined, only one will be found that is of a quality one carat diamond. In order to find a two
carat diamond, about five million diamonds must be mined. More than two hundred tons of ore is mined in order just to find one small
diamond, and even then, more than 80% of the diamonds that are mined are only good for industrial use, such as diamond drill bits.

So, the next time you visit your local jewelry store, ask to see the one carat diamonds.

You should look at this diamond with new appreciation – knowing that it truly is one in a million!
A fabulous film all about diamonds being mined and the political stories behind the sparkle is Blood Diamond starring Leonardo Di Caprio.  After watching this you will never think of Diamonds in the same way again.

There are two things that you must understand:

1. Diamonds with visual imperfections or blemishes
2. Diamonds that are ‘eye clean’ (meaning that there are no inclusions or blemishes that can be seen with the naked eye).

From there, the clarity of a diamond is further broken down into subcategories.

Many people mistakenly think that diamond clarity refers to how clear it is. This is not the case. Clarity actually refers to the internal and external imperfections of the diamond.

The best diamonds get a grade of FL or IF – Flawless or Internally Flawless – meaning that it is perfect.

A grade of I-1, I-2 or I-3 means that the diamond is imperfect, with a grade of I-3 being the worst.

Other grades are VVS1 and VVS2, which means that the diamond is “very, very slightly imperfect”; VS1 and VS2, meaning the diamond is “very slightly imperfect”; SI-1 and SI-2, which means that the diamond is “slightly imperfect”.

One carat weighs 200 milligrams.

A diamond may also be referred to as weighing four grains, this also means that it is a one carat diamond.

The word Carat comes from the word carob. A carob is a bean that grows on a tree in the  Mediterranean. In the past, if a diamond weighed the same as a carob bean, it was classed as one carob, which is now known as one carat.

In the far east, Carob trees are few and far between so rice was used instead, to measure the weight of a diamond. If a diamond weighed as much as four grains of rice, it was four grains – or one carat as we know it to be now. The majority of diamond purchases are for diamonds that are 1/3 of a carat.

You should be aware when shopping for diamonds that are already set or mounted. If more than one diamond is used in the piece, the tag on the jewelry will give the Carat Total Weight (CTW) – this does not tell you the carat weight of each stone in the piece. You need to ask the jeweler for the total carat weight of the largest diamond in the piece to truly understand what you are buying.