PhantomX wrote:Buy retail where the guy has to live by his shop reputation and cant get away with cheating without really hurting himself eg LARRY Jewelry at Paragon.
Its more expensive but at least u have good indication of what the thing is really worth together with genuine GIA certs. Its like sourcing at Sothebys and Christies where you pay both buyers and sellers premium which together can total at least another 70% and at the end still have recourse if they turn out to be fakes. With retail diamonds of course the premium is much lower
I have to disagree with this. I can see little point in going to a store like 'Larry's' apart from for the sake of vanity or laziness.
A diamond is a diamond is a diamond. It does not matter whether it comes from Larry's, Cartier or anywhere else.
Having professional certification is important on more expensive purchases. GIA is not the be all and end all, for example GIA has no classification for Hearts and Arrows cut stones (which makes one the local jewellers (Sookee?) claims to sell GIA certified H&A stones quite amusing really!). Only the AGI can currently certify super-ideal cut stones.
If you want to pay Larry's Paragon Centre rent go ahead... me, I'll take my knowledge, view the certs and images and buy online for half the price thank you very much.