How do I select a diamond?

Selecting a diamond can be a little nerve wracking, especially since its often a once in a life time purchase. We'd love to help you.

Educating yourself about diamonds can make selecting one a little less traumatic, and a lot more successful. The experts at the GIA (The Gemological Institute of America) offer excellent resources and we definitely suggest visiting GIA.edu to get an informed and unbiased overview of diamonds.
Ben Garelick loose diamonds purchased for engagement rings are always accompanied by a GIA report, and are almost always laser inscribed with their GIA report number. This assures you that an unbiased third party has rated your diamond, and that you will always be able to identify that diamond.

The Garelick Guide to Diamond Buying

When you buy your diamond from Ben Garelick you're buying from sparkle specialists. We know the "Five C's" (Yes, Five...keep reading) and use them to our customer's best advantage to maximize sparkle and minimize price.

• Carat Weight- This truly is simply a measurement of how much a diamond weighs. Higher carat weight, jewelry quality diamonds are more rare than lower carat weight diamonds, therefore the laws of supply and demand make the heavier diamonds more expensive. Keep in mind that high carat weight has nothing to do with brilliance and sparkle.
• Color- The GIA Color Grading system starts at D/E/F for colorless diamonds, G/H/I/J are considered near colorless. The system extends down to the letter Z, which represents light yellow/brown (not fancy yellow) diamonds. Like heavier stones, colorless stones are harder to come by, and therefore they demand a higher price. At Ben Garelick we find that well cut diamonds in the near colorless G/H range look great to most people, while keeping the price lower than a true colorless diamond.
  
• Clarity- Nearly all diamonds have natural inclusions. GIA Clarity grades diamonds from "Flawless" to "Included." A truly flawless diamond is so rare that most jewelers can have a 20+ year career and never see one. As with heavier carat weight, the harder to find flawless diamond demands a higher price. SI1 and SI2 clarity graded diamonds have small inclusions that should not be visible to the naked eye, but will be visible under 10X magnification. This is referred to as an "eye-clean" stone. This allows you to have sparkle, color and size at friendlier price. The sparkle specialists at Ben Garelick know just what to look for in clarity to maximize the beauty of your diamond while minimizing the price.
  

• Cut- Cut is very important to the radiance of your diamond. This is not referring to the shape of your diamond, but the quality of the skilled diamond cutter's workmanship. We can't explain it any better than the experts at GIA.edu do:
  
  "Cut quality is the factor that fuels a diamond’s fire, sparkle and brilliance. The allure and beauty of a particular diamond depends more on cut quality than anything else."
  
  Because brilliant sparkle is what we expect from a Ben Garelick diamond, our buyers won't even consider a diamond with less that a GIA grading of "Very Good." Most Ben Garelick diamonds are GIA graded as "Excellent cut," ensuring you get tons of compliments on your brilliantly sparkling diamond.

• Cost- The GIA doesn't grade for cost, but our customers most certainly do! Buying a diamond is a big deal, and we appreciate that. We want you to be happy with your diamond, and the price you pay for it. Our sparkle specialists reject more diamonds than they select on behalf of our customers. Their experience balancing the grading of the four C's to maximize brilliance and sparkle while minimizing price is used to your advantage. That's also why we insist on GIA graded diamonds, and are happy to share the report with you before you buy your diamond. In store diamond customers are encouraged to magnify the diamonds they are considering, and to move around the store with them to see how different light sources and different color reflections affect the look of the stone. We will literally search sources around the world for you to meet your diamond budget, size, and shape wishes. Our Lifetime Diamond Trade Up is also designed to alleviate any anxiety of buying the wrong diamond. You can upgrade your diamond at any time, as many times as you like, for any reason. Every cent of the purchase price of your original diamond is applied to your new one, with no minimum additional purchase. (Many jeweler's require you double your original diamond's cost to take advantage of their trade up programs.)

When you buy your diamond from Ben Garelick you are buying from sparkle specialists who use their experience and expertise to provide you with the most beautiful, most brilliant diamond. We are happy to guide you through the process, answer your questions, educate you on your choices and how they affect your cost. We want you to get hundreds of compliments on your sparkler, and to tell your friends that it came from Ben Garelick. We are proud that 100% of our surveyed engagement ring customers say that they are extremely satisfied with the quality of their purchase and the value received.