‘Old-School’ Diamond Selling Not Good Enough For Today’s Savvy Online Market

Aug. 6, 2012 - PRLog -- Liz Hancock, President and Founder of http://www.OnlineDiamondBuyingAdvice.com says, “The need for total transparency is now a requirement for selling quality cut diamonds via the internet. Ethical diamond retailers recognize the need to provide additional information to help the consumer make an educated and confident decision. This includes magnified pictures of each actual diamond along with light performance images like ASET or ideal-scope."

An ASET or Angular Spectrum Evaluation Tool helps to show light performance in any given diamond. It is such an accurate tool that the American Gemological Society and its Laboratory use ASET as part of their light performance assessment on all of their graded diamonds. However, despite this reliable and accurate piece of information, most consumers have never heard of a diamond ASET image.

Many consumers have been sold on the fact that "cut is king" but have no real way to evaluate a diamonds cut simply by the grading report.

Says one now happy diamond customer, "I know that cut is the most important ‘C’ so I thought that any excellent or ideal cut stone would do. Wow, was I wrong. After seeing the ASET image I realized it wouldn’t provide much sparkle at all. OnlineDiamondBuyingAdvice helped me pick out another stone that showed maximum brilliance while saving me $3,700. Why doesn’t anyone else talk about this diamond technology?”

Why not, indeed. The truth is that most diamonds are still sold via “old-school” methods, with many diamond retailers and suppliers relying on their brand or reputation to sell to customers. Although there is nothing wrong with relying on one’s name for quality products and service, in the world of online shopping this approach has become dated. As more and more consumers turn to the internet to purchase their diamond engagement rings, vendors will need to show more transparency if they are going to stay competitive.

“Every year more and more people shop online for the best deals on their favorite products. Consumers want quality products at low prices, diamonds are no different. ,” says Liz.

Evolutionary growth in the diamond market has formed some interesting challenges to the more traditional "Old-School" way of thinking. For one, understanding that diamond light performance is a direct result of light return (amount of light reflected to the observer) as well as optical symmetry (how even and symmetrical a given diamond's light return is combined with contrast) is difficult to grasp if the retailer has no access to reflector technologies like AGS's ASET camera which is selling for roughly $1000.

However, the more likely reason that most jewelers would prefer not to upgrade their selling tools is due to the poor cut quality stones that saturate most of the US diamond market. It is a sad reality that if most jewelers opted to utilize tools like AGS's ASET camera, it would expose the true cut quality of a diamond rendoring most undesirable.

So what can consumers do in the meantime while the rest of the diamond industry catches up? Liz says, "If you are purchasing a diamond online, find a retailer that provides images of all their diamonds. This includes a magnified picture of the actual diamond so that you can inspect its clarity as well as see its ASET image for light return and optical symmetry. If you are looking at diamonds at your local brick and mortar store, think about investing $50 on a portable ASET scope to take with you on your diamond search. You'll be glad you invested in this small tool."

For more information on how to buy the best cut diamonds online with easy to understand advice from Liz, visit http://www.OnlineDiamondBuyingAdvice.com
For information on the the portable AGS ASET scope, visit www.ideal-scope.com