Jared offers this 2-carat diamond solitaire in a Round Brilliant Cut for $20,000. Is that a good deal? Hardly. You can get the same or better quality diamonds, certified by the IGI, from James Allen for $7,875 (earth-mined) or $4,385 (lab-created). No doubt in my mind that these are better diamonds, for up to around $15,000 less.
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The Jared offer: $19,999.99
The item number for this ring at Jared is 151164100
You can see it live at Jared, until it’s discontinued.
James Allen offers a ring with the same or better diamond specs for $7,875 (earth-mined) or $4,385 (lab-created).
Earth-mined for $7,875:
Lab-created for $4,385:
Yet again, James Allen has the better deals. When you know how to use the search filters there (and it’s not hard, I’m showing you, right?), then you’ll save tons. And get the same quality or better diamond that is even certified by the GIA, IGI, or AGS.
How to get the James Allen deals
At James Allen, you build a ring yourself. But it’s not as hard as it may seem to people new to the idea. In fact it’s easy.
At least, it’s easy if you know how or have someone walking you through it for the first time. Here’s how to get these deals (or very similar deals) at James Allen:
1. Select this 14K white gold setting, this 14K rose gold setting, or this 14K yellow gold setting. (They’re all the same price, same design.)
2. For an earth-mined diamond matching the high-priced Jared offer, go to my pre-set James Allen diamond search results and select a diamond from the first 2 or 3 diamonds in the list.
(James Allen diamonds are unique, so I can’t of course send you straight to a specific diamond. It would sell out quickly.
Also, of course the inventory is always changing, so you may see slightly different prices when you search.)
3. For even greater savings, click the “Lab-Created Diamonds” filter. (Use my pre-set James Allen Lab-Created Diamonds search results.)
The specs on the diamonds in this price compare, quickly explained
Diamond Certificate
Never buy a diamond this expensive without a certificate from GIA, IGI, or AGS. It’s unclear to me what lab certifies the diamonds available for the Jared ring.
On the other hand, both of the James Allen diamonds have certificates from the IGI. That means you can count on the specs you see in the certificates.
Shape
All three diamond rings in this contest have Round-Cut shaped diamonds.
Carats
All three diamonds have 2-carat solitaire diamonds.
Clarity
The Jared diamond is of SI2-Clarity. That can be a decent clarity grade. But it depends on where, inside the diamond, the inclusions (flaws) are located. If they’re near the “table” (the top facet), that’s obviously not good. If they are deeper in the diamond, or obscured by a prong, that’s better.
But you need to be able to examine the diamond’s 3D images, so you’ll know. At James Allen, you can. At Jared, you can’t.
Also, about the Jared diamond, we don’t know who graded it. So we don’t know if they were accurate. Or trained. Or competent. Or biased.
With the James Allen diamonds, we know the IGI graded and certified them. So we can trust with a high level of confidence that the gemologist was competent, unbiased, and paid well enough to do the work well.
The James Allen earth-created diamond I chose to compare with is also SI2-Clarity.
The lab-created diamond from James Allen in this comparison is of SI2-Clarity as well.
Color
The color of the high priced diamond is J-Color. That’s getting pretty yellow, for such a high priced diamond especially.
The color of the earth-created diamond from James Allen in this price compare is also J-Color.
However, it costs far less than half what the Jared diamond costs! So, if your budget really is $20,000, you could easily adjust the filters at James Allen to spend more and get a much better diamond. You could get a better color, and even a better clarity, for your $20K if that’s how much you want to spend.
(But if you want to spend only around $8K, as in the James Allen example above, then at least you saved $12,000 by not paying Jared’s apparently inflated price.
The color of James Allen’s lab-created diamond which I used in this example is … G-Color. (That’s 3 entire grades better.)
Cut Quality
Jared doesn’t seem to tell us the Cut Quality of this high priced diamond. It’s not in the specs. It does not seem to be on any certificate. I’m not even seeing a certificate on the page. Nor any designation of which lab certified it.
Are they hiding something? I don’t know.
Or did they forget to mention Cut Quality, which is arguably THE most important quality of a round brilliant diamond?
Here’s why:
Cut Quality describes the most important quality of a round brilliant cut diamond — how well it sparkles. Mediocre cut quality means a dull and lifeless diamond.
Good Cut Quality — even if the diamond had a low color grade and a low clarity grade — means the diamond will have brilliance, sparkle, fire, all those qualities that a round brilliant cut is specifically designed to create.
So .. why wouldn’t Jared include that info on a diamond’s product page? (In my long experience price checking Jared, and evaluating Jared diamond specs, I haven’t yet seen a cut quality stated, for any diamond. Go figure.)
I don’t know why. I can’t fathom it. We just don’t know if this diamond has a bad, mediocre, or excellent cut quality. Why, Jared? Why? It’s one of the 4C’s, so …
The Cut Quality of the diamonds in this comparison offered by James Allen? Excellent cut. Stated right there on the page. As graded by the IGI. These diamonds definitely perform terms of brilliance, fire, and sparkle.
Conclusion: This Jared 2-carat diamond solitaire ring is not a good deal. James Allen has better 2-carat deals, as shown in the hard numbers and screen shots on this page.
That’s my opinion. But it’s backed up by the data. So I feel very confident you can trust it.
My opinion is also this: You shouldn’t even consider this diamond ring at Jared.
It’s easy to get a better ring for less. Here’s how:
- Scroll up to the section on how to get the James Allen deals.
- Follow the easy directions there.
- Feel 100% confident that you bought the best diamond for the money
The James Allen offers win again.
