Kay Jewelers offers this beautiful design (but less than stellar spec’ed diamond) of ring for $2,625 “on sale.” Is that a deal? Not so fast. You can get same- or better-spec’ed diamond rings of a virtually identical design for about $1,990 (earth-mined) or about $1,850 (lab-created) at James Allen
Quick Links to Contents on This Page
Kay Jewelers offer: $2,624.99 “on sale”
This ring is Kay Jewelers item number 992957605.
You can see it live at Kay, until or unless it sells out.
James Allen offers a ring with the same or better diamond specs for $1,990 (earth-mined) or $1,850 (lab-created)
As usual, James Allen wins. (Credit their super efficient business model and their transparency with information about their diamonds.)
Just a note: Never buy a diamond with a Clarity grade of I. (I stands for “Included”, which means “flawed.” You’ll see why graphically below. Alternatively, save a little more money or else make choices in size or design that let you get a better clarity diamond.
Also, never buy a diamond this expensive without a certificate from GIA, IGI, or AGS.
Earth-mined for $1,990:
Lab-created for $1,850:
How to get the James Allen deals
Buying a diamond at James Allen is a little different from Kay. You choose your setting (the ring itself). Then you choose a specific diamond from the inventory. (James Allen makes amazingly easy to search for and find exactly what you want, at the best price possible. At least, 99% of the time, when I do a price compare for certified, graded diamonds, James Allen comes out to be the least expensive.)
It’s easy if you know how. Here’s how to get these deals (or very similar deals) at James Allen:
1. Select this solitaire 14K white gold setting for $1,490.
2. For an earth-mined diamond matching the Kay 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 Lab-Created Diamonds search results.)
The specs on the diamonds in this price compare, quickly explained
Diamond Certificate
The Kay Jewelers diamond doesn’t list any diamond certificate, that I can find. That’s a deal breaker. Don’t buy a diamond without a certificate from GIA, IGI, or AGS.
Why?
Because you have very little assurance that what’s in the specs is even accurate. Grading diamonds requires expertise. It also requires a complete lack of bias. 3rd-party labs fulfill this need. Stores alone can’t do it, in my opinion. In my opinion, no store (not even Tiffany, which grades its own diamonds) can be 100% free of bias. It’s hard not to go easy when grading your children, so to speak. Especially if you’re selling them for thousands of dollars, and the grades make a difference in price.
Anyway, on this diamond, it seems to have no certificate. Do not buy.
The James Allen earth-created diamond and lab-created diamond each has a certificate from the IGI.
Shape
All three diamond rings in this contest have Pear shaped diamonds.
Carats
All three diamonds — Kay’s, and the two I’m using to demonstrate from James Allen — are 1/2-Carat center diamonds.
The Kay diamond has 1/2-carats worth of accent diamonds.
The two James Allen examples both use the same setting. And that setting has a total of 0.26, or about 1/4-carats worth of accent diamonds.
In my opinion, that’s not very important, although the Kay ring definitely has the advantage here. It has 1/4-carat more accent diamonds. But again, that’s not going to affect the appearance very much. I doubt anyone could tell the difference, even from arm’s length away.
Clarity
The Kay Jewelers diamond is of I1-Clarity.
I1-Clarity is quite poor. I don’t recommend buying any I1-Clarity diamond under any circumstances..
The inclusions (flaws) are just too overwhelming. Better to go down to half a carat, if your wallet needs to. And select a VS2 diamond.
The earth-mined and also the lab-created James Allen diamond I used for comparison has an SI1-Clarity score. See below. That’s two whole grades up in the clarity scores.
Also, a huge advantage for James Allen, you can inspect the very diamonds you’re shopping for at James Allen. You can see them via 3D imaging.
Which means you can know that you’re not choosing a diamond that has its appearance ruined by a very unlucky location of an inclusion (flaw). (Always inspect a diamond before you buy it.)
You can’t do that at Kay. You’re buying blind.
Color
The color of the Kay diamond is I-Color. So is the earth-mined James Allen diamond in this price comparison article:
The color of the lab-created James Allen diamond is F-Color. Which is an incredibly good color. It’s 3 color grades better than I.
Cut Quality
This is another blaring siren of a red flag at Kay, in my opinion. I’m not finding anywhere in the specs where they state any cut quality grade.
That’s a total deal breaker. You should be told what the cut quality is. (It means, “How skillfully and well the diamond cutter shaped the diamond.”)
Now, it’s weird when you first learn it, but … you should know that the major diamond grading labs don’t grade cut quality on anything except Round Brilliant Cut diamonds. (These are the traditional diamonds most people get for an engagement ring. Their light performance qualities are well understood. Cut Quality describes how well a round brilliant diamond will sparkle. Gemologists can objectively grade the cut quality in Round Brilliant Cut diamonds. But scientists don’t know enough about other shapes — for example Pear — to grade them on cut quality. I’m sure they could figure out with AI, and probably will. But for now, the expertise to objectively state the cut quality for a Pear shaped diamond isn’t widespread. So no labs try to make their gemologists do it.)
That said, gemologists at stores take a shot at it. Take these grades with a grain of salt. But I generally trust James Allen.
And they say the cut quality on each of their diamonds in this price comparison — the earth-mined and the lab-created — are “Ideal.”
Kay says nothing.
So the advantage here goes to James Allen.
Cut quality is so important to know because it’s arguably the most important quality of a diamond. It’s what enables it to look symmetrical. And to sparkle! A poor cut quality diamond will be dull, lifeless, deeply disappointing.
Conclusion: This Kay Jewelers diamond is a bad deal. James Allen definitely has two better deals, as shown in the hard numbers and screen shots on this page.
In my opinion, this Kay diamond ring is simply not a good deal. At all. Just my opinion. But I think I’ve made my case with facts and figures and screenshots.
The James Allen offers win out.
Don’t buy any diamond with an I-Clarity grade. Do this instead, if your budget is tight:
- Select the lab-created filter at James Allen, as in the screen shots above. Lab-created diamonds are 100% real, authentic, identical to earth-mined diamonds. But they’re a lot cheaper because most people aren’t yet comfortable with them. That lets early adopters score incredible deals.
- Turn up your Clarity filter at James Allen to at least SI2. Then play with other filters such as Carats and Color. It’s better to have a smaller diamond but greater quality, than to have a bigger one with lesser quality. Think about it: a big diamond with a lot of inclusions (flaws) will just be more visibly flawed! So keep your Clarity filters (and Color) relatively high.
It’s easy to get great deals on better diamond jewelry — for less money! 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
How to search this site to save up to tens of thousands of dollars at trusted diamond retailers, vs most any Costco, Kay, Jared, or Zales ring you’re considering
Search and save. You could save enough for a new compact car. Or a honeymoon. Or several expensive dinner dates. Or that guitar you’ve been wanting.
Read this very short note on how easy it is.
