Certificate in General English
E-learning Component
Unit 3 - page 32
Diamond District: Shopping for an Engagement Ring
Source material: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mr-mV3LtPjQ#t=36 (YouTube)
Any idea how much the average engagement ring costs? Almost fifty-five hundred dollars. If you're going to
spend that kind of money, you want to know you're getting a good deal.
That's why we're here in New York City's diamond district. There are over 2600 business on this block alone,
almost all of them deal in fine jewellery. I visited Landsberg Jewellers to find out more about shopping for a
diamond engagement ring.
We're here with John Landsberg, a certified gemologist and John, you're going to teach us how to buy a
diamond. So what's the most important thing that helps determine the price of a diamond?
Oh, it's really a combination of things, like they say the four Cs: the cut, the clarity, colour and the weight of the
stone.
That's the carat, right?
Exactly.
What it comes down to is how much do you want to spend, how much you're willing to spend, and what are you
willing to give up. And if you're not willing to give up anything, then the sky's the limit.
OK, so let's talk about some of the rings that you have here. So, starting here, what size is that? What's the carat
count on that?
This is a one-carat oval.
How much does this one carat cost, about? We won't hold you to it.
That stone is approximately ten thousand dollars.
Ten thousand bucks - is that for the whole ring or just the stone?
That's just for the diamond itself.
OK. Now there's this big mama here; how many carats is this?
That's six carats.
Six carats! OK, now I know it's probably got lots of different things, you know, the cut and the quality, and the
clarity - all that, but is six carats…how much about?
Ninety-five thousand dollars.
What about the cut? What are some of the cuts here and what are the differences…between them?
OK, we have your oval cut diamond right here.
OK.
This is your basic round…
The most popular…
Yes. This is a bigger basic round…
Always nice to have a bigger version.
This is a pear-shaped diamond, which has been popular for the last thirty, forty years and has recently made a
little bit of a comeback.
So let's look at these two loose diamonds. This is a round stone.
Yes.
Right…and this is…you said about three carats.
Certificate in General English
E-learning Component
Yes.
A little bit more. This is a…
Emerald cut.
If we were looking at rings that were pretty much the same quality, one is a lot more expensive than the other.
In this case, a twenty-thousand-dollar difference, right? Why?
Round is your most popular stone.
But [inaudible] it's not like you get more stone, because we know what the weight is, so it's just about the round
is more popular and the emerald is a beautiful stone, it's the same size but you're going to get a way better
bargain on it, right?
Correct.
OK, I'm getting this one….Here, your [unclear]
Well, you know, for your...for your fingers – you've nice long fingers – an emerald cut, an emerald cut probably
would look better.
But let's say I'm on a more limited budget, I may not want to go with a round stone because it's expensive. But
the setting can really enhance the way the ring looks, right?
Certainly.
So what sort of setting is this one, this looks like…sort of like pretty intense.
Yes, this is another micro-pave setting with a marquee diamond and it makes the diamond look at least twice
the size that it actually is. You have all the pave work done on the sides. All you're seeing is diamond when
you're looking down.
One of the common mistakes would be somebody buying a diamond based on size. Like all I care about, I want
a three-carat diamond, that's all I want, I don't care about the colour or the clarity, I just want big.
So, what you're proving to me again, is that size doesn't matter.
Not all the time.