Bob: I took my stone to an independent appraiser this morning (Harry Cannon in Eagan, MN) to have my stone checked out.

Bob: I took my stone to an independent appraiser this morning (Harry Cannon in Eagan, MN) to have my stone checked out. As expected, he validated what we already know: It's the stone that purchased and that it's also the quality that I was expecting. As an interesting note, his initial estimation of the clarity was in the VS range rather than the SI1 that it actually is. He felt like you did.. it's on the very high end of the SI1's. He was fairly surprised when I informed him of what I actually paid after he gave his appraisal. Where things got interesting is when I took it to Arthur's to have it set. Tyler Nogai (the manager) offered to put it in their GemEx machine to read the light properties. Again, as expected, it received VH ratings across the board. At that point, he brought out two stones and said he'd price match either one of them to yours. One was a 1.06 D VS2 AGS000 stone, the other a 1.1 E SI2. The 1.1 he said he'd match tax included, the 1.06 without tax - just to get my business. Though I was a bit surprised to watch him come down almost $4k on the spot. Also a little shocked at how much margin really is built in. His stones, though nice, didn't hold up next to mine. The brightness readings were very similar, but the symmetry just wasn't there - it was equal to the ""so-so"" H&A patterns on the tutorial on pricescope.com. The 1.06 also exhibited ""Strong Blue"" florescence. You couldn't see a problem in their light, but that does make me a little uncomfortable. I politely thanked him for his time, said I'd go with my stone, and had them go ahead and set it. They ""took it like a man"" and were very professional about it - which was good to see. So, you took the Pepsi challenge today against their best stuff and price.. and won, hands down. I'll certainly be keeping this diamond. Thought you'd be interested..