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Renton Jewelry Exchange in Renton, WA has amazing deals on loose diamonds if you're willing to buy online.
I would look into www.jamesallen.com (I like that you can see actual pictures of the diamond you're interested in).
Alternatively, www.whiteflash.com and I bought my stone (and setting) from www.since1910.com. Love the stone... setting is a whole other issue.
Canada lifted the excise tax on imported loose diamonds a while back so you wouldn't have to pay taxes on top. If I could go back and do it over, I would definitely buy my diamond loose online and have it set locally.
Thanks everyone for the suggestions, I've seen uniondiamond too, the biggest problem that I (and maybe I'm just making it more then it is) is that when ordering from the states they're policies are different cross border. Wire Full funds first (Won't accept CC which makes fee's higher and a refund more difficult), 2 days only to inspect and then send back (Shipping at your cost) and the biggest are the duties.
@leembee: i wasn't even aware there was a excise tax on diamonds till recently, howver we still need to pay duities equal to our GST/HST/PST so that's my biggest concern, wondering if anyones ever done it and how the process is if the stone isn't just right in person and you need to change it. Maybe I'm over complicating it in my head, but my fear is that (from other experiances importing) that the duties are collected on the one stone, if you send it back you have to apply to the government for refund on the duties providing proof that the item was actually returned and wait for that to be procesed meanwhile you have to pay a 2nd set of duties on the replacement stone.
I just found this thread by searching for excise tax on loose stones shipped to canada, and I thought I would leave my experience purchasing loose stones from jamesallen.com to be set here in Canada by our jeweler.
We ordered a .71ct center stone and 2 .30ct side stones from jamesallen.com and I have had a great experience. I don't believe we could have gotten anything near this quality and price this side of the border. I sent an inquiry to Ira at www.truthaboutdiamonds.com I told him our budget and what we were looking for and he found some great stones in our budget that fit our requirements. Actually, what he found us completely surpassed my expectations. I made the purchase and after all of the paperwork (international orders will need varification for CC purchases and signed International shipping aggreements), my stones should be here tomorrow. They also have free overnight shipping at www.jamesallen.com
Our stones are GIA certified and we were able to look at the actual stones we were purchasing. I am pretty impressed so far. :)
@GDub: Did you have to pay any brokerage/duties ect? Was it an outragous amount?
@Beena
It way exceeded my expectations! We paid about $11 in brokerage, and only paid GST (not full hst). There is no duty on loose stones, but there would be duty and full HST on an engagement ring (stones in the setting as opposed to loose).
Right now the canadian dollar is above par with the USD and the shipping was FREE! I feel like we got an amazing deal, and our jeweler was impressed that the GIA certificates were 100% accurate for each stone. He said this is often not the case.
I expect him to pick up the ring in the next 2 weeks, and hopefully not waste any time in the proposal. ;) I am dying to see it after so much international legwork! :)
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Looking at getting a seperate stone and setting and while the settings are easily available in many styles one reoccuring thing I've found is that in canada we're paying a huge premium on diamond prices compared to the states with taxes on top of that too!
What I'm looking for is:
Carat: 0.71-0.74
Clarity: VS2 or above
Cut: Ideal / Excellent
Color: D-F
Stateside I've been able to see prices between 1.7k and 2.4k while locally the lowest I've been able to find is 3.2k with quotes over 5k.
Does anyone here have experience importing diamonds? Or know of any good jewelers in the area that have reasonable prices? I know of bluenile however I find they're the tiffanys' of canada.
Tiny Tuna's been telling me there are even a couple jewelers and gemologists on here, wonding if you'd be able to share some input.