Buying a diamond or a diamond engagement ring, for many people, can be a daunting experience – a diamond is an infrequent purchase, invariably expensive and comes attached with a seemingly endless option of diamond specification combinations that wildly impact the price. This can lead to an intimidating, and somewhat confusing, buying process with the knowledge seemingly heavily weighted in favour of the jeweler selling you the product. Stressed?

Worry not, Dubai Rocks have compiled an easy to understand crash course that will help anyone find their perfect diamond at a great price – more information can also be found at www.dubairocks.com

If you stick to these simple, easy to follow tips, then you are always going to end up with a stunning diamond engagement ring at a really competitive price.

Certification is King – the most important thing to remember when buying a diamond is always try to buy a diamond certified by the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) – the GIA invented the grading standards and are the world’s best certification laboratory period – other diamond labs over grade diamonds giving customers a false sense of security. For example if the GIA graded a diamond correctly as an H colour, another grading laboratory might grade the exact same diamond an F colour. If you want to know the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, then always buy GIA. www.dubairocks.com only sell GIA certified diamonds.

Decide upon your budget range – we’re all guilty of falling into the trap of increasing your budget as you see different options whilst going through the buying process. The same thing happens with cars, houses etc – our advice would be that dramatically increasing the budget during the buying process can lead to a stressful experience – for a really positive relaxing buying experience we’d recommend that you decide upon a firm budget range and (try your best to) stick to it. Remember to include the cost of an engagement ring in your budget, not just the diamond.

Consult with a trusted expert – whilst information is freely available online there is always value to be had in talking to a trusted GIA certified expert. The Dubai Rocks team have the right professional qualifications to enable them to give customers good impartial no obligations advice for both diamonds and diamond engagement ring styles. It’s a free service so pick up the phone, whatsap, email and ask away – [email protected] – 055 853 0012

Do your homework - Spend 20 minutes reading about the 5 C’s – certification, cut, carat (weight), clarity and colour and decide on what matters to you most – whilst the importance of different variables are perceived differently by different people the above order is the Dubai Rocks perspective on the hierarchy of importance that can be used as a guide during the selection process. For round diamonds cut is very important as the quality of the cut impacts the sparkle, fire and scintillation of a diamond. On the other hand most people would struggle to differentiate between an F colour and an H colour so this is more flexible variable that can be compromised to achieve a certain price target.

Benchmark pricing – armed with a price of a GIA certified diamond customers can now benchmark the competitiveness of the pricing within minutes. Internationally recognized websites that retail GIA certified diamonds give customers an added level of comfort that the retailer is offering them a great deal. Most online retailers operate on wafer thin margins so if a retailer beats an online price it’s a fantastic deal. www.dubairocks.com is one of the most competitive diamond websites in the world.

Follow your gut – If you have followed the above steps and narrowed your selection down to a final 2-3 great diamond options there is nothing wrong with following your gut to select your winning diamond. All of the diamonds shortlisted should be beautiful, competitively priced rocks, so following your gut adds a nice personal touch onto the buying experience.

Whilst the buying process used to seem akin to black magic the internet and the GIA have helped to redress the information imbalance between the consumer and the jeweler. Using Dubai Rocks simple approach will ensure that you get a beautiful diamond at an internationally recognized competitive price. For more information check www.dubairocks.com

Well done – thanks to the Dubai Rocks Team you have passed your crash course and are now officially a diamond expert - the only thing you need to ask yourself – what are you waiting for?!