[winson604]

Originally Posted by What_the?

Bought mines from Blue Nile online as well.

Couple things to consider for you is what "really" matters when you're looking at a diamond with your eyes.

Cut - matters lots, go for ideal as this affects brilliance of the ring
Color - Also matters (to an extent). Realistically D and E color are going to be not really noticeable compared to F or even G color diamonds with good brilliance. Can't tell tiny differences in color when it's sparkling like crazy in your face
Clarity - Realistically anything above VS1 or VS2 is a waste of money since you're paying for something you can't see. The number of people that have taken a microscope to my fiancee's ring = ZERO. VS1 or VS2 should all have no inclusions visible to the naked eye.

One thing noone seems to look for is the PROPORTIONS of the diamond. The shape of a diamond matters almost more since you could have something D color, with flawless clarity but look super dull since it's shape is tall and skinny, or perhaps short and fat. The shape of the diamond affects how it collects light, and how the light reflects back out of the diamond and the sparkle in your face. If it loses alot of the light it captures, then it will look dull. The table percentage, depth percentage, crown angle, pavillion angle, etc all will determine how brilliant your diamond will look. If you pick something that has as close to an ideal shape as possible (you can find measurements online) you will have an amazingly brilliant stone that will drop jaws.

Blue nile allows you to look through all the diamonds individually and see the reports which give you all the measurements that you can sift through. Jewellery stores don't.

Good luck

There are places in Vancouver that allow you to see the GIA report first, of course as you said these won't be in your regular stores but otherwise it's available.