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Diamond Carat Weight Explained

By Jeff Ostroff

Diamond Carat Weight
This is the weight of the loose diamond, one carat = 200 mg. The engagement ring diamond I bought was 1.03 Ct. Marketing tradition says spend 2 months salary, and get the best diamond you can that fits the bill. Most girls have psychological goals of 1 carat. It's amazing how diamonds smaller than 1 carat look really small. For many girls, Carats are the most important part. They show off their diamond engagement rings to their friends like a trophy, and the bigger it is the crazier they get. Some girls don't care about size and are just happy that you love them (I'm referring to the diamond). For some girls 1/2 to 0.75 Ct. is fine by them. Don't buy a 2 carat diamond engagement ring just because it's 2 carats. It could be a yellow 2 carat diamond ring loaded with flaws. You'll need the other 3 C's to ensure you get a quality diamond. Ask for the EXACT carat weight, you don't want to hear "It's about a carat". It's either 1.0 carat, or it's not.


Diamond engagement ring carat weight misleading advertising

Other diamond buying guides fail to warn you about Total Carat Weight (TCW). It may appear as "Carat Weight Total", "CWT", "Ct. TW". It's the total weight of all diamonds on the engagement ring, i.e., one big diamond, 2 tiny diamonds. You're shopping for platinum engagement rings and the tag says 1.5 Ct TW, tricking you into thinking the big diamond is 1.5 Ct. But hang on, Casanova. The big diamond and the 2 smaller diamonds together weigh 1.5 Carat Weight Total. Big difference.

Diamond Pricing Example Exclusive On DiamondsExplained.com: Shopping for diamond engagement rings is like shopping for meat. Buy diamond rings by weight, cost per carat, not just by selling price of the diamond, so you can verify you are paying fair value. The table below shows 4 diamond prices. "Diamond D" is the best deal, it costs only $3874 per carat, whereas the cheapest, "Diamond A", costs $4700 per carat, less bang for the buck.

Diamond Pricing Chart Copyright DiamondsExplained.com

Diamonds increase in price per carat at intervals like 1.0, 1.25, 1.5, etc. If you want a 1.0 carat, try 0.96 instead. Here's a search I did once:

Two diamonds listed above, close to 1.0 carat, you can't tell the difference in size, but look at the huge difference in price.

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