Ebiz247.com Guide To Jewelry Shopping On The Internet

ULTRA Diamonds - Making Luxury Affordable Online 24/7
ULTRA is the seventh largest specialty retailer of fine jewelry in the United States, operating 150 locations in 33 states. ULTRA is an established national retailer of off-priced fine jewelry. Ultra believes in Making Luxury Affordable for all budgets and styles. Ultra's buyers travel the globe to direct source fine jewelry at the lowest possible prices and we then pass those savings on to our customers.

Diamonds truly are "An extraordinary symbol of your love"

How to Grade a Diamond

Diamond Cut
The cut or make of a diamond is very important to the overall appearance of the diamond. A diamond relies on light refracting and reflecting into and out of the top to make it "sparkle and shine". A "D" color flawless diamond could be destroyed by having a poor cut. Similarly, a diamond with lower clarity and color could look better than the mentioned "D Flawless" stone due to a more brilliant appearance (hiding the imperfections and yellow body color).

Diamond Clarity
Clarity is the presence or lack of inclusions (small crystalline fractures or irregular crystal growth) inside the diamond. Clarity grading is done using a binocular microscope under 10x magnification.

Diamond Color
The rarest diamonds are white, or colorless. Poor quality diamond tends to be more yellowish or brownish in color. Diamond color is graded on a scale from "D" the highest quality or most white, to "Z", the most yellowish or brownish.

Even though the most valuable diamond is D color, a diamond which grades G through J will appear nearly colorless. Sometimes a jeweler will speak of how diamonds "face up" to the eye, referring to the fact that diamonds are graded for color from bottom of the stone and therefore give the illusion of less body color from the top because facets on the diamond disperse spectral colors to the eye.

Carat Weight
Carat weight is referred to in fractions or decimal points. A 1/2 Carat stone can be called .50 Carat or 50 "points". You may encounter the abbreviation "ct. tw." within their merchandise descriptions, indicating "carat total weight". This is the combined weight of all the diamonds in the item, as opposed to the weight of a single diamond in a solitaire ring, for instance.

I live outside the United States. Can I still order from Ultra Diamonds Online?
Ultradiamonds does accept orders from overseas. However, your card-issuing bank needs to take part in U.S. Merchant Services' address verification system. For your protection, they will not ship merchandise if they are unable to verify your billing address. In addition, there will be an extra shipping charge to ship out of the United States. You are also responsible for any duties and taxes that may be assigned to your order.