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Anybody buy jewelry on Amazon?

R

railer

Golden Member
Like they do everything else, Amazon has an awesome selection of jewelry.
Is online jewelry buying a good idea, or should I just suck it up and go stand in line at my local jeweler and pick from their selection of 5 or 6 items that my wife would actually want?

Tanks ATOT
 
All the jewelry I've ever bought was online, some from amazon. No problems and the wife has loved everything (including her engagement ring).
 
I've bought earrings, necklaces, and watches off amazon. can't really beat the selection and price. My watch was the wrong model, the case was the smaller size, and they took care of it without any hassle.
 
I care more about where the jewelry was made than where I buy it from. It's probably all mostly the same crap china stuff though anyhow. I wonder if any specifies being made in the states.
 
I've done well with Jewelry from Amazon. Granted I haven't bought anything expensive. Buying a cheap pair of studs requires a different level of research than your engagement ring however.
 
RearAdmiral said:
I care more about where the jewelry was made than where I buy it from. It's probably all mostly the same crap china stuff though anyhow. I wonder if any specifies being made in the states.
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I dunno where the diamonds in my wife engagement ring came from, but it was made by a shop in Texas that sells on Amazon. They called me several times over the course of it being made for her to make sure they got it right.
 
I got the perfect engagement ring for m'lady off of there and my Skagen watch if that counts. No complaints, only compliments 😀
 
I've bought a few rings from Amazon and been quite happy. So much so, I don't imagine ever buying from a local jeweler again, since they comparatively so expensive.

My wife bought me a $300 tungsten ring for my birthday one year. I subsequently lost it a few months later. I bought what seemed to be the same ring on Amazon for $50 to replace it. A few weeks later, I found my original ring. To this day, I can't tell which one is which.

So, is the one from Amazon is a lower quality. Is there a way to justify the higher price from the local jeweler? I have no idea, nor do I care.
 
adairusmc said:
I dunno where the diamonds in my wife engagement ring came from, but it was made by a shop in Texas that sells on Amazon. They called me several times over the course of it being made for her to make sure they got it right.
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'Merica! I had to shop around a bit myself to find U.S. based Jewely. My e-ring band was made in NYC and my diamond is from Canada. I'm willing to accept a Canadian stone.

Blue nile for instance is reasonably priced, but too much of it is made overseas. I can't dig on that unfortunately.
 
Wingznut said:
I've bought a few rings from Amazon and been quite happy. So much so, I don't imagine ever buying from a local jeweler again, since they comparatively so expensive.

My wife bought me a $300 tungsten ring for my birthday one year. I subsequently lost it a few months later. I bought what seemed to be the same ring on Amazon for $50 to replace it. A few weeks later, I found my original ring. To this day, I can't tell which one is which.

So, is the one from Amazon is a lower quality. Is there a way to justify the higher price from the local jeweler? I have no idea, nor do I care.
Click to expand...

It sucks to buy stuff from a local jeweler, it is a consistent ripoff. The amount of money they charged for some e-rings was laughable when I was shopping in stores. The ring I got looks like a 15k ring if it were in one of those stores. It was seriously frustrating looking in stores.

I went to NYC to try to find a jeweler I could trust. Jewels get very complicated in a hurry...I'm not sure if it was the steep competition in the city but I had a vastly better experience:

In depth discussions on stone quality measurements instead of, "oh its 1c SI1."
Knowledge of stone sourcing
Very specific knowledge on highlighting a stones brilliance with its setting.

None of these things were found in a typical local jeweler.

I feel the only appropriate place to get jewelry now is from an e-tailer with a very small if any storefront. Lots of these places have superb service now too. You can check out stones in great detail(jamesallen) and have them sent to you for inspection as well.

All in all, if I am going to waste my money on jewelry I want to know exactly what I am wasting it on and where it came from.
 
Try Overstock.com for jewelry too. My wife has had good luck with them and their stuff is pretty inexpensive.
 
Jewelry typically has a 50% or more markup to start with....like most retail goods.

Your best bet though is to go with a company that stands behind their sales with a good return policy. If you buy something from Amazon, make sure it's sold BY Amazon and you should be safe.

I'd be ruluctant to buy diamonds online as many may be cloudy or inferior. They're difficult to buy in most big box jewelry stores without paying significantly more than what you should. They will often rate stones as "At least a I-J color" instead of giving you a GIA certified stone.... They show you a lot of inferior stuff so when they pull out the real bling, you are inclined to pay their markups to get what you should have been shown to begin with.
 
Scarpozzi said:
Jewelry typically has a 50% or more markup to start with....like most retail goods.

Your best bet though is to go with a company that stands behind their sales with a good return policy. If you buy something from Amazon, make sure it's sold BY Amazon and you should be safe.

I'd be ruluctant to buy diamonds online as many may be cloudy or inferior. They're difficult to buy in most big box jewelry stores without paying significantly more than what you should. They will often rate stones as "At least a I-J color" instead of giving you a GIA certified stone.... They show you a lot of inferior stuff so when they pull out the real bling, you are inclined to pay their markups to get what you should have been shown to begin with.
Click to expand...

Skip to 16:50 here to see how the whole jewelry system works in 1 minute (South Park is brilliant sometimes)

http://www.southparkstudios.com/full-episodes/s16e02-cash-for-gold
 
Haven't bought jewelry from Amazon, but have bought jewelry from Blue Nile and Brian Gavin online. Both were great to deal with.
 
Scarpozzi said:
I'd be ruluctant to buy diamonds online as many may be cloudy or inferior. They're difficult to buy in most big box jewelry stores without paying significantly more than what you should. They will often rate stones as "At least a I-J color" instead of giving you a GIA certified stone.... They show you a lot of inferior stuff so when they pull out the real bling, you are inclined to pay their markups to get what you should have been shown to begin with.
Click to expand...

If you goto the right sites you can get magnified images of the stones along with all the measurement you can put into a brilliance simulator and photos of the certs. However if you're buying anything online of real value I'd insist on GIA. EGL, etc tend to be very loose. I bought a stone this way and ended up with something that is near perfect under a loupe. I knew about any inclusions ahead of time. Color clarity was spot on, and the cut was great. Nice thing is you have a much wider selection online than you'll find local. When I looked locally nearly everything was garbage for cut. Might colorless F, but uniformity, etc were always crap.
 
Midwayman said:
If you goto the right sites you can get magnified images of the stones along with all the measurement you can put into a brilliance simulator and photos of the certs. However if you're buying anything online of real value I'd insist on GIA. EGL, etc tend to be very loose. I bought a stone this way and ended up with something that is near perfect under a loupe. I knew about any inclusions ahead of time. Color clarity was spot on, and the cut was great. Nice thing is you have a much wider selection online than you'll find local. When I looked locally nearly everything was garbage for cut. Might colorless F, but uniformity, etc were always crap.
Click to expand...

Same here. Anything of decent cut locally was way overpriced. Ended up with an Ideal Cut AGS0 diamond from Brian Gavin that looks absolutely fantastic. For cut, I prefer AGS to GIA.
 
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