SirChadwick
Diamond Member
People are inherently stupid. Sig says all.
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Engagement Ring Shopping Tips Needed ** UPDATE **
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People are inherently stupid. Sig says all.
frankgomez75
Platinum Member
Thats interesting... I've seen ads like that on Craigslist. Can meet at the jeweler and get the trade in value... the person just wants a fraction of the trade in value but in CASH. Kinda like getting a discount I suppose.
SirChadwick
Diamond Member
I'm not talking about with just any wholesale jeweler, I'm specifically talking about Shane Co. Their diamonds do no depreciate in value... they offer you what you paid or what the ring is worth at the time you trade it in. In my case I got credit for the EXACT amount the guy paid for the ring at the time he bought it.... used that credit to go towards a brand new more expensive diamond and have a new appraisal for my new ring.
MikeyIs4Dcats
Lifer
yes, just be VERY careful as it is easy to get scammed. and as I said, be aware that the use of store credit will likely limit your ability to bargain, if not outright drive the price up.
that's the bad thing about many jewlers....prices are secretive and change arbitrarily.
SirChadwick
Diamond Member
Exactly. I'm glad someone comprehends how it works. 😉
SirChadwick
Diamond Member
And you won't get scammed as long as you're smart about it and meet the seller at the store to do the trade-in.
MikeyIs4Dcats
Lifer
we all understand how it works....just also realize the potential issues related to it.
You are giving this guy terrible advice...
1) A jewelry store is not an appraiser... as soon as you walk in that door they have you... they're buying that diamond from you at whatever price they feel like... chances are you're getting screwed.
2) most jewelry stores mark up their diamonds big time... so the store credit buys less for more.
-Max
SirChadwick
Diamond Member
Are you just spitting out a bunch of crap today or what? If you use a store credit, it does not drive the price up! Where have you been shopping? I went into the store and all of the diamonds were marked with prices, as well as the ring settings. You don't even have to mention the store credit until finalizing your decision and getting the prices.
MikeyIs4Dcats
Lifer
as I said, many non-chain jewlers do not have published prices. it is similar to buying a car....trade-ins are part of a game.
MikeyIs4Dcats
Lifer
good to know I'm not the only one that understands this.
I'm going to echo some of the other responses by saying that for $2K you are going to be limited in your options. Blue Nile offers simple Solitaire settings for $250 in white or yellow gold. I would recommend the classic yellow gold as it will allow you to sacrifice the color of the diamond for clarity.
So, you need to do some reading on the 4C's. I recommend checking out this site:
Nice Ice
The site itself is really poorly put together, I'll admit that, but they seem to be extremely knowledgable regarding diamonds. Scroll down and look for the section on the side bar on Diamond Grading (The Expanded 4Cs). Read as much as you can before making any shopping decisions. The more info you have, the better off you will be.
Ultimately you will want to know what your girl prefers: A smaller diamond with no visible flaws and lots of sparkle, or a big rock. It is a balancing act between the 4Cs: Cut, Clarity, Color, and Carat. The bigger rock you want on your budget, the more flaws you will have to accept.
If I were you, I'd get a yellow gold setting. This will allow you to sacrifice color for the other 3Cs. Blue Nile has a 0.68 carat diamond (nice size) with ideal cut, J color, and SI1 clarity for $1439. Ideal cut is very important as it will make the diamond sparkle with lots of "fire", so it will be easy to notice. The SI1 clarity means that there are inclusions and flaws that are easily visable under 10x magnification, but may not be visable to the naked eye. The key word here is *may*. If you were to buy this diamond, I'd call and speak to someone about it to make sure it is "eye clean". Finally, the J color means that it is very faintly yellow. However, if you stick it in a yellow gold setting, no one will know the difference! For the price, you could even select a more fancy setting, something with side stones or channel set diamonds for instance. This would enhance the overall look of the ring and be very impressive.
Blue Nile, and other sites, have systems set up that allow you to pick your diamond from inventory and then "configure" your ring by viewing all the available settings. Play around with this system to give yourself an idea of price and what the ring will look like in the end. Also, do as much reading as possible! The more you know, the less likely you will be to buy a crappy diamond.
Ultimately you'll want to figure out what your girl wants. If she hasn't told you, look at the rest of the jewelry she wears. Is it mainly yellow gold, or does she like to wear white gold (or silver)? Has she dropped any hints as to what shape of diamond she wants? Round is the classic, but there are tons of others. Read up on them, then take a look as to what shaped stones your girl wears.
The things I suppose I want to stress are:
Cut: Get as good of a cut as you can afford. Ideal would be best, but I would stick with at least "very good" (or some equivalent).
Clarity: At your price range, make sure the stone is "eye clean". This means that no flaws or inclusions are visable to the naked eye. This could mean that the stone is SI1 in clarity, or VSI1 in clarity.
Color: As opposed to other posters, I feel that you can sacrifice here to gain a lot of ground in the other catagories. I would go with something that is H, I, or J in color, and then put it in a yellow gold setting. The yellow gold setting will distract from the color of the diamond.
Carat: Get as big of a diamond as your budget will allow without sacrificing more than you are willing to in the other catagories.
Other people will take this the other way around and put size first, but I think diamond size should go last unless your girl has told you that she wants a specific size. I have a friend who told her boyfriend she wanted a 1 carat, princess cut diamond in a platinum setting. It was up to him to balance everything else. Since she wanted platinum, he needed good color. With a 1 carat diamond, he needed good clarity too. It ended up that he spent an arm and a leg for the ring...
Anyway, good luck with whatever you choose.
R
So, you need to do some reading on the 4C's. I recommend checking out this site:
Nice Ice
The site itself is really poorly put together, I'll admit that, but they seem to be extremely knowledgable regarding diamonds. Scroll down and look for the section on the side bar on Diamond Grading (The Expanded 4Cs). Read as much as you can before making any shopping decisions. The more info you have, the better off you will be.
Ultimately you will want to know what your girl prefers: A smaller diamond with no visible flaws and lots of sparkle, or a big rock. It is a balancing act between the 4Cs: Cut, Clarity, Color, and Carat. The bigger rock you want on your budget, the more flaws you will have to accept.
If I were you, I'd get a yellow gold setting. This will allow you to sacrifice color for the other 3Cs. Blue Nile has a 0.68 carat diamond (nice size) with ideal cut, J color, and SI1 clarity for $1439. Ideal cut is very important as it will make the diamond sparkle with lots of "fire", so it will be easy to notice. The SI1 clarity means that there are inclusions and flaws that are easily visable under 10x magnification, but may not be visable to the naked eye. The key word here is *may*. If you were to buy this diamond, I'd call and speak to someone about it to make sure it is "eye clean". Finally, the J color means that it is very faintly yellow. However, if you stick it in a yellow gold setting, no one will know the difference! For the price, you could even select a more fancy setting, something with side stones or channel set diamonds for instance. This would enhance the overall look of the ring and be very impressive.
Blue Nile, and other sites, have systems set up that allow you to pick your diamond from inventory and then "configure" your ring by viewing all the available settings. Play around with this system to give yourself an idea of price and what the ring will look like in the end. Also, do as much reading as possible! The more you know, the less likely you will be to buy a crappy diamond.
Ultimately you'll want to figure out what your girl wants. If she hasn't told you, look at the rest of the jewelry she wears. Is it mainly yellow gold, or does she like to wear white gold (or silver)? Has she dropped any hints as to what shape of diamond she wants? Round is the classic, but there are tons of others. Read up on them, then take a look as to what shaped stones your girl wears.
The things I suppose I want to stress are:
Cut: Get as good of a cut as you can afford. Ideal would be best, but I would stick with at least "very good" (or some equivalent).
Clarity: At your price range, make sure the stone is "eye clean". This means that no flaws or inclusions are visable to the naked eye. This could mean that the stone is SI1 in clarity, or VSI1 in clarity.
Color: As opposed to other posters, I feel that you can sacrifice here to gain a lot of ground in the other catagories. I would go with something that is H, I, or J in color, and then put it in a yellow gold setting. The yellow gold setting will distract from the color of the diamond.
Carat: Get as big of a diamond as your budget will allow without sacrificing more than you are willing to in the other catagories.
Other people will take this the other way around and put size first, but I think diamond size should go last unless your girl has told you that she wants a specific size. I have a friend who told her boyfriend she wanted a 1 carat, princess cut diamond in a platinum setting. It was up to him to balance everything else. Since she wanted platinum, he needed good color. With a 1 carat diamond, he needed good clarity too. It ended up that he spent an arm and a leg for the ring...
Anyway, good luck with whatever you choose.
R
SirChadwick
Diamond Member
Read again, and Shane does appraise.
Let me put it this way... ANY JEWELRY you buy at a Jewelry store is worth less than you are paying for it... Why do you think they're able to do crap like 50% off sales... you really think they're going to sell you jewelry for half of the market value? Get real... use your brain...
MikeyIs4Dcats
Lifer
Shane Co. is a CHAIN. Chains typically have the worst prices and quality.
And Doboji is referring to an independant apparaiser. A jeweler will appraise your stone....if they know it's for insurance they make it high, if it's for trade-in, they make it low. An independent appraiser will tell you the true value.
SirChadwick
Diamond Member
So you think BlueNile.com is selling higher quality diamonds for less? Not quite. And as long as I am able to return a ring to the physical store 3 yrs later and get credit for exactly what I paid or more... I think I'd rather take that route.
SirChadwick
Diamond Member
No shens. It came w/ the GIA cert and appraisal. .78 ct - colorless VS1.
http://www.shaneco.com/service/our_guarantee.asp
krunchykrome
Lifer
I'm planning on proposing sometime next year. I'll be prepared to spend $6K-$7K. I'll be be dead broke afterwards, but hey, if you love the girl, and you only do this once, then why not.
Well do a price comparison at www.pricescope.com... you'll find the Shane diamonds are $600-$1000 higher priced....
and again what were the stats on this $2000 diamond that you bought for $1200? And how did Shane appraise it?
-Max
SirChadwick
Diamond Member
$600-$1000 higher priced than whom? Not bluenile or most of these other online sites - I've already compared.
Taken from the ShaneCo. site
So, how can you be sure that the diamond you buy is properly graded? At Shane Co., our in-house, GIA-educated graduate gemologists and graders provide an honest, accurate opinion of every diamond's characteristics, based on GIA standards. In fact, multiple Shane Co. graders evaluate every stone to ensure a true grading. To further validate our accuracy, we send diamonds to GIA for independent evaluation on a monthly basis.
And since Shane Co. tends to be more conservative in its grading, independent appraisers consistently rate the quality of our gems just as high as we do - or higher.
Well if they say it, it must be so...
I'm going to try linking this one more time... maybe this time you will click on it and check the prices here...
Text
You will find that they are $600-1000 lower for the same quality of stone... and as I've been screaming this whole time... the OP is far better off purchasing the stone from one of the reputable dealers on that site, than trying to wade amongst the scammers and tricksters in the hopes of finding a stupid craigslister...
In the end you may have saved yourself ~$100-$200 doing it your way... but I doubt it... Thats not to say you did badly. I'm simply saying that there's a far easier way to do just as well or better, without any risk at all...
-Max
Sphexi
Diamond Member
I got a standard solitaire ring, 1/2ct., but almost completely flawless and fantastic color. I figured a larger but more yellow/flawed diamond would just look like hell, and be easier to spot the impurities on.
So yeah, for just about $2000 or so ($1700 to be safe, gotta spend some on the band), you can get a decent 1/2ct., D color, ideal cut, VVS1, guaranteed to look a lot better than something twice the size but more flawed.
So yeah, for just about $2000 or so ($1700 to be safe, gotta spend some on the band), you can get a decent 1/2ct., D color, ideal cut, VVS1, guaranteed to look a lot better than something twice the size but more flawed.
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