Looking for Engagement ring... Please help!

[busmaster11]

Well, stopped by the local Rogers' and Holland's store in the mall this weekend with my girlfriend, and did a preliminary analysis of pricing and what's good to get, since I have absolutely no idea to begin with... Have pretty much decided on a platinum solitaire, probably between 3/4 to 1 carat round... The guy was very friendly and gave me this long talk about the differences in quality, cuts and level of colorlessness... Prolly gonna spend between 4-6k there...

My question is, is that a good place to go? I hear ads on the radio about places that always sell jewelery that appraises for double... I know appraisals really mean nothing, and are only used for insurance purposes... Is it sensible to goto a mall jeweler or what? I know I can probably save some money elsewhere, but... And what are some possible pitfalls?

Some independent advice from those who have gone through the process or are othrwise experts on the matter would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[HomeBrewerDude]

if you going to spend that much, then maybe you should consider flying to the netherlands and buying there. Especially if the exchange rate is favorable.... you can bring an unmounted gem custom free b/c its considered a mineral.

 

[boolerboy]

Blue Nile is a good place to buy diamond rings from. They are very reputable, their customer service is awsome and you will get a better price than tiffany's. make sure you read up on your diamond buying first; understand the 4 C's (caret, cut, color and clarity). regardless of where you buy from, insist on getting the GIA certification for the diamond from the dealer.

 

[Farbio]

as i've found recently, not due to my own engagement, but because of all my friends getting engaged, the best thing to do is ask some locals...bosses at work, neighbors etc, what's a good local jeweler. they are usually much more willing to be flexible in price and do some custom work than a mall jeweler as far as i've ever found. for instance, 2 friends got engaged in the past few months and both spent within a few hundred of the other ~5k....both got a full carat stone that is incredibly beautiful and good quality, one went to the mall jeweler, the other to a local store. the one at the mall got a 14k band and it looks nice...the one at the local got a platinum band w/ custom engraving (the fiancee loves dragons and medieval stuff so its engraved kinda like that) and it looks much much nicer, so as far as i can tell, you do much better at a local store.

 

[busmaster11]

Cool... MOre stuff to mull over. How about a poll? List the price you paid for your engagement ring (if recent) and/or the prices your friends paid... I just wanna get a general idea...

 

[SpecialEd]

I hear Wal-Mart has good engagement rings....

 

[busmaster11]

<< Blue Nile is a good place to buy diamond rings from. They are very reputable, their customer service is awsome and you will get a better price than tiffany's. make sure you read up on your diamond buying first; understand the 4 C's (caret, cut, color and clarity). regardless of where you buy from, insist on getting the GIA certification for the diamond from the dealer. >>



Nice site. Problem is, the R&H clerk convinced me that I sholdn't buy a diamond unless I've seen it first, which makes perfect sense, because for whatever reason a more expensive diamond may not be prettier to the naked eye.

 

[Juniper]

Try ashford

They have some nice rings

 

[boolerboy]

<< Nice site. Problem is, the R&H clerk convinced me that I sholdn't buy a diamond unless I've seen it first, which makes perfect sense, because for whatever reason a more expensive diamond may not be prettier to the naked eye. >>



something to keep in mind is that the jewelery stores have special lighting that will make the diamond shine optimally. so what you may see there isn't necessarily what it will look like when worn. if they allow it, step outside in the sun and see what the diamond looks like. how the diamond is mounted in a ring will also make a huge difference. so a loose diamond that looks good won't necessarily look good mounted in a ring.

i personally put faith in GIA certification. that way i know what i'm getting has been appraised in a standard way and that its value is what the dealer claims it to be.

 

[Way Cool Jr.]

Not to sound dumb or anything, but check out some pawn shops. You can get some great deals there.

 

[Gujski]

I would suggest you go for color and clarity over caret weight. It seemed like when i was looking 1 caret bumped the price up considerately. I ended up with a nice .85 caret at SI1 and F for less than a 1 caret at I color and SI2. My opion is the color is the most important.

 

[boolerboy]

Miranda,
Tiffany's is a good place to shop, but it can be very pricey. As far as buying diamond stuff goes, there are cheaper alternatives. Tiffany's has some really good collections in other jewelery types - pearls, silver, gold etc. Again, a lot of it is pricey, but you won't find it anywhere else. Ofcourse, if you are looking for name brand, there is nothing like Tiffany's.

 

[joelmold]

<< Miranda,
Tiffany's is a good place to shop, but it can be very pricey. As far as buying diamond stuff goes, there are cheaper alternatives. Tiffany's has some really good collections in other jewelery types - pearls, silver, gold etc. Again, a lot of it is pricey, but you won't find it anywhere else. Ofcourse, if you are looking for name brand, there is nothing like Tiffany's. >>



I agree. It is more expensive, but it meant a lot to my fiance to get a ring from Tiffany.

BTW, for the "survey" I bought a .25 solitaire gold band about 8 months ago for about $1100 from Tiffany. My fiance didn't want a big ring, which works out well for me. Now we have extra money for the honeymoon!

From my own research, if you have a set amount you want to spend, it's much better to buy a smaller, higher quality diamond, than to buy based mainly on size. Price jumps pretty rapidly once you get 3/4c and above.

You might also check Costco. They have some fairly nice rings for great prices. I would have gone this route, but in the end I decided the Tiffany name was worth the extra $...

Hope this helps...

 

[Gonad the Barbarian]

Uh, you do realize that anyone who buys a diamond is at best getting totally fleeced by De Beers or is at worst supporting brutal African rebels that enjoy whacking off folks' limbs don't you?

http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/issues/diamond/2001/0423corp.htm

 

[KK]

eh, they didn't need there limbs anyways.

I went down to St. Thomas on our cruise couple years ago and picked up a rock, set in platinum. I believe the carat weight was around 1.4 oval shape, it cost around 6k. Alot better price than around here in the local jewelery shops. no tax either.

Good luck,
KK

 

[Gonad the Barbarian]

<< eh, they didn't need there limbs anyways. >>



Not as badly as we need our diamonds I guess.

 

[KK]

Probably not, it's either their limbs or the wife whacking off something on me, I'd rather it be them.

KK

 

[koolhand]

Of the 4 C's, Cut is the most important. See the site below & read up on it. Pretty much ideal cut-> makes a brilliant stone.

Recent got a ring myself, I found these 2 sites useful:

http://www.diamondtalk.com and

http://www.goodoldgold.com

The 2nd site is where I bought the stone from. Saved around $300 in tax & save more on the stone's cost, local store wanted like $7.5k+ for the quality I was looking for, the site has it for under $6k. Quality I was looking for was vvs1, 0.85 ct, F color, w/ something called Hearts & Arrow symmetry, almost flawless stone. Although you will probably not be able to see it w/ the naked eyes, anything less than a VS1 in clarity or so to me has too much inperfections.... you get spoiled by the 30x - 60x magnifications on the site... that you may want to stay away from mall-quality stones (usually clarity is SI or worst).

Nice thing about goodgoldgold is he has scans of the stones, and the Brilliantscope shows you how shiny the stone is.
His stones blows mall diamonds away in terms of brilliance... Site is full of info, take some time to read about it.

Bought the setting separately, check out www.ashford.com. My local jewelry store wanted $400 for a 18k yellow gold solitaire setting, got it from Ashford w/ coupon for under $150 shipped!


Stay away from mall diamonds, those 50% sales & stuff are ludicrous... they just mark it up to mark it down.

 

[royaldank]

<< as i've found recently, not due to my own engagement, but because of all my friends getting engaged, the best thing to do is ask some locals...bosses at work, neighbors etc, what's a good local jeweler. they are usually much more willing to be flexible in price and do some custom work than a mall jeweler as far as i've ever found >>



I recently bought one. I shopped quite a few places but ended up settling on a local shop here that has been around for decades. They are well known in the community and highly respected. I was able to choose from numerous rocks they had and got the cert to go along with it. They let me walk outside with it and see it under the clouds in poor lighting.

Also, watch for the old black pad trick. The diamond is going to look it's best right underneath the spotlight they have conveniently placed above your head while laying on a black mat. Make sure you flip over the pad and view it on the creme side. Grab the loupe (sp?) and examine up close for yourself.

To me, I was much more interested in color and cut. I wanted the sparkle and I wanted something without noticable flaws. I wanted colorless, or near colorless (again, nothing noticable to the eye). I spent about $1600 for a .44 diamond set in a white gold band with two smaller diamonds (.22 total) on either side.

But, make sure you check out the online retailers mentioned here. Search through and find a few that you think you'd like, like the size and quality you think you want. Then go to some stores and look. If their prices are way out of whack, leave. However, the one I bought was slightly less than what I had it narrowed down to on the internet.

Size wasn't all that important to me. Neither one of makes tons of money and it's not something that is terribly useful. Sure, it looks nice, but I didn't want to be paying for it for the next 3 years. So, I got something within my range and paid in full.

Good luck. I hated spending that money when I thought of how much computer equipment that would have bought. Oh, there's my GeForce 3, my XP1900+, my new DDR motherboard...but then again, I did gain a fiance.

 

[busmaster11]

Lots of useful info here for me to look at... Just want to know though... is a good 3/4 carat with platinum band for 4-5k reasonable for a guy making 40k? Is that a good choice? Or is it too little or is it overkill? What should I be spending?

 

[vladgur]

40k? Well, lets say youre paying about 27% taxes, so you get about $29K after taxes, divide that by 12, means you have about $2.5K a month. How can we make "a 2-month salary last forever"? By buying a $5K diamond engagement ring that your future wife will occasionally wear(who's gonna risk wearing $5K ring all the time?)..

How can you make a 2 month salary last forever while increasing in value every year? Put that $5K as a downpayment for the house and get your future wife a nice $200 saphire or emerald ring...

I cant believe how many people fall prey to tradition while barely making ends meet. I had a friend spend $15K on the wedding while he still owes $20K for college loans and his wife owes $40K and is still in school. And he is making $85K... But oh well, thats tradition I guess. Different strokes for different folks.

When i get married, I'll take my wife, my parents and her parents to a nice spot in the Carribean for a small private wedding ceremony thats should not cost more than $3K including tickets....