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tips on buying an engagement ring

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Just go to Walmart, who cares. Buy a fake one for like $50 bucks, call it a day. Otherwise if that's not going to fly, then she really does care...In which case you're boned like the rest of us guys.
 
round stones are more expensive. I got my wife a cushion cut(her preference, saved me ~15% on the rock of same size.)

I've given this advice before; take her sister/best friend shopping with you. Treat them to dinner. You might get lucky like I did, and only had to pay for a meal from the mall food court. Don't give information on her cousin's schedule too easily. I got a, "How come you know Christina's schedule better than I do?"

Blue nile is a good place to start. You can pick a stone to your liking, and a setting and figure out costs. However, the local GIA certified appraiser jewelry store gave me the most education. Small mom and pops try harder for your business. They also want to develop a relationship with them so you can go with them for future purchases.
 
holden j caufield said:
http://www.kay.com/en/kaystore/diamond-engagement-ring-1-1-4-ct-tw-princess-cut-14k-white-gold

any thoughts on either of these. I'm going to surprise her, so if she doesn't like it are most jewelers ok with exchanging if for another model.
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That ring is pretty low on the clarity. The color isn't that high either, but I'd give up a little more on color to increase clarity. Also, a lot of the time the big jewelers (like Kay) don't give you the exact carat they advertise; it falls within a given range.

I just bought a stone and setting two weeks ago after researching since February. I wanted to stay local, but the jeweler I was working with wouldn't budge on price, and they were consistently at least 25% higher than everything I could get online. Would've tried other jewelers but this is the only one in town that carried the designer setting I wanted.

Anyways, I ended up using diamonds.pro for a lot of research and guidance, and eventually bought the stone through one of the commission-free customer reps at James Allen. They are close if not the same in price as bluenile, but every single one of their diamonds is photographed at 15x magnification in a 360deg view. Just go on their customer service page, describe what you want, and they send you a few options that you can actually see, in detail, before you buy. If you buy both a setting and diamond through them you get a free appraisal for insurance purposes, and everything has a 60 day guaranteed 100% full refund. You can also save an extra 5% if you pay by wire transfer. The whole process went extremely smoothly for me after I had actually researched what was out there and decided on the characteristics I wanted in a stone. I think it took 3 days from the time I contacted them with what I wanted in a stone to the day I bought it.

Hope this helps. Good luck
 
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Check out Brilliant Earth. I bought my fiancee's ring there. They have ethically sourced diamonds as well as lab created ones. The gold is recycled too.
 
I went to a jewelry store across state lines and had them ship it. That saved me hundreds in sales tax. They were going to mount the stone on the setting, so it would have taken a few days to be ready anyhow. I only lived 20 minutes away...so it worked out great.

Don't cheap out on the stone. Rock quality > Rock size. My wife's stone isn't as big as others, but clarity, cut, and color are great. It shines and looks bigger than it is....plus it doesn't get snagged on stuff from being too big.
 
Depends. My wife just told me that she wanted solitaire. The rest was up to me.

And while she didn't tell me what I should spend she did remind me to get something I thought was nice. If you have good vision it's really easy to see the difference in quality even without magnification.

So basically ATOT would laugh at me for what I spent but whatever. To each his own 🙂
 
holden j caufield said:
ok thanks all for the advice, very new territory for me. I'd like to surprise her. Is the norm to have her pick it out?
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My fiancée didn't pick it out, but I asked for the type of setting and shape of diamond. I did the rest. I went with a round-cut in a simple Tiffany's style setting.
 
holden j caufield said:
ok thanks all for the advice, very new territory for me. I'd like to surprise her. Is the norm to have her pick it out?
Click to expand...

It totally depends on the girl. Both me and my then-gf had no idea about anything related to rings/diamonds. We went to two jewelry stores and found out her ring size, diamond style she liked, and band style she liked. I then went to a custom jeweler who re-created the exact band she wanted, but for a fraction of the price (Tacori brand band retailed for $5,500, got it custom made for $1,700.) Also got a beautiful diamond from the guy at cost. Saved at least 50% from what I would have paid for in store.
 
All I'm going to say to the OP is do not think there is any aspect of "investment" in a diamond. There is almost no concept of "resale value" with diamonds (unless you can find someone in the market to buy one) other than "fire sale".

My friend who runs a jewelry shop won't even make an offer on any diamond smaller than 1 ct.
 
kranky said:
All I'm going to say to the OP is do not think there is any aspect of "investment" in a diamond. There is almost no concept of "resale value" with diamonds (unless you can find someone in the market to buy one) other than "fire sale".

My friend who runs a jewelry shop won't even make an offer on any diamond smaller than 1 ct.
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Lol, most jewelers won't deal in less than 1ct for a reason, lose the bottom feeders. They will usually insist on AGI only certified stones.

What does your "friend" sell?

Most diamonds are sold, used.
 
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