Browsing Category: "Jewelry"
Save Money on Jewelry and Diamonds
Diamonds are a girls best friend…and a wallets worst enemy! I found that out when my wife told me she wanted a new pair of diamond earrings for her birthday. She very carefully took me to the local jeweler and showed me what she wanted. This was the easy part. Checking prices and comparing quality was the hard part.
Diamonds are actually a little easier to compare then other jewels. The reason is that there is so much information on the internet comparing the 4 C’s: (1) Cut, (2) Clarity, (3) Color and (4) Carat Weight (see http://www.diasource.com/fourcs.htm). Even with this there are still some difficult things to compare like how “natural” the diamond is and if there has been any work such as filler or laser drilling to cover up minor imperfections. Just so you know it is commond to use laser and filler and there is really nothing wrong with it as long as it is dislosed to you before you purchase.
I spent weeks looking at all the local diamond shops and writing down prices. Then, I hit the internet. Surprisingly most internet sites were about the same price as the stores. I had the feeling that the diamond market was fairly well controlled and pricing wasn’t going to vary too much. But, that did not stop me from looking. I tried some familiar sites such as Amazon.com, Shopping.com, SmartBargains.com and Costco.com. Of the four Costco has the best product for the best price but they tend to only carry really high end merchandise. So, if you are looking to spend 10K or more then I would recommend Costo. If you are spending less then 10K keep looking.
Finally, I tried my old friend eBay. eBay can be a great market for certain items and jewelry is definately one of them. You often find disgruntled boyfriends/girlfriends/ex-spouses just looking to get anything for their old items and you can get some really good deals. But, you have to very, very careful on eBay. Make sure the seller has a long history (No less then 500 total feedback) and that the feedback is over 98%. When dealing with Jewelry it is also imortant to make sure they have an iron clad guarantee, are paypal verified and belong to square trade for arbitrations. You want a return policy of at least 30 days. if they don’t meet these criteria run.
In my case I did not buy from eBay. However, I used eBay to find more stores that I did not know about. One seller had their own website and they offered a 30 day money back guarantee when buying on their website. They also had an 800 number I could call to talk about the purchase prior to making it. This, combined with their excellent eBay rating, made me very comfortable.
Once I received the diamond earrings in the mail (Overnight) I made an appointment with an independent appraiser here locally. This is a very important step and why you want the 30 day money back guarantee. The appraiser was not aware of what I paid for the dimaonds and it completely independent. In this case he told me that the diamonds I purchased were valued (insurance value) at more then doulbe what I paid for them! In fact, he found a local jeweler selling what he considered a very comprable pair at almost triple! That was a big relief. Now, had he found that I overpaid I would have promptly returned the item for a full refund. This way I was covered either way.
There is lots of information on how to buy diamonds on the internet but the keys are (1) Shop around, (2) Get a full 30 day money back guarantee (no questions asked and (3) have them independently appraised to make sure you received the best deal.
Happy Jewelry Shopping!
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