Buying A Diamond?

[BusterStacks]

anyone have experience in this field? I went to a jeweler today and was quoted ~5500$ for a nice 1ctw diamond stone. He said he couldn't budge on the price of the stone, but would include the setting for free (?). What is the typical markup? Anyway to buy quality stuff for way cheaper? I'd like to get married (+EV) but don't have the bankroll.

[stripsqueez]

a big rock was hush money to get she who must be obeyed to stop hating me playing lots of cards + i never bothered getting married which was ok but i coped repeated flak for the failure to produce a rock

i did the research - diamonds are an interesting study - they are graded for several quality aspects - colour, flaws etc - you can buy a 4 ctw diamond for the same price as a good quality .8ctw diamond

the gradings used arent terribly practical - for example spending a heap more for near perfect clarity isnt neccesary if the same diamond 4 grades down looks exactly the same to the naked eye

i eventually found a great jeweller who bothered to explain all this stuff to me and ultimately showed me about 10 diamonds which were around what i wanted so i could see the differences - the highlight of this was checking them out through a jewellers magnifying glass - i finally had some appreciation for why the little things cost so much

in the end i spent about 8K US on a very good quality 1ctw diamond - i was going to choose the setting but after some thought i just gave her the diamond as is and paid for the setting that she chose - an average setting/ring would of cost me about $800US

stripsqueez - chickenhawk

[wacki]

[ QUOTE ]
i finally had some appreciation for why the little things cost so much

[/ QUOTE ]

Diamonds are expensive because De Beers owns all of the mines and price fixes them artificially high. If I remember correctly there are "more common" stones such rubies and saphires that are much cheaper in consumer cost, but are actually rarer. I forget which ones they are though.

[superleeds]

The mark up is huge. Fortunately my sister's best friend's husband is a jeweller and he got me one at cost. He also gave me valuation documentation for insurance purposes based on the cost of replacement. It was over 3 times what I payed.

PS Don't tell the wife [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

[OrangeHeat]

I picked up a H color VS2 1.0 carat for about $3500 after asking to deal directly with the owner of the Jewelry store.

You have to do some work and be willing to deal as they estimated value at $7500 (way overblown) and had a sticker of $5200 on it. The clerk was allowed to go down to $4500 and the owner went down to $3500. So remember they have huge mark-up 300%ish seems accurate from the other poster.

Do a google on 4C's of diamonds and you can decide what tradeoff's you want to make. If you want big and don't mind some flaws that are only visible under 10x magnification then you can make that trade-off.
Link to 4c's

Orange

[elwoodblues]

The price is usually negotiable on fine jewelry. Shop around if they are unwilling to negotiate. As has been mentioned before the 4 C's are what determines the cost:

Cut
Clarity
Carat
Color

The one that is most overlooked is Cut, but it can make a HUGE difference on the diamond. For lack of a better way of explaining it, an ideal cut diamond (or near ideal) has much more sparkle than others. Make sure to look at several diamonds before deciding. Often you will find one that is slightly smaller and slightly lesser grade in color but for some reason it just speaks to you (when I was shopping, it was usually the cut that made the difference). Make sure to go to a jeweler who will spend time explaining these things to you. It's a big investment so take your time with it. I found that small stores were pretty good to work with. I tended to avoid the chain/mall stores. Good luck.

[Ray Zee]

jewlers mark up cheaper items three times and double more expensive stuff. so in general figure one half is what he pays. and he gets to buy it on whats called memo and hold it for 90 days or so before he has to commit to sell.
most bigger shops wont deal but many real small ones will as if they have a bigger stone they are probably stuck with it. only deal with an owner.
ive sold lots of diamonds. for what you want get at least h color and vs2. make sure it has some kind of GIA appraisal of its color and clarity and not some third party bull.

[scotnt73]

they should negotiate. if not go somewhere else. its like buying cars-never take the first price offered. i bought my wifes ring 3 years ago at a very nice local jewelry store. the price on the ring was 3,200. after 30 minutes of haggeling and acting like i was going to go somewhere else i walked out with it for 2100 total out of pocket. so the mark up is HUGE.

[scotnt73]

[ QUOTE ]
they should negotiate. if not go somewhere else. its like buying cars-never take the first price offered. i bought my wifes ring 3 years ago at a very nice local jewelry store. the price on the ring was 3,200. after 30 minutes of haggeling and acting like i was going to go somewhere else i walked out with it for 2100 total out of pocket. so the mark up is HUGE.

[/ QUOTE ]

also about a month later i got the paperwork in the mail for it saying its apraised value was something rediculous like 4500$ so dont pay any attention to appraised value on jewelry when buying.

[turnipmonster]

ideally you want to deal as high up the chain as possible. I recently bought a diamond, and through a friend of a friend I got hooked up with a wholesaler in nyc who was willing to deal (albeit cash only). as others have said, read about the 4C's. I thought the color was the most important aspect to me, as it was visible with the naked eye whereas a lot of things you have look at lot closer (i.e. magnifying glass) to see.

as a side note, you tend to pay a lot more for 1 carat than something like .97 carat diamonds, and you can't really tell the difference.

--turnipmonster