Waaay OT: Any diamond experts?
05-21-2008, 04:36 PM
#31
Rennlist Member
+1 My sister is a a jewelry designer and she has told me that Costco and JC Penney represent a surprisingly high level of quality of stones at very fair prices. Just make sure you don't present the ring in the reused Costco box they checked you out with.
05-21-2008, 05:22 PM
#32
Rennlist Member
When buying a ring, look for a rock that fits your budget and is as big as your girl says she wants. But then add in another 30% to 50% extra carats and buy that. Seriously.
Also check out www.pricescope.com. That's the ONLY place I ever found where I could actually learn about cut. Buy an ideal scope, period. Take it with you to check out rings locally and you'll probably throw in the towel and buy online like I did. I couldn't find any excellent cut rings anywhere in chicago except Tiffany's, but their prices are nuts.
Also check out www.pricescope.com. That's the ONLY place I ever found where I could actually learn about cut. Buy an ideal scope, period. Take it with you to check out rings locally and you'll probably throw in the towel and buy online like I did. I couldn't find any excellent cut rings anywhere in chicago except Tiffany's, but their prices are nuts.
05-21-2008, 08:19 PM
#35
Rennlist Member
05-22-2008, 05:09 AM
#37
Rennlist Member
I'm thinking about popping THE question to my girlfriend ...
In our "casual" conversations, she has mentioned that she would never want to wear a big diamond, partly because she finds it ostentatious, and partly because she is a doctor, and doesn't like the idea of her patients feeling like she is wealthy at their expense.
So, I have this men's diamond ring which belonged to my father; it's a very high quality ring -- vintage Harry Winston -- with about a 1.3 carat brilliant diamond. I am trying to figure out the value of the ring outside the value of the stone, i.e., is it intrinsically more valuable as a vintage Harry Winston ring to the point where it does not really make sense to remove the large stone -- the ring has two very small princess cut stones and 10 baguettes.
Where would one get an accurate assessment on the value of a vintage ring like this?
In our "casual" conversations, she has mentioned that she would never want to wear a big diamond, partly because she finds it ostentatious, and partly because she is a doctor, and doesn't like the idea of her patients feeling like she is wealthy at their expense.
So, I have this men's diamond ring which belonged to my father; it's a very high quality ring -- vintage Harry Winston -- with about a 1.3 carat brilliant diamond. I am trying to figure out the value of the ring outside the value of the stone, i.e., is it intrinsically more valuable as a vintage Harry Winston ring to the point where it does not really make sense to remove the large stone -- the ring has two very small princess cut stones and 10 baguettes.
Where would one get an accurate assessment on the value of a vintage ring like this?
Harry Winston, although I personnally no like london jewelers (winston, tiff, Mappin & Webb), All reputable jewelers do not use less than 'very good' stones.
We know that the stones in the ring are very good quality.
If ever you are thinking of selling the Winston ring and with the money buy another one, FORGET IT.
You know what you have, but not what you will get.
Any jeweler will tell you he will exchange ur ring with a bigger stone, because he has a
specific client for your ring...
Do not care for the metal in the ring. This is nothing but a few grams of gold that any jeweler can reproduce, but not the stones.
What I would do is ask another beautiful hip friend (girl) to get you pictures of beautiful solitaire rings from the designer magazines VOGUE, ELLE, etc.
Let her choose, and take the chosen picture to a very good independant jeweler.
Agree with him on the price of reproducing the ring with your stone(s).
Get the size of the finger, and let the jeweler prepare the ring, WITHOUT THE STONES. Then the day the chassis is ready, you bring the stones and assist the jeweler, on mounting the stones in front of you. takes half an hour or so...
PLEASE BEAR IN MIND THAT WHATEVER DECISION YOU TAKE, DO NOT LEAVE YOUR RING
WITH ANY JEWELER EVEN FOR HALF AN HOUR.
Then you will have a beautiful ring you chose with excellent quality stones, for years and years .....
But could you keep the wife for as much ? I wish you the best
I would stress on the fact to tell the lucky one that this is a family ring.
All well grown ladies leave the wedding jewel if they seperate, but not all ladies are well grown-up right?
don't ask me how I know.....
Last edited by geolab; 05-22-2008 at 08:15 AM.
05-22-2008, 10:45 AM
#38
I suspect your GF knows that your financial resources are limited and is trying to let you off the hook. Buy her a nice ring that she will be proud of. Never look back. I f you end the relationship, whatever you spent on the ring will look cheap. :-) At the end of the day it's just dirty paper and you can make more.
05-22-2008, 11:41 AM
#39
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Thread Starter
I suspect your GF knows that your financial resources are limited and is trying to let you off the hook. Buy her a nice ring that she will be proud of. Never look back. I f you end the relationship, whatever you spent on the ring will look cheap. :-) At the end of the day it's just dirty paper and you can make more.
The stone I have in hand has sentimental value, is very high quality -- 1.3 carats, ideal cut, at least a VVS1 (can't say for sure until it's unmounted) and an E color -- and might or might not be something she wants; time will tell. It would be approximately $20k on bluenile.com
I appreciate all the comments and advice.
05-22-2008, 05:59 PM
#40
Burning Brakes
Costco Diamonds
another nod for Costco. The diamond trade is controlled by a select group worldwide (from DeBeers down) and Costco is well known to source their stones from the very same sources as high end co's like Tiffany's and those online (Bluenile). Costco's markup "wholesale mandate" applies to everything they sell including diamonds. So you can effectively purchase a stone of unbelieveable quality for 20% less than the equivalent stone from Tiffany's and so on.
Do a google search for Costco diamond quality and you'll find several articles confirming this point. You can even buy online.
Here's a link for example http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Moms/story?id=1197202
Do a google search for Costco diamond quality and you'll find several articles confirming this point. You can even buy online.
Here's a link for example http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Moms/story?id=1197202
05-23-2008, 02:57 PM
#43
Hmm, I am sure that Costco has some good deals on diamonds. I feel better about buying my stones from Borsheim's in Omaha, owned by Berkshire Hathaway. In other words, by Warren Buffet, the richest guy in the world. They have some great prices on quality stuff, very high end store for Omaha and for anywhere in the country. I bought my wife's main ring there as well as her work ring. She is an oncology nurse and needed a ring that she could wear under latex gloves. The princess cut that I bought sticks out too far for gloves. So I bought her a nice Crisscut ring made up of a series of baguettes that works nicely at work. She now wears it more than her main ring. She bought me my Tag from Borsheim's. It is a great place.
05-23-2008, 03:27 PM
#44
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A good clarity and cut can LOOK physically larger than a comparable bad clarity and cut of the same carat weight. When I got my wife's ring, I looked for a 1.0 carat weight marquis. The jewler showed me two diamonds side by side, same price, one was .86 carats, the other was 1.01carats. The .86 carat was a VS1 and color D, I forget what the 1.01 carat was, but it wasn't as good. side by side, he asked me which one was bigger, the 0.86 carat diamond LOOKED much bigger.
I ended up buying the 0.86 carat.
I ended up buying the 0.86 carat.
