Notice they gave her "Store credit." Anything else she buys from the store is gonna be retail and maked up the yin yang. If it was really worth that much, they would be able to cut her a cash value check. Appaisals means next to nothing because you'll see there's a disclaimer that it's an "evaulation." You pay 20k for a diamond and is "valued" at 30k. Why didn't they charge you 30k if it was really worth 30k? Businesses are to make money no lose money right?

I do agree Tiffany sells exceptional diamonds, but your paying an arm and a leg. I would agree not to buy from online stores. You wanna be able to look at what your buying. Every stone is different. Even if they are graded the same. You might find one is nicer to your eye than the other.

If you buy a nice stone, it will hold it's value no matter you purchased it from Tiffany or Blue nile. What you paid for it is another story. If your paying Tiffany prices at another retailer, then of course buy Tiffany. Say you purchased a diamond at Tiffany for 10k and I purchased the same diamond at a moms and pops store for 5k. In a coupla years diamonds go up 5k. My diamond is now worth 7-10k (moms and pops had to make some money right?). Your diamond is still worth 10k, why? Because you already over paid in the first place. Tiffany won't give you 5k more than what you paid. Store credit maybe, but then again your over paying with anything else your gonna purchase from them again and back to square one.

If you can't find a reputable dealer, then I would say buy from Tiffany. Then again if you do your homework you'll be fine. In the diamond business reputation is everything. Not every store is out there to cheat you. Fly yourself to New York, San Francisco, or Los Angeles. Go to the wholesale diamond districts. The cost of the flight alone might save you more than you'd know. Get a short trip and a nice diamond for wholesale.

Go shop around. Find stones that you like and are thinking about buying. Ask for a copy of the GIA certificate. Then let me see. I could guide you. Nice stone / Good value for the price they want or not.

Just my opinion...

 

[QUOTE=NFRs2000NYC,Mar 22 2006, 01:03 PM] Yes you can.

 

I am glad you were "In the business", but if you go to 47th st and cross shop it with other stores for a GIA certified diamond, you will get the same exact stone for close to 50% of the price at tiffany's. Tiffany's is a name and you pay for it through the nose, only idiots with no knowledge shop for the little blue box

 

Whatever, this became pointless really fast. Believe what you want to believe, buy from whomever you wish, but if you thinks a good jewelery store is as good as Tiffany, then you just plain dont know about jewelery.

Note, I do agree that you can buy A LOOSE rock as good as Tiffany (not an easy task) but you will NEVER get the quality of assembly, setting, etc outside of the top 3. You can argue that till you are blue in the face, but its just, plain, wrong.

 

Well I rather be the idiot who buys at Tiffany's then the smart guy who brought his ring cheap from the place down the street who won't service it in a few years when a pong comes loose.

I shopped around for MONTHS for my engagement ring and I got educated in the process. Every city has a place like 47th Street. In Miami, its the Seabold Building. Yeah you can get something of decent quality for cheap but service is questionable. Will they clean the ring? Will they service it? Probably not. Reputable places, like Tifanny's, there is no question.

I paired my inherited diamond with a platinum setting from Mayor's, who also has outstanding service. Tiffany doesn't sell their settings separately or else I would have purchased it from them. Mayor's has cleaned the ring several times and serviced it a couple of times already without question. They've made a repeat customer out of me and in the long run, I will save more money from discounts off of future purchases and free lifetime maintenance and servicing.

 

Does anybody have any evidence of diamonds sold by Tiffany holding value? It's one thing if you can sell it on the open market for the same price you purchased it for, it's another if they simply honor their appraisals with store credit. I see that gold is currently worth $17,692 per kilogram. I wonder if Tiffany will give up 4.861 kilograms of gold for that $86k ring?

 

Yes. Thats what I used to do. I would BUY the diamonds from divorced women, husbands that took the ring back, next of kin, etc. We paid about 80% of the ring value, but thats because we also sold them at 90% of the rings value. However, if you bring it to a real store, you will get 100% of your value. Our business was NOT a regular jewelery store. It was more of a rare/collectible store. Saying that BVLGARI ring is just gold weight and diamonds is like saying the first corvette is just steel and rubber, should be sold by weight. Again, just like with fine watches, you will get your money back. There is a reason why they are expensive....their build quality is impossible to replicate, and those who say otherwise are kidding themselves. Listen, Tiffany isnt the only one. DeBeers started to sell to the public, and their rings are top notch. Piaget, Cartier, Bvlgari all have top shelf stuff. We used to buy Tiffany rings from the 40s etc for 130% their original value, and sometimes more.

 

Really I am glad that you would rather pay 50% more for a stone then to possibly pay $10-15 bucks to fix a loose prong, and unless you go to an absolute crook, most shops will fix it for free no problems asked


And sorry to tell you, but almost all the diamonds that enter this country pass through 47th st. There are places "like it" but considering the places in miami and california most likely get their stones from 47th, they cannot be compared

 

The only problem is, that loose prong 9 out of 10 times results in a lost stone. Again, you may be able to find a diamond AS good as Tiffany, but you wont find a whole ring as good as Tiffany.

 

Obviously if you took a rare $86k ring and melted it down, you'd only end up with a few dollars worth of gold. What I'm asking is, if that ring is truly worth $86k, can you get $86k worth of gold for it? (With the intention of turning it around in the gold market and doing something like paying off a house, buying a 911TT, investing in stocks, or whatever.)