Advice on a engagement ring quote

[Jono]

G''day All,

I''m very new to the engagement game and just wanted some experienced opinions on a quote i received for an engagement ring.

We have been visiting a jeweller ''friend of a friend'' in Sydney for the past three weeks discussing our ring design and diamond preferences.

The specifics (off the top of my head) for the ring are as follows:

Diamond:
Russian Cut, Round Brilliant
0.84ct
E
SI1
vg/vg/ex

The diamond also has a really great fluorescence in my opinion, and is appropriately certified etc

Band: Custom made, white gold with 0.2ct diamonds set on the sides.

So thats the basic make-up of the ring. Now the jeweller has quoted us a cost of "less than 10k", which to me means pretty much 10k Lol.

The research i have undertaken in the past few weeks gives me an estimate of costs consisting of the following:
Diamond: 5.5k to 6.5k approx
Band: $1 - 1.5k
Labour: ?? Possibly 1.5k at a guess? Keeping in mind its custom design and hand crafted.

Soooo my estimated total would be around 8.5k to 9k.

Can you guys please comment and let me know if I''m under/overestimating on any of those aspects. I guess i''m more unclear about labour costs than most things and what i should be expecting to pay for a diamond with the above specifications.

What would you expect to pay for this sort of custom design/and had crafted? Obviously you get what you pay for, as i have read on here a lot in the last few hrs Lol.


Any help would be greatly appreciated.

JC

 

[Monnyjay]

Hi Jono,

From my experience that is way too much for what you are looking at. I don''t know which jeweller you are quoting, but maybe you should try Jogia Diamonds or the Diamond Exchange. I personally have found the Diamond Bourse (located in Sydney to be very good). Just look them up and give them a go, at least that way you have some comparisons. Good luck and let us know how you go

 

[Jono]

Thanks MonnyJay,

I understand that diamonds from the wholesale companies are generally cheaper, but i''ve been told that a lot of jewellers won''t set diamonds which are not theirs or that they have not sourced etc.

I guess i''m looking at the price as an over all package including labour etc- not for the diamond alone.
A lot of the diamonds on the diamond exchange that seem really well priced (almost too good to be true) are generally too good to be true from my experience, and they only have a select few available.

So I agreed that the diamond alone would seem a tad over priced (I was only estimating as to the price) but you need to account for the jeweller ''handling fee'' i suppose. Is that a fair assessment?

What would you expect to pay from a non-wholesaler for a diamond like ours?

 

[Dreamer_D]

I think that price is *very* high. Is the ring literally hand madeor is it made with CAD and machines and then hand finished? Big difference.

The diamond would run about $3000 - $4000 USD from a reputable online dealer, depending on the lab that certed it and also its cut quality (which you did not really mention?). Less because of the flouro.

Diamonds in AU are notoriously expensive and many AU people buy from online vendors in the US and import their diamonds for significant savings.

This means your setting would be cotsting about $5k. Steep unless it is hand done three sided pave for a very large stone in platinum. A simple white gold setting with pave diamonds on the shank can be as inexpensive as $500 depending on the design and how it is made.