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Blue Diamond Rip-off?

a few comments: a jeweler who is an "artist" and doesnt know much about stones (to paraphrase the OP) sounds like a scam artist to me. an irradiated stone is essentially worthless as a diamond. if you like it that is fine but you seem far too trusting of this person and there are alarm bells going off at virtually every comment you have made.
 
OK - let's try to break down what happened here.

The original diamond was a 1 ct princess of unknown quality. Since your hubby apparently isn't particularly knowledgeable about diamonds, let's assume it's a mid-grade stone, about J SI. That puts the retail cost in about the $3,000 - 4,000 range. Of that, you'd be able to recoup $2,000 - 2,500 max if you resell it. You've costed 1 ct irradiated blue diamonds of a similar quality at $1,500, so the difference in the value of the stones is $500 - 1000. You haven't told us how much scrap gold you included in the deal, but I'm guessing from the description of the original ring and your new ring that the new setting is heavier than the old one, so at least some of the gold (or the equivalent) was used in the new setting. Assuming, as a starting point, that all of the scrap gold went into the new setting, then in essence the jeweler got the difference in the value of the stones as his payment for designing and making the new ring. (I understand it's easier for jewelers to use "new" gold than to refine an old setting and scrap, in which case the jeweler would have lost about 10-15% of the value of the gold when he sold it to a refiner.) My numbers could be off a bit, but it sounds you what you did is use some of the value of the old stone to pay the jeweler to design and make a custom ring for you... and you got a reasonable deal. What's more, you got a ring you love. Yes, the stone is less valuable than the original stone, but the difference between your resale value for the old stone and the cost of the new stone is what's keeping your new sparkler on your finger. :wink2:
 
bgray|1362550628|3397728 said:
a few comments: a jeweler who is an "artist" and doesnt know much about stones (to paraphrase the OP) sounds like a scam artist to me. an irradiated stone is essentially worthless as a diamond. if you like it that is fine but you seem far too trusting of this person and there are alarm bells going off at virtually every comment you have made.
Click to expand...

I agree with most of this except "an irradiated stone is essentially worthless as a diamond". I can't believe that this "jeweler" didn't know exactly what he was selling. If you've known him a long time and he's been in the jewelry business a long time- he knew exactly what he was doing. Claiming ignorance on his part is not acceptable. I think he found you and your husband trusting consumers and probably took advantage of that. The saying "buyer beware" comes to mind with "jewelers" like this.

Ok- with all that said, your irradiated blue diamond is not worthless- there are many beautiful irradiated diamonds. I do not believe that it was blue to begin with as even a very light blue would be worth waaaaaay more than an irradiated blue diamond. It was most likely a brown diamond. The important fact is that you love your ring and we would love to see a picture of it. =)
Just enjoy it and try not to dwell on whether you were "ripped off". And find another jeweler for any additional purchases. ;))
 
Ugh - this site sucks. I keep losing my comments.

I'll try one more time. My jeweler probably knew a lot more than I remember - I was looking at rings in November and getting married in January. I'm sorry if I misled with some of my earlier stressed-out comments. I was just thrown by being made to feel stupid by the local sleazy jeweler who was pawing at my ring. I only asked him what he would charge to write up a description required by my insurance company.

From my research, what I picked up is that a princess-cut white diamond is very popular and so more expensive. Emerald-cut is less popular as are yellow-tinged diamonds. So, a color I prefer in a bigger diamond and with a cut I adore, was perfect for me. So, to reiterate, I traded in a boring 3/4 ct princess-cut diamond in a white gold setting. The diamond was a very good quality. The band was plain and smooth. I just have completey different taste - exactly the opposite of mainstream. I brought in this old ring and traded in some old gold jewelry.

My jeweler asked if I'd be interested in brown diamonds and I decided blue was prettiest. He has been using brown diamonds in his designs for many years. I ended up paying less than $2,000 for a new engagment ring, custom-made engagement ring (not picking out options from a webpage) with a 1 ct blue diamond in yellow gold, and two wide hammered yellow gold wedding rings. I love my girly ring - so different from my previous architectural set that we had designed for my first marriage.

When I had looked into options for what to do with the old engagement ring, I called the store where hubby had bought it. They only offered me a ring that would sell for twice what he had paid, so about $8-9,000. The other options were to sell it to some other store or on my own. The most we could get, if we were lucky, would be about $1500 from selling it privately.

So here is a lousy pic of it - sorry, not able to load a pic of wedding ring with engagement ring. Thanks for all your support and not so much support.
jill_sengagementring_2.jpg
 
I don't think it's really fair to say that some have supported you, while others have not. All of us responded to your concerns (in different ways) about you feeling ripped off. It's clear that you love your ring, and you should because it's very pretty, but that doesn't change the fact that your jeweler should have volunteered the information that your diamond is irradiated. I suppose that if you look at the big picture, you got your ring, and life goes on. At the very least, since you have mentioned that you have known your jeweler for quite some time, you should probably mention to him that he needs to disclose that sort of information in the future to his other customers. It's unprofessional for him not to.
 
I’m not really understanding the issue here. Irradiation is a ‘treatment’, and under FTC guidelines all diamond treatments require disclosure but it doesn’t seem like there was an expectation otherwise and disclosure would have been interesting but not a deal killer. That is to say, the dealer should have done it, and it’s probably a valid reason for a refund if desired, but it doesn’t seem to be really the heart of the worry. As pointed out, an untreated natural stone would have been 100x the price and although it might be fun to insist that it’s a ripoff that this wasn’t provided, it seems like a pretty weak argument. If anything, the heart of the problem is with the 'appraiser' who doesn't seem to have understood the product.
 
Wow, that ring is magnificent. I love the design - it's inspired by the ancient world, but thoroughly modern.

I think VRBeauty's break-down sounds just right: I don't think it was a bad trade, given all the info. Wear it with joy ... And if the site permits, post more pics? I'd love to see them.
 
The jeweler should have told you that the stone is irradiated and did not... but that's the only issue I see here. It sounds like you probably got back all your gold in one way or another - so unless you turned in a bucketload of scrap gold, you definitely did not get ripped off! Your jeweler created a beautiful, one-of-a-kind ring for you at a reasonable price. Or three one-of-a-kind rings, if the wedding bands are also hand-made.

Forget what that second guy said (or was trying to imply)- you and your hubby made a very good trade and you now have a wonderful ring with a killer blue diamond!
 
It's a beautiful ring!!!! I love the design and it looks lovely on you- enjoy!!
 
Hi,

VRBeauty's analysis seems right on. Your completed ring is lovely. Please just enjoy the ring. Its different and that what you wanted (and beautful.)

Annette
 
Thanks all. Appreciate all the input. If I get some more pics - I'll stop back in. Thanks for the compliments. :appl:
 
Circe|1362583548|3397908 said:
Wow, that ring is magnificent. I love the design - it's inspired by the ancient world, but thoroughly modern.

I think VRBeauty's break-down sounds just right: I don't think it was a bad trade, given all the info. Wear it with joy ... And if the site permits, post more pics? I'd love to see them.
Click to expand...

Ditto to everything Circe said. That is a beauty and so different (in a good way)!
 
diamondseeker2006|1362598589|3398167 said:
A very beautiful ring! :love: :appl: Seems like it was a fair deal to me. I really wouldn't worry anymore about it!

(I just happened to come across this while looking for something else. A natural blue diamond at 1.5 cts:

http://www.tiffany.com/Shopping/Item.aspx?fromGrid=1&sku=26492416&mcat=148204&cid=287466&search_params=s+5-p+33-c+287466-r+101323340-x+-n+6-ri+-ni+0-t+ )
Click to expand...

:love: Love that halo too!! Reminds me of the baguette halo that had been discussed a few months back...
 
Your ring is beautiful and would love to see the different angles with and without the wb. :appl:
 
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