Blue Nile/Graff

[bluepetal]

 

[YoungPapa]

bluepetal,

Who is Graff? I have no idea. I''m experienced enough to know this much, however. There is no such thing as two perfectly matched 5.18ct E-VVS1 asscher cut diamonds.

 

[windowshopper]

well i know who graff is...............who is your friend? george soros?!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[bluepetal]

GRAFF JEWELERS ON MADISON AVENUE - www.graffdiamonds.com. Very high end jewelry. they were on the apprentice tonight Trump bought his fiance''s ring there

 

[bluepetal]

she explained to me that Graff let her trade up her first diamond from Tiffany''s 2 carat w/ 1 carat on each side. She said that they rarely do this but made an exception because another friend (good client) rec. them

 

[windowshopper]

okay to really answer your question--yes its the same stone. there is a big diamond "wholesaler" in NYC that i paid a visit to last week--on three trays i saw rings that i had seen--a harry winston show, two are CURRENTLY on dahne & weisnteins'' site.............

 

[bluepetal]

windowshopper what does this mean? I am pretty sure that they paid more for it from Graff than Blue Nile''s price. I feel bad for her, only so bad I mean she is wearing the ring : )!!! Also, she said that Graff cut the stone.

 

[windowshopper]

well i wouldnt swear on anything critical but I've learned alot lately. It was probably Graff's stone and Blue Nile wants to have some big impressive stuff on their site even if they mostly sell one carats...........they all have these arrangements with eachother to keep things moving around getting exposure in different venues..........hey she gets the Graff box doenst she and she probably paid NY a nice hunk of sales tax unless it was sent to her home in ...wherever

anyone know more than me please chime in

 

[bluepetal]

so does that mean she did not get ripped off and probably paid the blue nile price? i mean graff would not sell their diamond for less...correct. she lives here in NYC. Thanks in advance. Just wondering whether it was actually a "Graff" stone. I am considering buying something from there and now I am a little nervous if I can get the item off of blue nile.

 

[windowshopper]

If money is no object by all means go there --if you want the BEST quality you dont need to go there and pay 20 to 50 % more...you CAN get the very best from nearly any reputable dealer associated with pricescope--------

 

[windowshopper]

i am confused--who knows what Graff charged her but they did allow her a trade -in..........i doubt she got an e vendor price.....though blue nile is pricier than almost all internet vendors. she probably paid a premium to be "allowed" to trade her stone in

 

[abradabra]

Did anyone see The Apprentice last night? I wish I was getting a free $10,000 to spend on diamonds... A friend at work and I were discussing what we''d take as that prize, and determined that it''d either be an eternity band, like Sandy got, or the biggest/best loose stone we could find and then have set when we got home.

Re: your friend spending $125k+ on the ring and getting the best deal... It would seem to me that when you are dropping that kind of money, paying a premium for the Graff name vs. buying your stone on Blue Nile is not your concern. Realistically, what''s an extra couple thousand (or even $10k) at that point?

 

[Nicrez]

Funny, I watched Apprentice last night while studying... I thought Hmm....that necklace was practically calling my name!!! my poor fiance. I kept saying that I should have been on that show, and how happy I would be to get that Prize of $10K at graff. he laughed and said I would probably call him and ask him to bring the credit card so I could get him to buy the matching earrings to whatever i got for "free".... wow...so true!

As for graff, I know that their designs are unique, and so getting a stone from Graff would not be my first choice. There are only so many diamond sources in NY, and don''t think your average B&M has any different sources than some of the fancy guys out there. (maybe Tiffany''s is an exception), but in the end, the price tag really should come down to the designer and the label. So I would get a piece from Graff, and not worry so much about the diamond or all that because if I can afford Graff and want Graff''s design, why should I really care?

 

[bluepetal]

Thanks everybody. My concern was that Graff got the ring from a wholesaler, that also permitted BN to adverstise its stone. In that case, she would not have bought an authentic "graff" cut stone.

However, if Graff just lent it to BN to advertise and put it in the marketplace, and the same Stone at Graff was 175,000 I think my friend would be disappointed at the possibility of someone buying the stone (from Blue Nile) that she purchased from Graff. Also, I am sure she would want to save the extra money. I mean a graff stone is a graff stone if graff has allowed Blue Nile to sell there stone. Notwithstanding the fact that she went to Madison Ave vs. BL online.

Am I making sense? Does anybody see my point?

 

[cushioncut]

Date: 11/12/2004 12

8:21 AM
Author: bluepetal
so does that mean she did not get ripped off and probably paid the blue nile price? i mean graff would not sell their diamond for less...correct. she lives here in NYC. Thanks in advance. Just wondering whether it was actually a ''Graff'' stone. I am considering buying something from there and now I am a little nervous if I can get the item off of blue nile.

I am a little confused. Are you trying to figure this out because if she has Graff, then you will get Graff.. and if hers is Blue Nile, you will get Blue Nile?

I wouldn''t worry so much about what she has. If you are asking if you can get a high quality stone online, at Blue Nile or elsewhere, the answer is yes! You can get a very beautiful and high quality stone for a lot less.

 

[katbadness]

I think this is the case of a memo stone. For more reading about this.. check out this old thread.

If I were to give explanation to the situation, I'd say that both vendors have access to the stone - as the stone is available to them from their wholesaler, but Graff probably has the stone loaned on memo.

One local and recent example to this.. moremoremore (MMM) saw a baby cushion at BlueNile that she is interested in. Instead of purchasing it off BlueNile, she called Mark at EngagementRingsDirect to get the cushion for her, so she's purchasing it from Mark. In this scenario, however, we don't know if BlueNile has the stone in house or not. Mark had to call in to get the cushion for MMM.

So, if you friend bought the stone from Graff.. Graff may be loaned the stone on a memo, but that doesn't mean that the same stone could not have been gotten from Blue Nile. All Blue Nile needs to do is get the stone shipped from Graff, so Blue Nile's could sell it to their customer.

And now, since now the stone is in your friend's hand/MMM's hand, the wholesaler no longer has this stone in their inventory - hence anybody listing this stone will have to mark the stone as sold, which explains what you saw at BlueNile.

With regards to the price difference, I'm assuming that Graff applies their usual mark-up, and Blue Nile applies its own mark-up. And Graff being Graff, I'd think the mark-up is higher than Blue Nile.

Anyway, I'd say the bottom-line is whether it's from Graff or from BlueNile or any other vendors, you can get a beautiful diamond of your choice - these vendors can source whichever diamonds you'd like. However, whether you choose to purchase it with a Graff name or BlueNile name or others, is entirely up to you.

 

[bluepetal]

What I am saying is that if "Graff" and "Blue Nile" are buying from the same wholesaler then I would like to know that.

I do not want to pay for a "Graff" stone that is not really cut by Graff but from a wholesaler that sells to many retailers including "Blue Nile."

I thought the whole reason behind buying from "Graff" was because they have some of the finest cutters in the world. If Graff is buying from other wholesalers isn''t this odd?

Thanks In Advance.

 

[Hest88]

Well, I think there''s little doubt it was a memo stone and not an in-house Graff exclusive. However, she does get to have it set into a Graff setting!

 

[katbadness]

Date: 11/12/2004 12:41:30 PM
Author: bluepetal

What I am saying is that if 'Graff' and 'Blue Nile' are buying from the same wholesaler then I would like to know that.

I do not want to pay for a 'Graff' stone that is not really cut by Graff but from a wholesaler that sells to many retailers including 'Blue Nile.'

I thought the whole reason behind buying from 'Graff' was because they have some of the finest cutters in the world. If Graff is buying from other wholesalers isn't this odd?

Thanks In Advance.

Others please correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Graff more of a design house - like Harry Winston, Cartier, etc.?

By this I mean to say that I don't think Graff specializes in diamond cutting - they leave the cutting to others. They'll just pick the diamonds they want to set in their design.

I don't think it's odd that they source their diamonds from wholesalers, why diversify your focus if it's not what your business is about anyway?? It's better to form a partnership - exclusive or not - to get access to the diamonds that's to their specifications. They let somebody else deal with the headache of manufacturing the diamonds.

 

[bluepetal]

Their website says that thy have one of the largest facilities in the world for cutting and that they have master cutters.

This is very confusing. I think it is misleading to tell clients that this is a "Graff" cut diamond if it is not, and in actuality Graff purchased it from another wholesaler.

Thanks everyone I now know that I WILL NOT BY A FANCY CANARY FROM THEM!

I wish I could expose them to my dear friend but then she would know I was snooping around. Thanks again. I love this board.

 

[abradabra]

Why wouldn''t you buy from them? I guess I just don''t understand what they did that was so wrong. Your friend got a beautiful stone from a very reputable jeweler. Does it matter if Blue Nile also listed it? Did they lie to your friend about something? If you really want a fancy canary stone cut and exclusively offered by Graff, I am sure they would honestly answer you. Besides, you seem to have good enough instincts and know enough to catch them if, per chance, they did try to mislead you!

 

[bluepetal]

THEY TOLD HER THAT GRAFF CUT HER STONE. She told me that Graff is one of the finiest cutters. If in fact, this stone was purchased by Graff from a "high end" wholesaler then Graff did not cut the stone - and that is what Graff emphasized, that they are superb cutters.

I just have a bad taste about this now. For example, it is like me being a clothing designer and telling a customer that I made the shirt, however, in reality I purchased the shirt from a wholesaler. This is misleading...I don''t want to sound too harsh but it is a lie of sorts.

 

[windowshopper]

i think graff cut the stone but allowed blue nile to list it.......................

 

[rosy]

Hi,

Many sellers get their diamonds from the same wholesalers. I went to three B & M stores here & they both provided me with a list of diamonds that were being offered by Blue Nile & other Pricescope vendors. I think these are the "drop shipped" diamonds. It''s no surprise that different vendors have access to the same diamonds. They just call them in from the wholesaler when a customer wants to look at it. On the plus side I was able to view the certificates on Blue Nile before having the stores bring in the diamond. I guess you live & learn from experience. I would call Blue Nile & ask them about the diamond that was just sold & see what kind of information you can get from them.

 

[abradabra]

What *exactly* did they say to her in telling her that Graff cut the ring? Window Shopper's hypothesis that Graff cut the diamond and allowed Blue Nile to list it sounds quite plausible. I could be wrong about this, but I seem to recall MoreMoreMore finding a Daniel K cushion that she loved listed on Blue Nile. It sounds as though BN has worked out some sort of deal to be able to list superior (particularly in large carat weight) stones on its website. I don't really see anything dishonest about that.

 

[bluepetal]

I agree that if Graff cut the stone and allowed Blue Nile to list it----nothing wrong totally fine.

However, if Graff purchased the cut stone from a high end wholesaler - then Graff did NOT cut it - and the misinformed her.

 

[windowshopper]

precisely

 

[mepearl53]

The only way to know is to compare certificates. Graff is a big outfit but nobody carries everything. Diamonds are available from a variety of different dealers. Everyone who deals in this type of product knows the other and in-trading is the norm. If we don''t have a particuliar diamond for a request we call someone, like Daniel K, or others and have them brought in. These are called "call stones" We can also post them on sites and tell them what we are looking for and we get the responces from those dealers that have them. I would agree that if the store says they cut it they should be able to prove it. This may be the case but I for one doubt it. Do I think this warrents higher costs for saying this??? There''s a loy of money I see in marketing a pretty box.

 

[bluepetal]

Thanks Bill and everyone- I was a little confused.

 

[cushioncut]

Date: 11/12/2004 1

8

9 PM
Author: bluepetal

I wish I could expose them to my dear friend but then she would know I was snooping around. Thanks again. I love this board.

Why not just let your friend be happy with her huge stunning rock? Why try to "expose them" ? Wouldn''t that translate into you saying, "What you have is not quite as special as you think it is." The fact is, there is no way for you to know who cut the stone. And at the end of the day, if your friend is happy with it, isn''t that all that matters?