Confused about platinum wedding band shopping

[abroberts]

My fiancée and I are very price conscious—but we want high quality, platinum wedding bands to last a lifetime. I'm hoping to get advice on online jewelers.

Currently, we're thinking of

HIS: 5mm width comfort fit, platinum
HERS: 2mm width comfort fit, platinum

Finish preference: Hammered (matte); but we realize that this customization might have to be done locally, as online retailers rarely permit much customization (or it voids the return policy, even if we're unhappy with the ring).

BlueNile has been my benchmark so far. Consistently retailing at $1,380 ($990+390) over the past 1/2 year.

http://www.bluenile.com/comfort-fit-platinum-wedding-ring_349
http://www.bluenile.com/comfort-fit-ring-platinum-2mm_15464



My Questions:

1. Currently, I expect that the best we can do online retail is around about $1,175-1,400. Is my assumption correct that we will never come even close to that price with a brick/mortar, local jeweler?

(N.B., I'd love to use someone local, but our family's preferred local jeweler wants almost 87% more [$1,200.00] for the same product!)



2. Should we be looking at other online retailers other than BlueNile?

I've spent several hours looking, but I've had a really hard time finding another online retailer that has exactly what we want (plain, 5 and 2mm his/hers platinum bands). Have I just not looked hard enough, or is it possible that BlueNile is the best one to go with?


3. We're waiting till the summer (2016) to get married. Should we hold out and wait longer for a better sale, or is the current 15% off (at BlueNile) the best we're going to see in the next 1/2 year?

N.B., This summer (2015), I just narrowly missed BlueNile's store wide platinum sale by 3-4 days. Anyone remember how much off that was (10-20% ?) and if we can expect it with any likelihood in the next 6 months?


Thanks!




P.S., In the past, I've found this site to be of significant value (informative and financial). It's certainly helped me a good deal:

[URL='https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/very-pleased-forum-user.218084/']https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/very-pleased-forum-user.218084/[/URL]

And I recommend it to all and sundry.

 

[Queenie60]

Take a look at weddingbands.com and also check out ID Jewelry. Give ID Jewelry a call - they can guide you towards rings that they may not show on their website. Good luck to you.

 

[telephone89]

So e-weddingbands.com is having a 10% off sale right now. Here are a few options

http://www.e-weddingbands.com/store/product168248.html
http://www.e-weddingbands.com/store/product168249.html
http://www.e-weddingbands.com/store/platcf5linfo.html

http://www.e-weddingbands.com/store/platcf2linfo.html

eta - they don't offer 'hammered' as a finish option, but they do have stone and brushed.
http://www.e-weddingbands.com/store/finish.html

 

[chatbandit]

another vote for ID jewelry! be sure to mention PS sent you.

 

[lilsweetie]

Have you picked your bands yet? If so who did you go with?

Plain platinum bands are fairly common and a lot of highly recommended sellers on Etsy could make them for you. I have seen some competitive pricing - be sure to read reviews too!

 

[abbit]

https://www.etsy.com/au/shop/jennywindlerjewelry?ref=pr_faveshops
I bought out platinum wedding rings from this seller and she was half the price of online stores. This was in 2011 so I don't know what prices she has now but I am 100% happy with her.

 

[abroberts]

Hi folks,


Thanks for all the help. Sorry for not thanking all of you sooner. (I thought my email inbox would be pinged when the post received a response; I was wrong.)

Alright, so far I've heard the following suggestions:

1. Blue Nile
2. E-weddingbands.com
3. ID Jewelry
4. Etsy

Follow up question(s):

1. Am I missing any vendors that I need to be checking out for 2mm and 5mm wedding bands?

2. I know of Etsy, but I've never used it before. Series of sub-questions:
(a) Could someone recommend a couple of reputable sellers? One Pricescoper recommended this one https://goo.gl/YOx8px . (b) If these are made to order, do we sacrifice something in terms of return-ability should we not be satisfied with the finished product? (c) Moreover, how is a non-high-volume seller able to beat any of the sellers above (##1-3) on price? I can't quite wrap my head around that. (d) Finally, could someone speak to my concern about not receiving a pure platinum product, but an alloy of some sort? What guarantees quality control?

Thanks.

 

[abroberts]

I'm curious also if anyone can corroborate abbit's story (see his/her earlier post above)?

Etsy prices seem to me to be pretty consistently significantly more expensive than high volume online vendors such as Blue Nile or e-weddingbands. Granted I've only been looking for 20 or so minutes, but nothing I've found suggests otherwise.

Any thoughts? Thanks.

 

[VRBeauty]

This site also carries a lot of wedding bands in a variety of metals. If nothing else, it might give you some pricing benchmarks:
https://www.25karats.com/plain-wedding-bands

 

[telephone89]

Etsy will generally be higher unless you are looking for a cheaper metal (ie silver). They just don't have the production value that the bigger chains do. A lot of the pieces are hand made as well, which will increase the price.

 

[abroberts]

Thanks, y'all.