Eternity Wedding Band - Good Deal or Rip Off?

[GrecianBelle]

I'm getting married in July and my fiance agreed to give me a diamond eternity band. He budgeted $5000 and I knew I was hoping for a miracle when I started looking for a 5 carat. The jeweler that made my engagement ring quoted me a price of $10,000 for uncertified diamonds G Color SI1 and 3 other jewelers came in that same exact number. One guy guy offered me certified stones for $11,900 F Color SI1.

A friend of mine got her engagement ring from her friend's father who happens to be a manufacturer. And he made her 4 carat eternity wedding band of $4,000. She has no clue what the color and clarity is but she knows it's the good stuff b/c of her friend. Apparently the dad is a manufacturer and he makes jewelry for jewelry stores. Of course customers pay the markup at a jewelry store. But if you go directly to the dad, you avoid the markup. Well her friend decided to extend me the "friends and family" discount. My fiance felt a bit weird going through this channel so my friend agreed to have my jeweler scope out her ring. My jeweler compared her eternity to one he had in store and said my friends ring had a bit more color than His which was a G color. When he looped the ring he admitted the stones were probably SI1/VS2 stones.

I'm a pretty indecisive person and even though I know I can't really afford to spend $10,000. Its hard for me to spend $5000 if I'm not getting something good. The dad quoted me a price of $6400 for each stone to be 30 pointers in the eternity which is a little over 5 carats. Or I can get the same exact ring my friend purchased from him 25 pointers each stone, total of 4 carats for $5100.

BOttomline is, another jewelry referral source told me it's impossible for the friend's dad to be offering a 5 carat eternity band with the quality for $6400 and if it's sounds too good too be true then it is. Or I can get the same exact ring my friend purchased from him 25 pointers each stone for $5100.

Is it possible that the friend's dad could be in fact delivering a great quality ring for with the prices he quoted when all the other jewelers are charging $10,000? Or is the variance in price the actual profit for a in store jeweler? I'm very confused and just want to get the best my small budget can buy? Is it too good to be true?

 

[AprilBaby]

A 2.3 ct , ideal stones, F color , .10's is $4600 at Whiteflash. That seems to good to be true.

 

[sonnyjane]

I don't know enough about eternity band prices to comment on that, but I will say that you have used several phrases that we discourage here on the board, such as buying "straight from the manufacturer" and "friend of a friend". Those situations very rarely end with a positive result and if you are unhappy with the final product, there's very little recourse. As with all things, but with jewelry especially, if the price seems too fantastic to be true, it's quite likely that it is. That said, I don't doubt that you may be able to get something that looks decent (think mall store), but the quality will likely not be there.

 

[Christina...]

I agree with sonnyjane. In the years that I've been here I can't think of a single time that the 'friend of a friend' thing ended well. 'You get what you pay for!' comes to mind, but in these cases, I think thats the BEST you can HOPE for.

 

[facetgirl]

Hi GrecianBelle!

I can't comment on whether or not this is a good deal or not but I recently looked at an eternity of .30 ct diamonds, all GIA certified Ex or VG cut grade, G/VS1 and it was way more than the initial quotes you received from the other stores. Now, to be fair, I live in a super expensive area and that may somewhat be contributing to the higher cost.

Are you firm on purchasing locally? If so, to be certain about the quality of the diamonds you should only go with GIA or AGS graded stones (Excellent cut btw, although there are many equally beautiful VG cuts out there as well).