General Question about Online Diamond Purchase

[vinnie98]

Newbie Alert:

I've been hunting around purchasing several smaller stones and a strange thing has come to my attention. James Allen is my favorite site because I can SEE the stone and spin it around, etc... but when I find a stone on there that I love, if I GOOGLE the GIA#, I can find other vendors claiming to sell the same exact stone at various prices. How does that work? Who PHYSICALLY has the stone? Or is there some huge mysterious vault of stones somewhere and whomever sells it first gets it? I'm asking because I recently decided on two stones and proceeded to the cheapest vendor to purchase the stones and ultimately they said the stones "were not available" -- I assumed they had already been sold. One of them was even listed on the vendor's store on eBay. They did have a SIMILAR stone which I purchased but just for kicks, I went on to James Allen and attempted to purchase one of the original ones I wanted and the sale went right through easy peasy so they HADN'T been sold. That started me wondering if there was some sort of bait and switch going on - advertising stones at a lower price to get your attention, then having sucked you in, offering you SIMILAR stones from their own stock. Just my imagination or am I reading too much into this?

 

[kenny]

There is two kinds of inventory, virtual and in-store.
I think any vendor can access any diamond that is listed in the virtual inventory.
Then there are the diamonds that actually reside in one vendor's vault.

I don't blame vendors for offering a zillion diamonds for sale that they don't have in their vaults.
More profits.

I'm not sure if there is a way to be certain which diamonds are 'virtual'.
You can be certain that an ACA is in Whiteflash's vault because that is their in-store brand.
Octavias are only sold at Good Old Gold.

Some people feel it is unethical to benefit from all the diamond-evaluation tools one vendor invested in to learn about a diamond and then go buy the same diamond from another vendor at a lower price.

I'm surprised to learn JA puts all that work into diamonds that are virtual, but that's their business.
Perhaps I don't understand all this virtual inventory thing after all.

 

[JulieN]

I believe JA has some kind of exclusivity deal with some of their suppliers. Sometimes you can find JA's stones elsewhere on the Internet, and sometimes you can't.

 

[vinnie98]

Ahhhh...now I am starting to understand it a little better. In general, SOME diamonds are in-house and others aren't and there exists somewhere a selection of stones that are available to a variety of vendors. I feel better now that it isn't some sort of scam.

As for the ethical issue, I'm sure they thought all of that through when they set the stones out for public view. In all good conscience, I cannot pay $5 to purchase Pepsi-Cola from CVS when the Rite-Aid just across the street has it for $3, no matter how great a job CVS did on the marketing.

Of course there are other issues to consider -- the security of the other site, the other vendor's feedback and reputation, the risks involved in making the purchase, etc... and those things should be weighed against any potential savings. Sometimes, it's just not worth the risk for a few dollars. In this instance it was several hundred dollars and I took the leap of faith but ultimately returned for the subsequent purchase so I'm feeling fairly guilt-free Other factors in the transaction made me want to think it through a little further though.

Thanks much, Kenny and Julie, for your insightful and thoughtful replies.

 

[JulieN]

I would give JA a chance to price match. It is possible that they say no, they cannot price match. It is also possible the other vendor cannot get the stone, like what happened in your case.

So, did you end up getting anything? Pictures??

 

[vinnie98]

I did but everything isn't here yet. I am just gathering sides for a 5-stone at this point. I have a 1.75ct center (that I currently have set in a solitaire) and the 2 stones I'm fussing over are the .70ct sides and then I think I will put .40s on the side of those. I have a BGD 5-stone that is all .40s and if the colors look comparable, I'll disband it and use 2 of those, have 2 set in octet earrings and have the final one set in a small pendant for one of my girls. When I have a better idea of what I want to set it IN, I'll make a thread. I'm terrible with that but I'm leaning toward some sort of graduated trellis.