help with diamond/setting advice: Shimansky, South Africa

[rj]

Hi everybody. I''m a newbie, just getting my feet wet in shopping for a diamond engagement ring.

A setting really caught my eye from the Shimansky Collection, a jeweller based in Cape Town, South Africa. The photo of the ring is attached, although the web photo isn''t that great - there is a better picture in a magazine that I have. I think it is great, but maybe you experts have some advice about its appropriateness for an engagement ring (like I said, I''m not that experienced - if my girlfriend is going to hate it, I better know).

I have been in correspondence with them over price, etc. Compared with the prices I''ve seen here, the quotes seem very high, but then maybe this is the price you pay when going to a designer studio.

Here are a few examples of the quotes for the Round Brilliant diamond, with the platinum ''tension-set'' setting included:


OPTION 1: 0.725ct H/SI2
= R30 798 excl vat (US$4800)

OPTION 2: 0.8375ct G/SI2
= R35 288 excl vat (US$5500)

OPTION 3: 0.86ct F VS2
=R52 700 excl VAT. ($8300)

OPTION 4: 1.01ct G VS1
=R72 700 excl VAT. (US$11,000)

If I want this setting, any suggestions on how to bring down the price? (of course, the SA Rand has appreciated against the dollar a fair bit, so maybe that is skewing things...)

Thanks in advance for any advice,

RJ

 

[valeria101]

The style is quite trendy - you may find versions in recent jewelry collections world over.

No one can really tell what she weould like

us, even less than you.

There is a customary manra on PS: that one may want to buy a nice diamond and a very disposable setting, present the resulting ring and let the girl choose a 'final' setting. Some jewelers would even provide such a temporary stone-holder one way or another. And... I suppose most girls love shopping for jewelry - a sure bet, as oposed to the choice of setting itself.

Personally? I love that ring, but there is no way to tell wether anyone else will!

 

[valeria101]

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On 4/1/2004 9:38:02 AM rj wrote:



If I want this setting, any suggestions on how to bring down the price? (of course, the SA Rand has appreciated against the dollar a fair bit, so maybe that is skewing things...)

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Yeah! Lucky that! Esp. if you can get your stone online from a US seller. Besides, you may want to run a search for such specs on the PS database and see just what kind of price difference may be involved