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Instagram...why can't they just list the price?

Arcadian

Ideal_Rock
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You all are teaching me something here! Thank you for starting this thread! I'm thankful that I don't have an instagram.....lol
 

msop04

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You all are teaching me something here! Thank you for starting this thread! I'm thankful that I don't have an instagram.....lol

DON'T GET ONE IF YOU DON'T HAVE ONE ALREADY. If you thought Pinterest was addictive, then you'd be in trouble on IG. It always starts out like, "okay, I'll just check my friends' new stories... then I see a cool antique ring that's been reposted from another IG, so I click on it, scroll through all their posts to deem them worthy of my feed... then 2 hours and 125 jumps laaaterrrrrrr... OMG!!! I've got to get off IG!!!! I'm running late for XYZ -- ...Oooohhhh, DK's IG has a new post!!!..." LOL
 

ohsomethingshiny

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I am on IG and I follow only the reputable companies that I have either seen represented here or that I have dealt with personally. I don't venture out from there just to be safe.
 

lovedogs

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I love "window shopping" on IG, but totally agree that not having the price listed drives me crazy! I don't want to DM for price, because WTF is the point if something is so far out of my budget? I've asked about a few pieces and then felt like an idiot when they were thousands more than I expected. If the price were listed, I never would have wasted the sellers time with a DM!
 

OreoRosies86

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I love "window shopping" on IG, but totally agree that not having the price listed drives me crazy! I don't want to DM for price, because WTF is the point if something is so far out of my budget? I've asked about a few pieces and then felt like an idiot when they were thousands more than I expected. If the price were listed, I never would have wasted the sellers time with a DM!

I once tentatively reached out about a rose cut diamond thinking it was maybe 4K or in the ballpark, because the seller had said to DM for price. Got a message back like "This particular diamond is $12.5K, it would make a great pendant, do you want to see a video?" and I'm sitting here like oh god oh god never mind!!!
 

lovedogs

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I once tentatively reached out about a rose cut diamond thinking it was maybe 4K or in the ballpark, because the seller had said to DM for price. Got a message back like "This particular diamond is $12.5K, it would make a great pendant, do you want to see a video?" and I'm sitting here like oh god oh god never mind!!!


this is my life. Except I try to find things under 1K and they are always more like 3-4K!
 

yssie

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I’ve wondered about this. It does seem like it creates more work for everyone involved. Who, exactly, is these instagram-only/predominantly vendors’ target audience? The medium they’ve chosen demands comfort with IG (which largely eliminates older demographics, who often have more spending power) and time and desire to sift through a myriad of accounts and photos and play DM telephone games (which largely eliminates gift-givers and those with busy jobs, who also often have more spending power)... I’m not seeing a successful sales model for 2018/2019 here!

I’m not active on IG at all - I check a few vendors’ latests every few days, and I’ve never posted. Pinterest irritates me - sources are rarely documented, which makes finding more info on anything needlessly frustrating.
 

mrs-b

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I think they don't do it because the price differs from piece to piece, and most of the pieces shown on Instagram are custom or semi custom. With a ring, for example, different stones require different work. Different metals are different prices. Even different styles of prongs affect the price. I think they do it because it's easier to respond to a DM than to cover every option for every piece.

Also, if you look at a site like Victor Canera, for example, a lot of the pieces turn up on the fingers, earlobes and necks of members here at PS. I wouldn't want the whole world to know what I paid for my jewelry, so I think there's a privacy issue also.

ETA What really sends me nuts on Instagram etc is when specs are not listed. In extreme close up and not on a finger, how would you know if a diamond was 2ct or 4ct?
 

liaerfbv

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It's so annoying. I like window browsing on IG, but if you don't tell me the price and specs up front, I can't bother. I'm not going to chase you down to ask what size a ring is, that's basic info any seller should include with a piece for sale. ALSO why do they not include mm sizes of the stones.
 

arkieb1

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Well it works in reverse too I post a pic of something from my collection I don't want to sell, clearly write not for sale all over the post and then get a lot of messages all asking me if I want to sell it. Or I post a $90.00 cut spinel that I do want to sell and 35 people all message me wanting to buy it and then for the next 2 years people continue to message me they want to buy it when I've clearly written sold all over that post. I'm sure people that sell a lot of items on there must get frustrated at times too.
 

Babyblue033

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I love "window shopping" on IG, but totally agree that not having the price listed drives me crazy! I don't want to DM for price, because WTF is the point if something is so far out of my budget? I've asked about a few pieces and then felt like an idiot when they were thousands more than I expected. If the price were listed, I never would have wasted the sellers time with a DM!

I once tentatively reached out about a rose cut diamond thinking it was maybe 4K or in the ballpark, because the seller had said to DM for price. Got a message back like "This particular diamond is $12.5K, it would make a great pendant, do you want to see a video?" and I'm sitting here like oh god oh god never mind!!!

this is my life. Except I try to find things under 1K and they are always more like 3-4K!
THIS. I've bought a lot of things on IG lately but it still frustrates me that for the most part prices are not disclosed. Half of the things I'm interested in I wouldn't bother asking about, then when I finally DO ask, half of those are WAY out of my budget and that's just depressing. And I'm not talking just a little over, I recently saw a beautiful star sapphire and DM to ask for price, it was like $15K :eek2::eek2::eek2: I was in so much shock I couldn't even bother to respond "thanks but no thanks".
 

ame

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...I asked for the price of a diamond from a vendor on IG (I'd never heard of them), and they asked that I DM them. They gave me the price, then I told them thanks, but not interested. This IG account then started DM-ing me like once or twice a week with other diamonds and prices (and those stones weren't even close to the specs I'd asked about originally). It was annoying, to say the least.
That would be a quick and easy report for spam.
 

ame

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Well it works in reverse too I post a pic of something from my collection I don't want to sell, clearly write not for sale all over the post and then get a lot of messages all asking me if I want to sell it. Or I post a $90.00 cut spinel that I do want to sell and 35 people all message me wanting to buy it and then for the next 2 years people continue to message me they want to buy it when I've clearly written sold all over that post. I'm sure people that sell a lot of items on there must get frustrated at times too.
Meanwhile I can't get someone to go through with a sale after an agreement to save my life.
 

ohsomethingshiny

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Going off the model that they could give different prices to different people, what then happens if multiple people DM about a piece? They give different prices and then when you say you want it, you may end up not getting it because someone DM’d them after you but agreed to pay a higher price so they get the piece. That’s shady to me.
 

bludiva

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Going off the model that they could give different prices to different people, what then happens if multiple people DM about a piece? They give different prices and then when you say you want it, you may end up not getting it because someone DM’d them after you but agreed to pay a higher price so they get the piece. That’s shady to me.

i think some people may offer a different price on IG that they don't want floating out there in case people look on ebay or etsy where they roll in the additional fees.

good point upthread that they may not have the item in hand necessarily and don't want to put a price out there in case they can't actually procure it.

maybe they also don't want to have to go back and update if pricing changes, goes on sale. i don't know, seems like an extra hurdle to me, either show the price or redirect me to somewhere i can see the price. :mrgreen2:
 

arkieb1

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Going off the model that they could give different prices to different people, what then happens if multiple people DM about a piece? They give different prices and then when you say you want it, you may end up not getting it because someone DM’d them after you but agreed to pay a higher price so they get the piece. That’s shady to me.

I think it's more complex than that. You have people wanting to buy things wholesale so there is one price for them and people who have a lot of items listed on other platforms like Etsy and Rubylane. Both of those sites charge fees so the price they give is often cheaper than there unless someone wants to pay it off or use the checkout via those platforms, so some of those things might account for price differences.
 

MollyMalone

Ideal_Rock
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I also find it annoying. Some will list the price, but most will make you DM them or go to their site.
Going to the site wouldn't be that bad, a lot of the time the item is not listed on the site
Or they do not have a website of their own, aren't on any selling platform like eBay.
 

MollyMalone

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I think it's more complex than that. You have people wanting to buy things wholesale so there is one price for them and people who have a lot of items listed on other platforms like Etsy and Rubylane. Both of those sites charge fees so the price they give is often cheaper than there unless someone wants to pay it off or use the checkout via those platforms, so some of those things might account for price differences.
I wouldn't think anyone in the trade is shy about contacting a vendor who displays retail prices & asking for a lower, trade price.

And some vendors take care of that from the get-go. John Dyer, for one, shows his retail prices for consumers, but encourages those in the trade to set up an account with him in order to view, and place an order based on, his online wholesale catalog:
https://www.johndyergems.com/
 

ohsomethingshiny

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I think it's more complex than that. You have people wanting to buy things wholesale so there is one price for them and people who have a lot of items listed on other platforms like Etsy and Rubylane. Both of those sites charge fees so the price they give is often cheaper than there unless someone wants to pay it off or use the checkout via those platforms, so some of those things might account for price differences.
I was speaking strictly about IG. I have “relationships” with a few vendors because I have worked with them in the past. Hypothetically I might DM about a piece and get a price of $4800. Someone else who has never dealt with them could have DM’d them 30 mins earlier and they quote them $5200 for the same piece. I respond back first to say that I will take it. But the vendor could hold off waiting to see it the other person responds before agreeing to sell it to me and risk losing $400 more in profit. And all the while, neither myself or the other person knows someone else is ready to buy it.
 
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