Is Union Diamond a drop shipper?

[osubucs]

Just curious, as I am working with a representative and he told me that he said the actual diamond we were dicussing. He said it was very white and eye clean (I am concerned since it''s a EGL (EUROPE)). Also said he couldn''t send a picture since a sales person had it. Is he lying to me?

 

[Regular Guy]

Date: 9/5/2007 9:30:08 AM
Author:osubucs
Just curious, as I am working with a representative and he told me that he said the actual diamond we were dicussing. He said it was very white and eye clean (I am concerned since it's a EGL (EUROPE)). Also said he couldn't send a picture since a sales person had it. Is he lying to me?

The meaning of "drop shipper" should be made clear...as your text doesn't really match with your title, I don't think.

1) Maybe uniquely, GOG mostly sells just what they already stock. WF primarily sells what they stock, but they widely publish from a virtual database. I think most other advertisers here (not probably for Wink, NiceIce, others?) work primarily with a virtual db, and what they describe & publish through their on-line catalog is not in-house.

2) a good question:

why does your rep know it's white & eye clean? Because he's been told all the diamonds they deal with are like that? If they say that...find someone else right now to source that same diamond...and that is what most jewelers do...work off of a large virtual db...which is surely where this one is from. Or...do they know because they called someone who has it (it could be with another sales person...at another vendor even!), who looked at it. This would be reasonable, and consistent with your answer.

3) To your threads's title...I think a drop shipper has a customary practice of sourcing a diamond for you, and staying out of the middle. They will have it sent from a third party, not themselves...direct to you...and they will never see it. There's no helpful value added in this, and you are right to avoid it, I think. Why not take advantage of a vendor who will source a diamond, look at it themselves, and tell you what they think? To this question....at least ask them. I don't know. Hopefully they do this as a matter of routine practice. If they didn't...it may not be that helpful if they just do it for you...since they won't have seen a lot of diamonds in this case. Hopefully, this is routine for them, though.

eta...in case this is at all helpful...

 

[stebbo]

Anything's possible, but any vendor listing 10's of thousands of diamonds but doesn't indicate which are in stock and which aren't will either drop ship (like Blue Nile and James Allen do with their virtual diamond list), or bring 'em in first (like WhiteFlash and Excel do with their virtual diamond list).

 

[Regular Guy]

Date: 9/5/2007 10:39:54 AM
Author: stebbo
Anything's possible, but any vendor listing 10's of thousands of diamonds but doesn't indicate which are in stock and which aren't will either drop ship (like Blue Nile and James Allen do with their virtual diamond list), or bring 'em in first (like WhiteFlash and Excel do with their virtual diamond list).

Which are JA's signature diamonds...oh...I think you edited your text, and don't address that anymore...?

 

[hedarud]

Union Diamond bring the diamond in house and can inspect it for you. In fact they can bring in a couple and inspect and advise. I think they are great, 30 day return policy, very cost effective jewelry dept that can duplicate settings, etc. USA certed is a drop shipper.

 

[stebbo]

Date: 9/5/2007 10:44:59 AM
Author: Regular Guy

Date: 9/5/2007 10:39:54 AM

Author: stebbo

Anything''s possible, but any vendor listing 10''s of thousands of diamonds but doesn''t indicate which are in stock and which aren''t will either drop ship (like Blue Nile and James Allen do with their virtual diamond list), or bring ''em in first (like WhiteFlash and Excel do with their virtual diamond list).

Which are JA''s signature diamonds...oh...I think you edited your text, and don''t address that anymore...?

Gotcha - I did edit the text!

But to answer the question, JA also calls their H&A collection their signature collection

 

[Regular Guy]

Date: 9/5/2007 10:54:38 AM
Author: stebbo

Date: 9/5/2007 10:44:59 AM
Author: Regular Guy

Date: 9/5/2007 10:39:54 AM

Author: stebbo

Anything''s possible, but any vendor listing 10''s of thousands of diamonds but doesn''t indicate which are in stock and which aren''t will either drop ship (like Blue Nile and James Allen do with their virtual diamond list), or bring ''em in first (like WhiteFlash and Excel do with their virtual diamond list).

Which are JA''s signature diamonds...oh...I think you edited your text, and don''t address that anymore...?

Gotcha - I did edit the text!

But to answer the question, JA also calls their H&A collection their signature collection

Thanks for the link...which does provide standards for the H&A, not all in-house options. Actually...I just checked the first & last on their signature series against their in-house list. The first was in-house!

Until we hear back from JA, I proclaim 50% of their diamonds that are signature are in-house!

And this...tested on 2 of their diamonds.

 

[osubucs]

Thank you so much for the info! He sent me a pic of the diamond. What do you guys think of this I Color, VS1?

 

[Regular Guy]

Maybe others can do something with that.

Can they get reflector images (IS or ASET)? I doubt they do this, but don''t know. These are known to be informative.

 

[Regular Guy]

Date: 9/5/2007 10:52:36 AM
Author: hedarud
Union Diamond bring the diamond in house and can inspect it for you. In fact they can bring in a couple and inspect and advise. I think they are great, 30 day return policy, very cost effective jewelry dept that can duplicate settings, etc. USA certed is a drop shipper.

Hedarud,

Did you ask them to bring the diamond in for you?

Any sense the extent to which this is a standard practice for them?

On what basis do you differentiate USA with Union in this respect?

 

[strmrdr]

RG you have been around long enough you should know this stuff,,,,,

GOG - Diamonds with info 99.99% in stock, rarely one will have been sent back but not removed yet. Will call in virtual stones. Wont drop ship. Stones on location.

WF - ACA and ES line in stock, lists and will call in virtual stones, sales staff don''t have diamonds on hand, they are in another building but they can call the production staff for an opinion and by appointment Brian is available. Wont drop ship.

JA - stones with pictures are in NY and available for IS images and a personal inspection but not immediately by the sales rep. they can be called in for a closer look by Jim and staff. Will drop ship.

Union - will call in stones for personal inspection or drop ship. Most all stones are virtual.

Wink - list stones are in stock, can call stones in, wont drop ship. Stones on location.


Blue Nile - small amount of stones in stock, mostly drop ship.

Nice Ice - Website stones are in stock, can call stones in, wont drop ship. Stones on location.

Pearlman''s - both in stock and virtual, wont drop ship, in house stones on location.

 

[stebbo]

Date: 9/5/2007 11:14:42 AM
Author: Regular Guy

Thanks for the link...which does provide standards for the H&A, not all in-house options. Actually...I just checked the first & last on their signature series against their in-house list. The first was in-house!


Until we hear back from JA, I proclaim 50% of their diamonds that are signature are in-house!


And this...tested on 2 of their diamonds.

About 2/3rds of their signature collection have magnified pics and Idealscope images - maybe these are the in-house stones. Where is this in-house list you talk of?

What I can''t work out is that James Allen has magnified images with their super-duper microscope for 10,000 diamonds that they list. How the heck did they do that?

Sorry to divert the thread temporarily osubucs.

 

[strmrdr]

Date: 9/5/2007 11:53:35 AM
Author: stebbo


About 2/3rds of their signature collection have magnified pics and Idealscope images - maybe these are the in-house stones. Where is this in-house list you talk of?

What I can''t work out is that James Allen has magnified images with their super-duper microscope for 10,000 diamonds that they list. How the heck did they do that?

Sorry to divert the thread temporarily osubucs.

Stones with pictures are in NY and can be called into the JA office in MD for a closer look by the JA staff or IS images can be taken and them reviewed by the stones owners in NY.

 

[hedarud]

RG I got the impression they bring in all the stones you order through them and inspect them, much like WF was going to do for me. They have in house appraisers and they include appraisal with any stone for insurance purposes. USA certed is definiitely not in the same league as most of the vendors, first he is in Canada, 2nd he drop ships everything, 3rd you have a 7 or 10 day return policy which to me was not enough time to consider the stones or complete the transaction and turnaround. 3rd, he has no way to mount anything. nice thing with USA certed was that they would actually send the stones to a appraiser that they are comfortable with WITHOUT you paying for stone (except shipping). This is nice. I think UD is right up there with WF. THEY dont have an upgrade policy but I am not interested in that, not for a big purchase as we plan to stay with the stone for a while....possibly lifetime.

 

[Regular Guy]

Date: 9/5/2007 11:53:35 AM
Author: stebbo

Date: 9/5/2007 11:14:42 AM
Author: Regular Guy

Thanks for the link...which does provide standards for the H&A, not all in-house options. Actually...I just checked the first & last on their signature series against their in-house list. The first was in-house!


Until we hear back from JA, I proclaim 50% of their diamonds that are signature are in-house!


And this...tested on 2 of their diamonds.

About 2/3rds of their signature collection have magnified pics and Idealscope images - maybe these are the in-house stones. Where is this in-house list you talk of?

What I can''t work out is that James Allen has magnified images with their super-duper microscope for 10,000 diamonds that they list. How the heck did they do that?

Sorry to divert the thread temporarily osubucs.

Some discussion here. Jim answers once things tend to get out of control...he''s obviously not in a rush right now

The in-house utility is brought to you by Pricescope only...look above under "Pricescope your Diamond" or here.

They are helpful for what they can accurately claim, and which Denver Appraiser has encouraged others (read Abazias) to do...which is to partner better with suppliers to bring down info which is helpful and provisionally available.

You know...you don''t necessarily want a CEO of the phone company to be out digging holes to put in telephone poles. JA probably does well what it''s good at doing...which may not have to do with being in specific possession of particular gemological expertise...since that''s broadly available with others in the industry. I guess its up to both vendors and shoppers to know a) what strengths they have, b) what info they need, and to make each known to each other as best they can.

 

[stebbo]

Date: 9/5/2007 12:00:16 PM
Author: strmrdr
Stones with pictures are in NY and can be called into the JA office in MD for a closer look by the JA staff or IS images can be taken and them reviewed by the stones owners in NY.

There are over 10,000 diamonds which have been photographed by their Daroscope camera. These images are unique to JA, which means they have had 10,000 diamonds in their possession or they have suppliers who did the work for them who are either exclusive suppliers or won't share the pics. Whoever did it,

 

[diamondseeker2006]

My understanding is that James Allen was bought by some diamond supplier awhile back. I guess they bought JA to sell their stones over the net.

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

Date: 9/5/2007 9:30:08 AM
Author:osubucs
Just curious, as I am working with a representative and he told me that he said the actual diamond we were dicussing. He said it was very white and eye clean (I am concerned since it''s a EGL (EUROPE)). Also said he couldn''t send a picture since a sales person had it. Is he lying to me?

I have only met them a couple of times, but they seem to be straight shooters. If you ask them this question directly then they would tell you as it is. saying things and saying lies often depends on the framing of the question.

Of course we can not know about this diamond without knowing a lot more info - eg someone asked this question https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/average-profits-on-a-diamond-sale.68531/ and I can easily see the stone is not owned by the vendor listing it - but the vendor never claimed otherwise.

And if someone gets you a drop ship diamond and gives you good genuine service and a good price, then you have your cake and eat it too. So what do you want? Top white glove service - go to Harry Winston et al? Or best price - with a gauranteed return service or dropshipped to an appraiser of your choice?

EGL Israel frightens me more than other EGL labs.