shape
carat
color
clarity

Need a value on Stud Earrings

usaman65

Rough_Rock
Trade
Joined
Jan 21, 2010
Messages
12
Hi guys-

I have been buying diamonds from a local gold buyer (.30ct -1ct+) that are higher quality than the rest - all of the diamonds of a certain size group are the same price per point. Sometimes I can pick a nice stone that is worth many times what I pay, Gia certify the stone so I have a better idea of the color/clarity, etc. Then figure out what I want to do with the stone.

Recently I have been buying matched pairs of smaller stones because they are very inexpensive and classic stud earrings never seem to go out of style. Also, earrings are hundreds retail in stores locally - I can set better stones that are cherry picked from hundreds of carats of bulk for way way less. Even for small stones that are considered melee - I can pick out the g+ color and SI+ stones for the same price as the J color I clarity ones.

Most stones under .20ct are $1/point - over .20ct are $2/point. Sometimes it is difficult for me to obtain .15ct stones for the $1/point price. So that means that I can pair .10ct stones and only pay $20 for those diamonds which are cherry picked from great amounts of wholesale stones.

The problem I face is I can buy the stones cheaply, but 14k gold settings are fairly expensive. $80 a pair of settings when they only contain around $10 in gold. Sterling silver settings are my alternative - because they are a white metal which seems to be in style nowadays - and with studs you can barely see the metal post at all. The settings are around $6-$9 a pair, when they contain around $2 in silver. The finished diamond studs set in .925 stering silver look great and are very inexpensive. You can wear some diamonds cheaply and not flash around yellow gold which is somewhat targeted today.


My question to you guys is:
What do you think the value of tthese earrings are compaired to their 14k/10k counterparts?

I did get ahold of two pairs of G+ SI+ .15ct rounds that are excellent stones for $1/point. That means I'm only in on the set of stones for $30 + the $7 for settings, which I can set myself. So finished brand new .30ct tw diamond stud earrings set in sterling I would only have $37 in on them total. What would the value be? Even used 14k studs with "who knows" quality stones go for $200+ on ebay.

What do you think of these? They are a pair that I have set, sorry about the poor quality pictures.
**Edited by moderator. Please comply with our policies and do not post links to your own items for sale**

Im in on the pair for $1.50/point since they are over .25ct each. They are I clarity stones, hence the low price I paid (normally that size os $2/point). I am in on the pair close to $80 plus settings. Am I asking too much?

Just to let you guys know, I just want to know what your opinions are on pricing of earrings that I have the oportunity of setting. I am not trying to sell anything or advertise. I just want to know opinions for your own experiences.

Thanks for the help
-Kev
 
How much you can sell things for on ebay is not a function of what you paid. That may seem obvious but it’s an important concept. It’s a function of what really you have, how well you can explain that to your buyer, how much THEY are willing to pay in light of the fact that you have competitors, and how much they like or dislike doing business with YOU as a merchant. There’s a skill to selling on ebay just like there’s a skill to merchandising in a store. I wouldn’t touch them for half that price but I may be pickier than your buyers. I’m not your customer anyway. It sounds like you’ve done a few of these already, how’s it going?

My problems are:
No Refunds. This is a total deal killer. Ebay 'buyer protection' is not a substitute.
No credible grading given. There’s not even a CLAIM of grades.
Sterling silver findings. I absolutely disagree with your premise that silver is just as good but cheaper.
Bad photograph(s)
 
The statement that the earrings are worth $1,000 retail would be a deal-killer for me, as well as the implication that silver is the same as gold or platinum but cheaper... I stay away from any seller that mis-characterizes any aspect of their merchandise. I think even a fairly unsophisticated jewelry shopper would know to question those statements.
 
denverappraiser|1345462437|3254238 said:
How much you can sell things for on ebay is not a function of what you paid. That may seem obvious but it’s an important concept. It’s a function of what really you have, how well you can explain that to your buyer, how much THEY are willing to pay in light of the fact that you have competitors, and how much they like or dislike doing business with YOU as a merchant. There’s a skill to selling on ebay just like there’s a skill to merchandising in a store. I wouldn’t touch them for half that price but I may be pickier than your buyers. I’m not your customer anyway. It sounds like you’ve done a few of these already, how’s it going?

My problems are:
No Refunds. This is a total deal killer. Ebay 'buyer protection' is not a substitute.
No credible grading given. There’s not even a CLAIM of grades.
Sterling silver findings. I absolutely disagree with your premise that silver is just as good but cheaper.
Bad photograph(s)

denverappraiser-

Thanks for the insight. I took new photographs of the earrings, which turned out to be 100% better than the old ones.

What I really have here is a nice pair of over a half carat tw stud earrings. You can barely see any metal when wearing studs, and yellow gold is going out of style. Take a walk around the diamond district in NYC - you will find no yellow gold settings avalable, only white. These stones are set in sterling to bring my cost down, and for me to offer really nice earrings at a fraction of the cost of gold ones. The intrinsic value of the gold in stud earrings is almost nothing to begin with. I can offer nice stones set in sterling for less than wholesale.

As for the $1,000 retail comment - Try and find over a half carat tw earrings online anywhere from a retail store for less than that.

Silver is just as good as gold if the price is right, which it is.
 
The diamonds don't look like the same size or an exact match. One of them is either wonky or chipped looking in the photo. That was such a turn-off, I didn't even bother to read the description.

Personally, I'd never buy diamonds set in sterling silver unless it was by a designer and was a very highly stylized piece. Otherwise, I'd hunt on ebay for something in gold for about the price you're asking. There are deals on ebay!
 
usaman65|1345476009|3254351 said:
denverappraiser|1345462437|3254238 said:
How much you can sell things for on ebay is not a function of what you paid. That may seem obvious but it’s an important concept. It’s a function of what really you have, how well you can explain that to your buyer, how much THEY are willing to pay in light of the fact that you have competitors, and how much they like or dislike doing business with YOU as a merchant. There’s a skill to selling on ebay just like there’s a skill to merchandising in a store. I wouldn’t touch them for half that price but I may be pickier than your buyers. I’m not your customer anyway. It sounds like you’ve done a few of these already, how’s it going?

My problems are:
No Refunds. This is a total deal killer. Ebay 'buyer protection' is not a substitute.
No credible grading given. There’s not even a CLAIM of grades.
Sterling silver findings. I absolutely disagree with your premise that silver is just as good but cheaper.
Bad photograph(s)

denverappraiser-

Thanks for the insight. I took new photographs of the earrings, which turned out to be 100% better than the old ones.

What I really have here is a nice pair of over a half carat tw stud earrings. You can barely see any metal when wearing studs, and yellow gold is going out of style. Take a walk around the diamond district in NYC - you will find no yellow gold settings avalable, only white. These stones are set in sterling to bring my cost down, and for me to offer really nice earrings at a fraction of the cost of gold ones. The intrinsic value of the gold in stud earrings is almost nothing to begin with. I can offer nice stones set in sterling for less than wholesale.

As for the $1,000 retail comment - Try and find over a half carat tw earrings online anywhere from a retail store for less than that.

Silver is just as good as gold if the price is right, which it is.

There's tons of places that have diamonds of that size for under $1K. I was in Fred Meyer the other day and they have MANY pairs of diamonds set in white gold at .50 ctw for around $799 on sale, and the diamonds match in size! Helzberg had a pair in platinum for $999.
 
denverappraiser|1345462437|3254238 said:
Sterling silver findings. I absolutely disagree with your premise that silver is just as good but cheaper.

Me too. Anything with prongs or with transparent stones becomes a pain in the butt when the silver tarnishes. Some spots become pretty much impossible to polish, and with some stones the dark color will show through, making them appear darker. In my house, sterling tarnishes pretty thoroughly in less than a week. I keep all my sterling in those anti-tarnish baggies, but I still have to change the baggies every so often and polish it every so often. Whereas I don't have that problem at all with gold. Now, this problem IS mitigated if the silver is rhodium-plated, but I don't think you are doing that. And there are still the problems like the strength of sterling versus gold, etc.

I am also bugged by the obvious size difference in the earrings.
 
Think of what we are talking about here.

I'm not asking 700 or 800 or 900

They are literally $129.99.
 
usaman65|1345479330|3254381 said:
Think of what we are talking about here.

I'm not asking 700 or 800 or 900

They are literally $129.99.

The diamonds don't match! That would drive me nuts. i think most would pay a hundred more for used gold studs with matching stones or go to a pawn shop over opting for mismatched stones in a cheaper metal... And is that diamond chipped?
 
They match - the earring on the right is tilted in the pictures
 
http://www1.macys.com/shop/product/...YPE=Earrings&sp=1&spc=385&ruleId=52&slotId=40

$600 for .5 ctw studs at Macy's - returnable - full price, and everyone knows that Macy's prices are inflated, and that with a little patience you can get at least 25% off.

Look - you asked for our opinions. We're probably not the right audience, as most of us would never consider setting diamonds in regular sterling silver (argentium, maybe) or buying diamonds without some reasonable indication of color and clarity, and pictures that would give us some idea about cut. Your pricing probably is not unreasonable to the right buyers, but generally people here want to know a little bit more about the diamonds they're buying. But the bottom line is that if you get buyers at that price, then it's a reasonable price.

ETA - I see that you remove the reference to the $1,000 comparable. Good move! :appl:
 
Charge whatever you want and more power to you if you can get it. Ain't capitalism great? None of use gets a vote, only the buyers do.

I think it's worth noting that your competition isn't some theoretical or even a real brick and mortar store. It's other ebay sellers. Few people who are considering silver studs on ebay are counting the plan-B to be the platinum ones at Helzburg or visa versa. I'm not going to take the time to look up what competitors are selling, or more importantly to look in the completed auctions to see what competitors ACTUALLY GOT, but it's probably worth your time to do both of these things. You might also want to look for identifiable patterns with the ads that ended in actual sales and see if there are ideas you can emulate.
 
The .53ct tw studs are I diamonds as meantioned above, what I was mainly asking you guys is: what is the value of studs with excellent stones in them? I cherry pick nice stones out of hundreds of carats of wholesale.

Here are two more sets I listed, and believe me - the grades are low for those stones.

**Edited by moderator. Please comply with our policies and do not post links to your own items for sale**

Do you realize that 95% of the studs out there are crap I stones? Look at the macys link you provided to me: I2 -I3 clarity and I color stones. Junk.

When it comes down to it, either you can buy studs from a store for upwards of a thousand dollars, OR for the less snooty people - $129.99. There are many many people out there that make up a strong demand for diamonds but their budgets are not what they used to be. This is unlike many of you people on this forum which buy 10-20k diamonds all the time. They look great and I can set better quality diamonds in most instances than the jewelry stores sell. Of Coarse, the .53ct tw studs i offer at the moment are I stones - this is because I bought them at a reduced price. GOOD LUCK finding the same earrings at that price!
 
If you want decent opinions, it would make sense to post photos and explain your settings w/out posting links to your ebay auctions rather than break the rules and advertise yourself like this.
 
Fist off, I asked a set of questions that nobody has answered. The pictures do not matter, it is just an example.
 
My question to you guys is:
What do you think the value of these earrings are compared to their 14k/10k counterparts?

The honest answer is, as many have said, that the value is almost not comparable. Not only is the sterling silver worth significantly less, but it also devalues the earrings insomuch as it is not as secure of a setting or as low-maintenance. I don't care what the price on the earrings is, I would never buy diamonds set in sterling silver.

ETA: Unless that price was low enough that it was a good deal on just the diamonds alone, and then I would remove them from the findings. Even then though, the stones would need to be certified - which yours are not.
 
usaman65|1345583051|3255000 said:
Fist off, I asked a set of questions that nobody has answered. The pictures do not matter, it is just an example.
All of your questions were about 'value'. Comparison with a completely different product being sold in a completely different marketplace is, well, completely irrelevant.

If offered in a free and open marketplace I don’t think you’re likely to get your asking price with the ad you linked (and that the admin removed). That’s not such a bad definition of value. How much would you need to lower your price to get the sale? It’s hard to tell. I don’t think the problem is the price so the solution probably isn’t the price either. I and others did answer that question. The pictures matter a LOT. What doesn't matter is what you paid or who you bought them from, a subject that you devoted the majority of your post to. We'll see what happens. You’ve got a few more days to go on the auction and people routinely wait until the last minute or so before they bid so I wouldn't be all that worried that you've got no bids yet. Wait it out and see what happens. I wish you all the best with it. Listing fees are cheap and you’ll have the opportunity to try again if they don’t go so it's not that difficult an experiment. If they do sell, congratulations, and welcome to the jewelry business.
 
GET 3 FREE HCA RESULTS JOIN THE FORUM. ASK FOR HELP
Top