negotiating price?

[rharrin]

I''m in a bit of a bind on where to purchase a diamond for an engagement ring. I would like nothing more than to keep my money local and support the jewelery store in town, but how can I justify paying so much more for the same diamond? I''m looking at exactly the same diamond online for $3013; at the store--$4885!

Do I negotiate with the local jewelry store?

Thanks for the help...

 

[Brian Knox]

Date: 11/27/2004 8:38:14 AM
Author:rharrin

.. I would like nothing more than to keep my money local and support the jewelery store in town, but how can I justify paying so much more for the same diamond? I''m looking at exactly the same diamond online for $3013; at the store--$4885!

Do I negotiate with the local jewelry store?

Thanks for the help...

Hi rharrin,

I respect your very noble desires to keep your money local, which benefits your community and thusly your quality of life.

But I also understand the finacial considerations.

My advice;

If it is the exact same diamond, talk to the jeweler and tell him about finding it online for less.

He may or may not match the online price, but he may reduce the price as well as offer some value added features that a B&M brings to the table.

Its worth a shot.

 

[Brian Knox]

Date: 11/27/2004 8:57:37 AM
Author: Feydakin
...

2. It''s probably not the ''same'' diamond, but a similar one.. There may be differences between the stones that could account for some of that price differece..

Good point !!

Hey Steve, you''re at work already ?

Isn''t this time of year great, yawn.

 

[solange]

If it is actually the same stone I think you are being very fair in giving him the opportunity to do better on the price. You can buy a beautiful diamond wedding band for the difference or get a larger or better stone.

Hopefully for him, the vast majority of his customers do not know about Pricescope and he will sell to them at higher profits to pay his overhead. Obviously he does not own the stone if you also found it on Pricescope so he has no money tied up in it. You could just take the easy way out and order it from the Pricescope vendor but I think you ae being fair to him by giving him the opportunity to make a smaller profit rather than lose the sale.

 

[RockDoc]

Date: 11/27/2004 8:38:14 AM
Author:rharrin
I''m in a bit of a bind on where to purchase a diamond for an engagement ring. I would like nothing more than to keep my money local and support the jewelery store in town, but how can I justify paying so much more for the same diamond? I''m looking at exactly the same diamond online for $3013; at the store--$4885!

Do I negotiate with the local jewelry store?

Thanks for the help...

Like snowflakes there are hardly any matches in diamonds. Not to the point of exactly.


Unfortunately, most jewelers do not have the education in buying (this is important - since in essence you are paying him to buy a stone for you). It is a shame but I severely doubt that than more than 10% really know diamonds to the extreme they are discussed here.

Most of the jewelers who DO have the understanding and education are on this forum. Bring up some of the terms with the average jeweler, and he''ll think you are out of some other dimension.

But - it is a growing knowledge that really takes a long time to understand.Even cutters are sometimes in the dark about these advances..

John, Gary, Steve, Jonathan ( GOG ), Eighjtstar Barry ( Superb Cert) Todd ( Nice Ice ) , Brian ( whiteflash ) Old Miner,Yuri & Serg Octanous/ Marty Haske ( Adamas) Gary Dutton ( Duttons Diamonds) are pretty much all currently or previously active on this forum and all have valuable opinions to share.

Also be aware that what is the "best" today, may not be the best tomorrow.....Ten years from now the information needed to analyze a diamond may be very different than today.

Regards to all,

ROCKDOC

 

[RockDoc]

Price Negotiation....


I wrote an interesting article about this. It is o the website


At the moment my websites are down, but hopefully they''ll be up again this week.

Rockdoc

 

[wildcat808]

This exact same thing happened to me just last week! My local jeweler brought in a diamond for me to look at. I really liked the diamond, but it was a little over my range so I told the dealer I had to think about it. I posted on pricescope asking for some advice, and Jennifer posted back with a link to the exact same stone at whiteflash for $800 less. I went back to the dealer and explained the situation. He agreed to match the price and I bought it. I know he wasn''t happy, but he said that it''s something they have to deal with these days. I felt bad because the dealer had been really good about going into details educating me about diamonds and he had the lowest prices compared to others locally. Ultimately it worked out the best for me because I got the diamond I wanted at a much lower price, plus I got the comfort of buying it from a reliable local dealer and having somplace to go to for polishing and checking the mounting. Hope it works out for you as good as it did for me!