Negotiating

[oldminer]

It is always okay to ask for what you need, but there are many times when a price must be inflexible. Diamonds sold on the Internet have low profit margins and there is very little wiggle room for sellers of most of the commonly sought after diamonds. The stones which are sort of "off the grid" such as the fancy colors, the odd shapes, the strange cuts have more potential room in them, but competition remains fierce even on these stones. Diamonds which have been bought via the used market by individual sellers have enough room for negotiations sometimes, but new inventory is tightly priced.

You don''t expect to go to a nice restaurant or to order Dominos pi for home delivery and negotiate a price discount. You don''t expect to buy gasoline for your car and ask for special consideration. There are times when negotiating is just not the way we do it.

You can negotiate at retail stores sometimes where the mark-up may allow special requests to be added or a price to be shaved a bit. Done properly, no one will be hurt by asking. Done poorly, you may hurt the relationship with the seller and foul up what may have been an excellent deal. Being overly aggressive about haggling will likely create a problem that could have been avoided with a softer approach.

Inform yourselves of the value first and negotiate cautiously.

 

[JogiaDiamonds]

To be honest, I''m not a big fan of negotiable prices/discounting for the following reasons:

- The diamond (if in stock) still needs to be replaced. This may take weeks, and during that time, someone else may want to buy it. Also, nowadays, some fancy cuts simply can not be easily replaced, therefore, it is better to keep them in inventory until the right buyer comes along.

- It is generally bad for consumers. If the diamond is marked up an extra 30%, and the customer haggles their way to a 20% discount, the merchant still wins. However, the customer still thinks they have a good deal when they don''t.

- The ethics of charging a haggler one price and another customer another price is questionable. Furthermore, to the smart consumer, if you give them a discount, then they may think you were trying to rip them off in the first place.

- It devalues your inventory/reputation/brand/work/service/...in fact it devalues the whole diamond and jewellery industry.

- It creates artificial price variations, making it hard for consumers to easily compare prices.

 

[oldminer]

You are a diamond seller and what you replied is perfectly agreeable. If everyone selling diamonds felt and acted as you suggest the market would be more "perfect", but a lot less interesting. Part of the joy of diamonds is the hunt for "perfection" and for "best value". Your reasoning is excellent but there are sellers who would much rather collect 30% from the uninformed and go to 20% only when they had to. I don''t think that strategy is about to change anytime soon. So long as diamonds are cut from natural rough there will be price and cost variations which look as if they should not exist, but they do because rough is not cooperative nor consistent.

 

[strmrdr]

It never hurts to ask in a nice manner but be prepared to accept a no answer and move on with the sale if the price is fair.