new pendant quote

[susiegrneyes]

Good Morning all,

I recently purchased a fancy colored diamond and would like to have it mounted in a pendant.

You can see the diamond here:
https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/first-fcd-purchase-from-blue-nile.196086/

I picked out a Stuller 9 stone cluster pendant from the catalog at my local jeweler. My jeweler wants $1400 for 18k gold or $1600 for platinum for this setting. It seems high to me as I am providing the center stone. Each of the 8 side stones would run about $50 a piece retail (2.4mm) and I can't imagine the metal and labor being an additional $900 being that it's a stock setting. I haven't been able to find anything online for comparison.

You can see the setting here:
https://livechat.stuller.com/products/595-9/268646/?groupId=24528

Do you think the price is reasonable?

Thank you,

Susie

 

[chrono]

How about getting a quote for the same setting from a different jeweller to see if the price is within the same ballpark or different? Is your jeweller also going to be mounting the little halo stones too? Depending on your location and jeweller, some places charge up to $100 per stone. I've found a decent local place that will charges me only $30 to $50 to set each stone.

 

[susiegrneyes]

I am purchasing the halo stones from the jeweler as well. I will try a couple other local places. I hope they aren't as much. I really didn't plan to spend more than 1k.

 

[marymm]

You may also want to get a quote from Michael E - he is highly regarded on PS - he has built several Stuller / Adwar ring settings for me and his quotes are always quite reasonable. http://www.gemshoppe.com/index.html

In terms of pricing, if one were to assume a $50/melee and a $50/setting fee per diamond, that is $850.00 right there (8 melee + setting your diamond), which means your jeweler is charging $550 (gold) or $750 (platinum) for the pendant finding itself -- off the cuff, to me that seems is rather high considering the metal weight of the pendant finding is quite lightweight at 0.97 grams (or 0.6253 DWT).

I definitely think if you can gather a few quotes from a couple of vendors, you'll get a better sense of whether your local jeweler's numbers are fair. You could also ask him outright for the cost breakdown of his quote.

 

[alice87]

The quote I got for Stuller pieces without any stones or work was around 120 per gram for 14K, which seems high to me. Your quote seems to be overwhelming...

 

[susiegrneyes]

I should have bought a bunch more jewelry when I was in India. I have a 17 gram 22k gold necklace that I paid just over $1000 for there. The mark up is just so huge here.