new to diamonds

[newtostones]

Hi - I''m new to diamonds and would really appreciate some PS advice! We''ve been looking around at jewelry stores and we''re close to deciding on a simple solitaire setting with a pave band. A lot of the jewelry stores have been pricing diamonds at much, much higher prices than I''ve seen online. One jewelry store priced a 1.75 carat, VG cut, G, VS1 for $38K while I''ve seen one online for around $20K. Is this type of markup typical?

Also, I''m a little confused as to whether or not we should buy the setting online from the same retailer from which we buy the stone. The B&M stores have really pushed the sale of the diamond and since they seem to make most of their profit on the stone, are they still good to work with if you want to buy it online and work with them on a setting? Any insights would be greatly appreciated!

Happy New Year!

 

[Regular Guy]

Newtostones,

Welcome to Pricescope!

Though personally somewhat ambivalent about the answers to the questions you''ve raised...I would both validate them...and maybe offer some additional perspective in the post I just made at the end of this thread.

Warm regards,

 

[Lorelei]

Date: 1/1/2009 8:19:48 PM
Author:newtostones
Hi - I''m new to diamonds and would really appreciate some PS advice! We''ve been looking around at jewelry stores and we''re close to deciding on a simple solitaire setting with a pave band. A lot of the jewelry stores have been pricing diamonds at much, much higher prices than I''ve seen online. One jewelry store priced a 1.75 carat, VG cut, G, VS1 for $38K while I''ve seen one online for around $20K. Is this type of markup typical?

Also, I''m a little confused as to whether or not we should buy the setting online from the same retailer from which we buy the stone. The B&M stores have really pushed the sale of the diamond and since they seem to make most of their profit on the stone, are they still good to work with if you want to buy it online and work with them on a setting? Any insights would be greatly appreciated!

Happy New Year!

Welcome!

Follow Ira''s links for some good advice! Also yes, typically jewellers will price higher than online, however the example you mentioned seems very high...But there can be various factors which can affect this such as type of grading report etc, if the higher price had a GIA or AGS report then these can be considerably more than EGL/ IGI.