Ostritch999
Rough_Rock
- Joined
- Aug 20, 2020
- Messages
- 1
Hi!
I'm very new to all of this, but I've lurked around a bit for the past week or so and browsed a few different blogs for information. Not sure the best place to ask this, so please feel free to direct me elsewhere if there's a more appropriate place! Apologies in advance for the wall of text, I've got no one else to talk to about this these days.
I've got my eye on a particular diamond that's CanadaMark eligible - and I say eligible because supposedly the certification office is operating on reduced/sporadic hours due to the global pandemic, and I learned that often times diamonds are not certified / registered until they're paid for, or something like that.
I'm based in the US, and the retailers I've been in contact with are based in the UK. One of them (retailer #1) felt a bit insistent that I should just buy the diamond now because who knows when the CanadaMark offices might reopen. The other (retailer #2) seems very certain that they'll reopen in the next week or two because they have "contacts at Dominion (mining company which owns and operates CanadaMark) and within the CanadaMark office".
The difference in price is staggering - about 20% cheaper for retailer #1. However, they've (#1) also said that once bought the stone cannot be certified post-facto, and I'd be paying the premium for the knowledge that the diamond is Canadian, but with no CanadaMark certification per se. They've got a presence in the US as well as a few other countries (showrooms or sales offices, but headquartered in London). The quoted price also supposedly includes taxes and fees (at least, they say they're not required to collect sales tax in any of the 50 US states).
Retailer #2 is a much smaller shop (small family owned business with seemingly minimal marketing and a very...small-time website, no offense) who said they'd be happy to let me pay now, hold the diamond until the office re-opens for certification, and then send it to me loose (loose because I'm getting a custom engagement ring made to set the diamond in, and my timeline won't really allow for both the wait for the office to re-open as well as the custom ring to be made). However they're insistent that the 20% premium is due to baked-in import duty and taxes. They said that they cannot price match Retailer #1. They have, however, agreed to let me bear the responsibility of paying the duty and import taxes on my own (I'm almost convinced that there shouldn't be any).
One odd thing is that retailer #2 does not show up on the stockist page of CanadaMark's website (retailer #1 does).
Retailer #2 did, however, offer up a nice solution to my timetable issue - They'd hold the diamond for certification and then ship it to me in all the normal packaging as if it had been set in a ring, but instead it'd be set in a ring clip (for the proposal). Once the proposal happens I (we) could then ship the diamond back for setting within the custom ring. Retailer #1 suggested that I more or less give up on CanadaMark and settle for any other kind of Canadian origin certification (are there are as-well-known options? again I'm new to this...)
So, long story short, here are my questions:
- If I go with retailer #2, will I be paying 20% extra for good reason? Are there really import and duty taxes? Mind you that technically the diamond would be mailed to me unset (in ring clip), and then mailed back to jeweler to be set, then mailed back to me when it's all done and complete.
- If I go with retailer #1, will I be giving up on origin certification (at least CanadaMark certification) for nothing? I understand that it's more of a nice to have than anything else, and I doubt we'd want to pawn the diamond off (ever), but you never know - anything could happen, and it'd be nice to know that something like CanadaMark could help retain value.
I used the HCA tool to assess said diamond and it's a 1.9, and by all accounts I think it's a decent one. It's approx 1.5ct and priced accordingly, although there's a rather large difference between the price in GPB vs USD (not based on exchange rate) for both retailers.
Am I crazy for thinking about things this much?
Thank you in advance
(I opted to not name names so as to not throw either company under the bus by accident given that I'm very new to all this).
I'm very new to all of this, but I've lurked around a bit for the past week or so and browsed a few different blogs for information. Not sure the best place to ask this, so please feel free to direct me elsewhere if there's a more appropriate place! Apologies in advance for the wall of text, I've got no one else to talk to about this these days.
I've got my eye on a particular diamond that's CanadaMark eligible - and I say eligible because supposedly the certification office is operating on reduced/sporadic hours due to the global pandemic, and I learned that often times diamonds are not certified / registered until they're paid for, or something like that.
I'm based in the US, and the retailers I've been in contact with are based in the UK. One of them (retailer #1) felt a bit insistent that I should just buy the diamond now because who knows when the CanadaMark offices might reopen. The other (retailer #2) seems very certain that they'll reopen in the next week or two because they have "contacts at Dominion (mining company which owns and operates CanadaMark) and within the CanadaMark office".
The difference in price is staggering - about 20% cheaper for retailer #1. However, they've (#1) also said that once bought the stone cannot be certified post-facto, and I'd be paying the premium for the knowledge that the diamond is Canadian, but with no CanadaMark certification per se. They've got a presence in the US as well as a few other countries (showrooms or sales offices, but headquartered in London). The quoted price also supposedly includes taxes and fees (at least, they say they're not required to collect sales tax in any of the 50 US states).
Retailer #2 is a much smaller shop (small family owned business with seemingly minimal marketing and a very...small-time website, no offense) who said they'd be happy to let me pay now, hold the diamond until the office re-opens for certification, and then send it to me loose (loose because I'm getting a custom engagement ring made to set the diamond in, and my timeline won't really allow for both the wait for the office to re-open as well as the custom ring to be made). However they're insistent that the 20% premium is due to baked-in import duty and taxes. They said that they cannot price match Retailer #1. They have, however, agreed to let me bear the responsibility of paying the duty and import taxes on my own (I'm almost convinced that there shouldn't be any).
One odd thing is that retailer #2 does not show up on the stockist page of CanadaMark's website (retailer #1 does).
Retailer #2 did, however, offer up a nice solution to my timetable issue - They'd hold the diamond for certification and then ship it to me in all the normal packaging as if it had been set in a ring, but instead it'd be set in a ring clip (for the proposal). Once the proposal happens I (we) could then ship the diamond back for setting within the custom ring. Retailer #1 suggested that I more or less give up on CanadaMark and settle for any other kind of Canadian origin certification (are there are as-well-known options? again I'm new to this...)
So, long story short, here are my questions:
- If I go with retailer #2, will I be paying 20% extra for good reason? Are there really import and duty taxes? Mind you that technically the diamond would be mailed to me unset (in ring clip), and then mailed back to jeweler to be set, then mailed back to me when it's all done and complete.
- If I go with retailer #1, will I be giving up on origin certification (at least CanadaMark certification) for nothing? I understand that it's more of a nice to have than anything else, and I doubt we'd want to pawn the diamond off (ever), but you never know - anything could happen, and it'd be nice to know that something like CanadaMark could help retain value.
I used the HCA tool to assess said diamond and it's a 1.9, and by all accounts I think it's a decent one. It's approx 1.5ct and priced accordingly, although there's a rather large difference between the price in GPB vs USD (not based on exchange rate) for both retailers.
Am I crazy for thinking about things this much?
Thank you in advance
(I opted to not name names so as to not throw either company under the bus by accident given that I'm very new to all this).
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