Pawn shop Diamonds? to good 2 be true?

[Mindyish]

Hi, first let me say I have been lurking for months as I have researching gems, metals, settings, the 4 c's, and everything else as I look to create my perfect custom ring since my proposal.

On a VERY tight budget, I came to the hard decision to sacrifice a real diamond (as it was never that important anyway before I knew anything about them) to get the setting I always dreamed of. I knew getting something custom made since months of searching turned up only a few close ones, would be pricey. Money wouldn't allow for my custom setting AND a real diamond. Not even compromising on the 4 c's.

However, recently strolling into a pawn shop to chance seeing some antique settings, I noticed everything was priced suspiciously low. I asked the young man to see one of the rings. I got a nice long look at the stone and was convinced it was a diamond or either a very convincing high grade CZ. I asked and he said he believed they were all real but would test it for me. He did the thermal test it showed "diamond" . It was approximately a .30 ct and was set in 14k yellow gold. It was priced at 279.00$ !!!!!

Other rings were priced the same. A .61 ct set in white gold that needed new rhodium plating was priced at 509.00$

Now at first I was confused and expressing my doubts the kid explained that unless they are considerable size diamonds, the mostly only pay gold weight when someone pawns the rings.

If this isn't too good to be true it would most certainly solve my craving to finally own a real diamond as I never have. My last engagement ring (ex husband) was high grade cz but is always getting dirty and loses its luster within hours of cleaning. Also, I think every woman (who wants to) should own at least one in her lifetime.

However, this just seems too good to be true but I know nothing about the pawning industry so who's to say? He tested 3 for me and they all came back as a diamond. They looked real, were very beautiful and had excellent sparkle and brilliance despite the fact that all the rings had really dirty pavillions.

Anyone know if a pawn shop would really sell real diamonds that cheap and also if they were trying to con buyers by altering the thermal tester or however, if I purchased one and took it elsewhere to find they lied, is there anything I could do? Any thoughts? Before this find I had set my sights on an Asha and may still end up doing so if this doesn't pan out.

 

[yssie]

buy a loupe, ask to have the ring thoroughly cleaned and look for inclusions?

 

[jess1981]

Does the pawn shop have a return policy. The pawn shop I visit has a 30 day return policy. If they do you could buy it have a jeweler look at it, and then decide if you want to keep it or not.

 

[CharmyPoo]

I absolutely think you can get these types of deals at pawn shops. I have seen deals like this. The second hand market is very affordable for jewelery (and all wedding goods which I discovered recently).

 

[redfaerythinker]

I recently bought a diamond pave white gold setting "pre-owned" from a B&M Jeweler. It looked brand new but it was half the retail price. It makes no sense but you CAN get great deals due to the consumer market being a bit nutty and needing everything to be right out of the plastic new. I agree with earlier posters that you should check out their return policy and then have another jeweler test it to make sure it checks out. Good luck with your proposal and come back with some pics!

 

[denverappraiser]

I know a lot of pawn brokers. Actually pawnshops make pretty good clients for me. They want to know what they have before they put it out in the case. Whether or not they tell YOU what they have, or whether or not they even admit that they know are entirely different questions and it is going to boil down to the character of the pawnbroker involved. The same is true of auction houses, ebay vendors, et.al. It’s just like a jeweler. In fact, realistically, the only difference is one of décor. The real question in choosing a dealer is about the quality of the character of the folks behind the counter/keyboard. Start with that and the rest becomes easy.

 

[anitabee]

i LOVE pawn shops! you can definitely get great deals there. it's all a matter of knowing your stuff. you can also barter. don't ever pay the sticker price. they'll almost certainly come down.

i bought my ering uprgrade at a pawn shop. this pawn shop is so awesome that it even has a trade-in policy (mind you there's an 8% "restocking fee"). my first purchase there was a heavily included emerald cut (traded that one back), next came the .70 carat princess earrings, and finally the .85 ct pc ring.

i love perusing pawn shops when we travel. if i had more $ i'd have bought some of the scores such as a rose-cut diamond on the oregon coast for peanuts and an omc diamond in washington state.

most stuff at pawn shops is garbage. look past the junk and you may be surprised!

and yeah, i believe that what you saw was NOT too good to be true. if your eyes liked what you saw, for the price listed, GO FOR IT! (and offer a lower price!)

 

[LGK]

With some patience and a bit of experience you can get some incredible deals on secondhand jewelry. The prices you mention are pretty common on the 2nd hand market, whether it's in pawn shops or in antique malls. The caveat, however, is that most of the diamonds are fairly low quality. Before buying used I would spend some time educating my eye- go cruise some new jewelry stores, preferably ones that have some well cut, properly graded stuff. Thing is, yes, much of the stuff secondhand is not great quality, but often there is some really great jewelry mixed in with the crud. Oddly enough the good stuff is usually priced exactly the same as everything else. You just have to get to the point where you can pick it out. Or stick to lower end stuff until your eye is more educated.

 

[starryeyed]

i LOVE pawn shops! you can definitely get great deals there. it's all a matter of knowing your stuff. you can also barter. don't ever pay the sticker price. they'll almost certainly come down.

Me too!! LOVE pawn shops! My favorite is Provident Jewelers in Palm Beach. They also have locations in Naples and Jupiter - haven't been to those.

You have to wade thru the junk, but there are some REALLY nice finds out there. Pawn shops are one of my favorite pastimes.

Let us know if we can help you!

 

[CharmedOne]

I have bought from them in the past. Like everybody said you just gotta know your stuff and having your own loupe helps.

 

[canuk-gal]

HI:

Prices go up when you use your own loupe

cheers--Sharon

 

[CharmedOne]

LOL, your probably right. BTW, You guys are so lucky to have pawn shops that take returns. Pawn shops here only give you store credit.

 

[MichelleCarmen]

Just a note - this thread was bumped back up by a person here who is advertising his company. It's from 2010! I just reported his post so it hopefully will be removed.

That aside, I have sold scrap gold and was told by the jeweler that with small diamonds, they pay for the gold. I hunted around a bit and some places still had very high prices and another had a TBTY (authentic) and it was a small stone for about $800 and I've seen ones of the same on ebay for about $1200.

 

[denverappraiser]

HI:

Prices go up when you use your own loupe

cheers--Sharon

Not necessarily.

I have clients who do a LOT of business with pawn shops. We’re talking hundreds of thousands of dollars per year and weekly return visits to the same store. To say the least the pawn workers known them to be ringers. That causes certain problems but it also comes with certain advantages. They know you’re serious. They know you know what you’re looking for. If the deal is right they know you’ll buy and if it’s not they know you won’t. This drives down the BS level considerably. They’re there to make sales and most are commission workers so they would rather to sell to someone who will pay a lot but flipping things quickly to known dealers is an entirely reasonable strategy as well. The rule here is ‘you have to kiss a lot of frogs before you find a prince’, but if you’re prepared to do that there are deals to be had. By all means take your own loupe, and your own micrometer as well. DO NOT assume that the grades, sizes and even metal types you are being told are correct and, in practice, the best deals are happen when they’re wrong. The trickiest part is that they aren’t going to take the time to let you inspect every piece in the inventory. You need to be able to look through 2 layers of dirty glass in 15 seconds and pick out the likely candidate(s) for further inspection. The other trick is to not be scared to let one slip through. Don’t fall in love with the piece. Lastly, don’t count on returns later. You buy it and it’s yours. If you overpay, suck it up. That’s the flip side to occasionally underpaying and getting a bargain. Hopefully your own skills make the chances of the later better than the chances of the former.

 

[ChrisES]

Just a note - this thread was bumped back up by a person here who is advertising his company. It's from 2010! I just reported his post so it hopefully will be removed.

That aside, I have sold scrap gold and was told by the jeweler that with small diamonds, they pay for the gold. I hunted around a bit and some places still had very high prices and another had a TBTY (authentic) and it was a small stone for about $800 and I've seen ones of the same on ebay for about $1200.

Curious...I may be a bit dense (and omg necro bump was my first thought) but where this is this ad? I don't see it in this tread but maybe I'm missing it.

 

[MichelleCarmen]

Just a note - this thread was bumped back up by a person here who is advertising his company. It's from 2010! I just reported his post so it hopefully will be removed.

That aside, I have sold scrap gold and was told by the jeweler that with small diamonds, they pay for the gold. I hunted around a bit and some places still had very high prices and another had a TBTY (authentic) and it was a small stone for about $800 and I've seen ones of the same on ebay for about $1200.

Curious...I may be a bit dense (and omg necro bump was my first thought) but where this is this ad? I don't see it in this tread but maybe I'm missing it.

I reported the post and the admins removed it. The individual bumped up the post by responding and saying pawn shops are a great place to go and in his signature line was his company (which was a pawn shop, of course!).

 

[ChrisES]

Ah, gotcha! Great that the admins (and you) are on top of that stuff.

Thanks.

 

[WinkHPD]

Like DenverAppraser, I have known many pawn brokers, both good and bad.

There are tremendous bargains to be had if the broker is lazy and just doubling or tripling up on his investment. However the hard working ones buy well by paying a little more and actually knowing what they are buying and when they sell it, it is rarely with the profit potential that you will get from a lazy one.

However, you can only take advantage of the opportunity if you know enough about jewelry and diamonds to determine which dealer is which kind of dealer. So....

If you work hard, "Good Fortune" is likely to befall you.

If you work sloppy and lazy, well, the "Bad Fortune" that befalls you is your own fault.

Wink

 

[alicesmith009]

Pawn shops deal with lots of different things. Tools, electronics, games, tools and of course, diamonds and jewelry. But how do they know if the diamonds are real?

Yes, it really is that easy in most cases. After all, pawn shop see diamonds often enough that they extremely get a decent plan of what they're looking at and when you examine something 50 times a day, it’s pretty easy to check when something just isn’t right.

For instance one of the things that real diamonds have their fake diamonds do not or flaws like carbon and inclusions. Sure there are some real diamonds that are completely perfect. Those are usually very valuable.

 

[ChristineRose]

Loupe, Idealscope, and if at all possible spend some time looking at graded diamonds so you can at least get a rough idea of what you are looking at.

Thermal testers generally are pretty horrid, but if they're working correctly they will tell diamond from CZ. Moissanite can fool a thermal tester, but you can easily learn to tell it from a diamond with a loupe. CZ you can also generally tell from the inclusions if nothing else. Sapphires and topaz and zircons won't pass for a diamond to anyone who knows what to look for.

That said, worst case is that you take it back. Return policy or no, you can't sell someone an X by telling them its a Y. Any court of law would side with you and you can assume the pawn shop would know it. And THAT said, you might as well look for a shop with a return policy, as you probably will have plenty of stones to choose from.

If you really want too good to be true--look at marquises.

 

[NomadicChan]

I got me a good deal on a gorgeous ring at a pawn shop in my area. The rings has an approximate 1.7 ctw in diamonds

Got all stones tested and verified.

will get it appraised in a month