Poll - Who ordered what from where?

[DiamondDealHunter]

I know many of you have ordered stones and/or settings from the vendors on this site, but I haven''t seen a few of them mentioned. I am curious see the popularity of the different vendors. Post who u bought from, what u bought and/or how satisfied u are. All of the diamond details are not necessary. Thanks

 

[TheBachelor]

I'm buying mine from a B&M manufacturer/wholesaler/retailer in Chicago. During the whole process with him I viewed 15-20 AGS0 AGS Cert Ideal Cut diamonds as I homed in on my budget and desired 3 C's. All of this time, I had no shipping costs and no pressure. Then, he blew away everyone else, including Internet sources, on a designer setting. I will pay some tax, but the lower price of the setting covers almost 50% of it. Because I'm in a large city, I can walk the diamond over to an appraiser (again no shipping cost) before having it set. Then the dealer will set it and deliver me a complete ring. I will also have someone to go to for polishing and any maintenance for as long has he is in business.

Based on the number of diamonds I viewed, I don’t think I could have done the same on the Internet.

My suggestion for anyone living in Chicago or New York (or other big cities with a Jewelers Row) is to walk into as many places as you can and ask to see what they have in stock the fits your specifications. Be pretty exact about what you want. Don't deal with anyone that makes you incomfortable or that you think has less knowlege then you about what you are looking for.

I for instance recently walked into another large wholesaler that I shopped at months ago. I said I wanted to see their AGS Certed or GIA Certed with Sarin Report, Ideal Cut, F, SI1, No Fluorescence Diamonds from 1 ct to 1.25 ct. I told them that I didn’t finalize a budget so I needed to find out their prices on these diamonds to determine my carat range. I have to say that I was treated differently this time and I saw much better diamonds. Before even looking at the diamonds I told them I wanted to see the certs and that I would want a copy of certs for diamonds I wanted to consider. I told them I would need at least a day to decide on a diamond (knowing that I wanted to check the HCA score from home). This place pulled out a binder 4 inches thick with all their certs.

Then, I walked into another place and they didn’t have any of this type of diamond. They said they could get a few for me within a few days. So, I thanked them and moved on. Believe me, if you hit enough places in a town like Chicago, you will eventually find a guy that is sitting there with a safe full (exaggeration) of exactly what you want. You might have to walk down some dimly lit hallway in some 120yr old office building, but you will find him(her). Not all jewelers in Chicago's Jewelers Row have streetfront windows on Wabash Avenue.

I guess in some small towns, this isn’t an option. But in Chicago or New York, you need to pound the pavement, know what you want and know when to walk out if you don’t see what you want or if you get a lot of pressure.

Believe me, I have nothing against jewelers that don’t carry a large stock of diamonds, but when you know that there are ones less than a mile away with many diamonds, you might as well do some walking. I could say where I got mine, but I think this dealer does more business manufacturing and shipping diamonds to other jewelers than he does in his storefront. I wouldn’t want to have every retail customer in Chicago reading this following me into his place unless he wanted that much retail business. Besides, the other retailers that get diamonds from him might not be too happy about it. He has a storefront, so go out and find him.

But like I said, get out the yellow pages and do some footwork. You will eventually find what you want. I'll have to admit that I got lucky by eventually getting a recommendation from a friend who knew I was looking. But, I think that following my advice; I would have eventually found this guy. I walked by his building many times in my search.

Good Luck

 

[msmithmomx2]

I purchased my diamond from diamondbrokersoffl.com. They are great! Check them out!

 

[ss26]

Blue Nile .com
It is arriving Tuesdy. Hopefully it will be a beauty!!