Stones from Israel? and Mean Jeweler...

[antiquediamond]

Is it common for jewelers to buy poorly cut large stones from Israel, cut them into smaller stones, and pass the savings along to customers? Sounds too good to be true. I just spoke with a family run jeweler on the phone who says that this is how they keep their prices low. We are going to go and check out their work, but I''d like to know if this procedure is common practice.

As a side note, my best friend and I went into an antique and estate jewelry store today after spending a lovely afternoon at the beach. Curious to check out some stones, I asked the proprietor what loose stones he had available and after much hesitation he took out a nice .96 H VS1 RB that he had for $4,600. Not a bad price -- but the guy was sooo rude. He said I could see the certificate, but I probably would not understand it and he acted like I didn''t belong in his store, perhaps because I had shorts and a T-shirt on. Needless to say I felt like Julia Roberts in Pretty Women. He obviously didn''t know how much I DO know now that I''ve found this forum. I want to walk in there w/ the beautiful diamond I''m going to have soon and tell the big jerk that he made a HUGE mistake! Anyway, Thanks for listening to me vent!

 

[yeewl]

As what a chinese proverb would say;"Business comes to your door and you use a broom to sweep/chase it away!"

 

[Richard Sherwood]

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Is it common for jewelers to buy poorly cut large stones from Israel,
cut them into smaller stones, and pass the savings along to customers?
Sounds too good to be true. I just spoke with a family run jeweler on
the phone who says that this is how they keep their prices low. We are
going to go and check out their work, but I'd like to know if this
procedure is common practice.
-----------

Believe me, if there was a profit to be made from recutting large, poorly cut Israeli stones, the Israeli Jews would be doing it. They are some of the shrewdest dealers in the world, and not much gets past them.

It's a good line though.

 

[antiquediamond]

I'm curious then as to why a jeweler would bring up the idea of buying rough stones from Israel and recutting them? I guess I'm just a novice wondering if that's what all jewelers do?

 

[Mara]

In what town was this ? There is an antique and estate jewelry store in Carmel, CA that has some amazingly great pieces and beautiful huge stones...wondering if it's the same one! (since you mentioned the beach...)

 

[antiquediamond]

The very nice woman I spoke w/ on the phone who said they get their stones in bad shape from Israel and recut them was in Woburn, Mass. Cooper Jewelers -- We're going there because they sell Mark Morrell pieces. From what I understand, he once worked for or with them. I can't wait to see his work in person!!! You can check it out online at www.cooperjewelers.com

The evil man who said he had nothing for I spoke of by the beach was in Manchester, Mass. He totally lost a chance at what could have easily been a $5K sale.

 

[niceice]

It is amazing and unfortunate that so many sales people judge a potential customer on what they are wearing or driving rather than just focusing on solving the needs of their clients... So many of our early clients in Sacramento were "poor rice farmers" who had been treated badly by the local hob-nobbin jewelry stores... Wouldn't the store clerks have been surprised to know that those "poor rice farmers" could pull 15K in cash out of their pockets on any given day? My great grandfather immigrated to the United States from Russia when he was 14 years old and he left behind an estate worth tens of millions, but he was always running around in shaggy clothes if he wasn't working because they he didn't want to look like he had money... He used to say that the salespeople who snubbed him were snubbing their way right out of a job. One of our best sales recently started out with a man walking into our store wearing dirty jeans and muddy boots which left dried mud all over our black carpets... He started out by saying that he was a mechanic looking for something inexpensive for an anniversary gift for his wife of ten years, Robin sat down and talked with him about diamonds and all sorts of other stuff... It seems that we're always talking about "other stuff" and diamonds really make up about 10% of our conversations... After awhile the man said something along the lines of "I'm not really an auto mechanic, I'm a doctor... I just wanted to see how you would treat me if you thought I was an auto mechanic... I just got finished working on my wife's horse barn..." and we sold him quite the pair of diamond earrings... He also said that he had been into just about every other jewelry store in town prior to finding ours by accident while walking down the street and nobody had given him the time of day... Looks like our local "competition" is going to snub their way right out of business as Grandpa used to put it