Suspicious of pirce and trade in! Please help!

[Dora]

I am looking to trade up my diamond and have found a round brilliant at Mayor''s Jewelers (jewelry store in a mall). The stone is 2.01 carat, SI2, I color. They were asking $24,000. I didn''t ask to see the GIA report.

After doing some checking on Pricescope, Blue Nile and Whiteflash, I feel like I would be a fool to pay $24,000 for this diamond. Online prices range from $12,000 to $18,000 +/-.


My trade is a 1.38 carat, marquise, SI1, D color. They would give me what I paid for it ($8,200). Kind of like trading in a car, I feel like I would just be giving it to them for free. For example, $24,000 (Mayor''s price) - 8,200(my old ring) = 15,800 (price I really should be paying).

Thanks in advance for the help. I just don''t want to get ripped off!

 

[belle]

hey dora! welcome to ps

you are right, you can get a much nicer diamond for a better price than that online. chain store diamonds are mediocre cut at best. do yourself a favor and forget the trade-in option with them.

for example: this stone would blow away almost any rock, and a pedestrian cut mall stone doesn't stand a chance.

 

[phoenixgirl]

Dora, you are right to feel like you are dealing with a slick car salesman! And if that I SI2 is on the low end of the range (poor cut quality or what have you), then you would be paying them a few thousand to take your diamond off of your hands.

Also check what marquises of that size are going for now (looks like around $6500-$7500). Recouping half of the retail cost of your diamond is pretty darn lucky, so that $8500 figure was also inflated. Keep in mind that jewelers can get diamonds a lot cheaper than what you pay for them, and any potential second-hand buyers will want a real deal beyond what they could get in a store or online, so you will take a hit.

 

[LadyluvsLuxury]

Date: 10/7/2005 6:16:40 PM
Author:Dora
I am looking to trade up my diamond and have found a round brilliant at Mayor''s Jewelers (jewelry store in a mall). The stone is 2.01 carat, SI2, I color. They were asking $24,000. I didn''t ask to see the GIA report.

After doing some checking on Pricescope, Blue Nile and Whiteflash, I feel like I would be a fool to pay $24,000 for this diamond. Online prices range from $12,000 to $18,000 +/-.


My trade is a 1.38 carat, marquise, SI1, D color. They would give me what I paid for it ($8,200). Kind of like trading in a car, I feel like I would just be giving it to them for free. For example, $24,000 (Mayor''s price) - 8,200(my old ring) = 15,800 (price I really should be paying).

Thanks in advance for the help. I just don''t want to get ripped off!

Here is another perspective:

24,000 (Mayor''s Price)
8,200 (for your current ring)
----------
15,800 is your bottom line

You may try selling your current stone via classifieds or taking it around to other jewelers and let''s say as an average between the two you can get $4,000 for your ring but use that money to purchase a stone online so...

16,000 (for online stone)
4,000 (sale of your current ring)
----------
12,000 is your new bottom line

Changes perspectives a bit. Obviously, selling on your own would depend upon time constraints, comfort for dealing with the public or maybe with lowball offers from jewelers. But it is an alternative!

 

[AndyRosse]

I have to agree with LadyluvsLuxury. Worst case senario, you end up with two diamonds for $16,000

, your old one and your new one.

 

[valeria101]

Date: 10/7/2005 6:16:40 PM
Author:Dora

I feel like I would just be giving it to them for free. For example, $24,000 (Mayor's price) - 8,200(my old ring) = 15,800 (price I really should be paying).

The math sounds right! What is the 2 carat, another marquise? Under the circumstances, I'd try to see how the current one you have could be sold - it seems that anything would be better than the trade-in policy

Even loosing it ...

This may or may not happen, but it may be worth asking if another seller who happens to have a suitable diamond listed would take yours on consignement or could recomend a way to sell it. If it is a desirable diamond for them at the moment, you never know.

There aren't any private sales on this forum, but that sort of thing is sometimes done on diamondtalk.com (another such forum, not always friendly towards pricescope, but this is probably not relevant at all for your marquise).


If worse comes to worst... two diamonds are better than one, no ?

On the other hand... 24k sounds more like 3 cts to me (see this one for a totally random example - there are more of the like).

 

[Dora]

Thanks everyone for your responses!! It certainly sets my mind at ease and confirms my gut feeling that I was getting a horrible deal. It sure pays to do research before making a major purchase.

I like the idea of keeping my marquise and also getting another round brilliant! Thanks Stretch4 for the suggestion!