Tiffany Questions

[RingLife]

Hello Ladies,
I walked into Tiffany's and again looked at the soleste and I love it. The sales lady who helped me was very friendly and helpful. I am wondering 3 things:
1) The sales lady gave a card that states "The Tiffany Difference" and when I open it up it states "Tiffany rejects 99.96% of the world's gem-grade diamonds. Tiffany diamonds are cut with the most exacting proportions to reveal a superior striking diamond. Every Tiffany diamond engagement ring is handcrafted, hand cut, and hand polished. Just as it was done in New York 130 years ago." My question is why does Tiffany reject 99.96% of diamonds?

2) The sales lady told me that the value of a Tiffany diamond never goes down it only goes up. She stated that when someone purchases a Tiffany diamond they can bring the diamond back at anytime for an upgrade and Tiffany will buy back the diamond at 100% of the cost that the diamond was purchased at. Is this true?

3) This is about Tiffany financing. I heard Tiffany offers two types of payment options: Tiffany Charge Account and the Tiffany Time Account. What is the difference between them? I did research and read that Tiffany pulls your Equifax score. Does anyone know what a score they are looking for?

 

[bmfang]

#1 has an element of truth to it, but most of the entire statement in that card (or book which I have) is spin put out by their marketing folks. I remember a post on here a while ago by the head honcho of Crafted By Infinity who was commenting on the sale of rough diamonds that Tiffany didn’t want to cut themselves. Just because they reject those rough gem quality diamonds, it doesn’t mean that those rough diamonds aren’t good enough. It could mean that they are just looking for easier rough to cut and polish and leave the “harder” rough to other cutters. It doesn’t mean that those rough diamonds they leave to other cutters will not be beautiful stones once cut. Having said that, I’ve walked into Tiffany stores with my wife and her BGD Blue outperforms their stones in their store lighting (to our eyes, far better fire and brilliance). All at a far cheaper price. Staff there at the Australian stores I’ve visited also have not been forthcoming on specification data in terms of crown and pavilion angles, table size, depth. All stuff that any reputable jeweller should be able to tell you if they sell GIA Or AGS (or heck, even IGI or... even the dreaded EGL) graded stones. Granted, their Tiffany solitaire setting is an iconic jewellery design and one that is often imitated (either very well or very poorly).

#2 is true... to a point. Try selling a Tiffany ring on the secondary market (ie not an upgrade at Tiffany) and you will find that you will likely get anywhere from 50-70% of your purchase price back. The only place where you will get 100% of your purchase price back is at Tiffany’s. Provided you meet the conditions of their upgrade program. Diamonds are like cars, etc. Once sold, they take a depreciation hit.

#3 can’t comment on as I’m not based in the USA so some of the other folks on the forum will be able to assist. However, I’m generally not in favour of financing a diamond. House and car, yes. Maybe even investments, but not a diamond.

 

[RingLife]

Thank you very much for your information.

 

[Allisonfaye]

There are two types of people in the world...those that care about having a branded diamond and those that don't. I think people often assume Tiffany or any branded diamond is a better cut diamond than anything else out there on the market and if you spend a little time on PS, you will find that is not always the case. In fact, often non branded diamonds are much better cut. Now I am not including some of the PS vendors that have their own ideal cuts.

Many people don't want to bother researching a diamond purchase because they think it is confusing and time consuming. So they go to Tiffany's or the like and buy there just assuming it's the best diamond out there.

I enjoy the hunt and getting a good deal. I went to Harry Winston's and figured out what I wanted, found a vendor on PS and bought a better diamond than they had at Winston for 1/3 of the cost.