There are tiers within the diamond and jewelry industry for a reason... Manufacturers are often good at producing a product, but not always good at marketing that product especially on a direct level to the public. Most of the diamond dealers who we know are great people, but they lack the patience to work directly with the public. Why should the diamond dealers spend 45 minutes on the telephone holding a client's hand to help them purchase one diamond when that dealer can spend half that time on the telephone with us and sell thirty? Why should Verragio or any other jewelry manufacturer risk their strong position in the designer jewelry market to sell one ring or even thirty a day direct to the public, when they can sell hundreds a day to the trade in the form of exclusive territories? The person who started this thread expressed a desire to buy a ring direct from Verragio for "wholesale" and then was surprised when they wouldn't talk to him... One ring, maybe $3-4K on the outside - buying "into" a designer line with an exclusive territory? About $50K to start with and that's not touching the yearly contract agreement... Do the math, who would you do business with?
Sure, the public has a right to shop for the best price that they can get. We ourselves shop for the best price that we can get on the major purchases that we make, however we do not attempt to bypass the retailers who brought the product to us in the first place and try to buy direct from the manufacturer. You may notice that major manufacturers of electronic products like Sony, IBM, HP, etc. sell their products direct to the public via their web sites, but they do so at prices higher than you can find the products for from the retailers who support their business... The retailers who built their businesses in the first place via face-to-face marketing of the products to the public. Over the years, we've helped to build up a few product lines for companies that later decided to cut out the retail front line that built the demand for their products and more often than not, we've watched the company fade into oblivion or be reduced in quality to the point that it is no longer desireable to the people who would have purchased it before.
The public needs to be recognize that some things are worth paying a little more for... Like the service provided by a diamond dealer / retailer who evaluates the diamonds being offered to weed out the ones that don't perform... The ones with inclusion types that are undesireable... The inclusions that present a durability risk to the stone... The diamonds that don't match the characteristics described on the lab report that accompanies the diamond... The diamonds that were sent out in the wrong parcel papers... The wrong sizes... Who do you think will have more pull with a manufacturer when there is a problem - the single person who bought one ring - or the jeweler who buys 100 rings a year from that manufacturer?
One of the things we have witnessed over the past few years in our industry is the development of price wars between the on-line diamond dealers and it is a sad development. Since so many of the dealers rely on virtual inventories to sell diamonds to the public, they are all fighting over the same stones in hopes of selling "it" to a single client. Instead of making a decent profit - a fair profit - so many of them are discounting the stones to ridiculous profits... This is occuring right here on PriceScope... Conduct a search for a 1.00 - 1.05 carat, F color, VS-2 clarity ideal cut diamond graded by the AGS - several will appear, but why is the same diamond listed by eight to ten different dealers? Do they all have the same diamond? Have they all seen the same diamond? No - most of them will never touch the diamond offered for sale - if they are able to get a "nibble" on it from the public and secure a sale, they will have the diamond drop shipped direct from their supplier... Happy to make $50.00 profit on a seven thousand dollar sale. An excellent "deal" for the public - or is it? What happens when these on-line dealers drive diamond prices too low by battling over a few dollars profit? Two things... Diamond prices may become unstable... And then the public may lose money on their diamond purchases and they may lose confidence in the diamond market itself... But more likely, DeBeers will step in and prohibit the diamond cutters themselves from selling to on-line dealers at all. Think we're crazy? Dealers - put your ears to the wall and listen to what you hear... The diamond dealers have already begun to indicate that DeBeers is pressuring them to cut you off... It's because some of you put $8.00 profits on one carat, F, VVS, ideal cut diamonds... The public wants "wholesale" well, there it is... But will you be here in five years to service that client when they want to upgrade it? And if not, what diamond dealer / retailer is going to give them even half what they paid for it in trade towards another gem? Most of the retailers who we know only give a fair trade-in value for diamonds that they initially sold towards another diamond that they are going to sell... Correct us if we're wrong, but sometimes there are benefits to paying a little profit... And making a little profit - it enables us to remain in business and continue to service our clients... We've been in the jewelry business since 1979 and people have always tried to get the best price that they can, we can respect that, but we're still going to point out the obvious when it needs to be said and the obvious thing here is that the "wholesale" this gentleman is hoping for is not available to the public.
I dont think you're going to find this ring at a wholesale price. If you do, great, but the designers tend to set their pricing pretty much the same across the board whereever you go. I dont have any advice to you sorry. 
