Anyone think they could steer me in the right direction?

I have specifics but right now just looking into who did what and who you purchased through and about how much you spent / vs / what the appraisal suggested the price of the diamond is....


Thanks!

 

i dont know about prices but i deal with a ton of diamond dealers im sure i could find a good one for you in dfw if you want me to get you a name and number let me know

 

Cool, I will PM you next time I come up there. Thanks.

 

lol..this has nothing to do with cars so Mods-sorry if they aren't a sponsor. www.bluenile.com I got my wife's wedding set here.

 

Walmart here.

 

Ring? Guess i could have but i wanted a motor more

 

i got all my ex's jewely from sams club, i know i know, im gangsta

 

Ha Ha...you guys are funny. I prefer purses and car parts. LOL

 

I got my wife's first wedding ring at Houston Jewelry, along with the wrap. Then she lost it.

So I got her a replacement made out of Moissanite. Yes, she knows it's moissanite. This way, she doesn't feel as bad if she loses it or something happens to it. I'll get her a real diamond someday, but there's no rush. She's low maintenance, which is one of the many reasons I love her.


-Mike

 

If you are in Austin, make the short drive to Americus Diamond here in SA. NO sales pressure (no commission) and the prices are competitive. They sell only certified diamonds and have everything from $500 rings to $25,000 rings. FYI, thats where I got mine.

http://www.americusdiamond.com/

 

Bailey Banks & Biddle is where I got my lady's engagement ring very nice people.

Link


B

 

Call Danny Shaftel at Shaftel Diamond Company 713.781.5300.

They are located at:

6222 Richmond Ave.
Suite 150
Houston, TX 77057

Hope that helps,

Chris

 

I checked out
Bailey Banks and Biddle, nice stuff, really like some of it but they are part of the Zales Corp. that owns several different jewelry store names, all the ones you see in the malls usually, and their markups are ridiculous. I would not recomend.

I checked out
Bachendorf's in Dallas in Plano, extremely knowledge, professional and had nothing but quality settings, designer names, The Best Stuff but they would not move on their prices at all. If money was no object, I would go there for everything everytime. I would recomend them.

Forget places like Zales, Samuel's Diamonds, Gordon's Jewelers, etc. Ridiculous markup, and you would struggle to find a quality stuff. I would not recomend them.

I checked out Americus Diamonds but just was not that impressed, there were zero settings like I was looking for.

I checked out Dallas Gold and Jewelry Exchange, Absolutely great place to buy a watch or something other than a diamond and/or ring.

Kruger's, the old school place downtown on Congress had some great prices and were willing to wheel and deal, especially on a "cash" deal. They had some quality product and spent alot of time with me. I probably spent 2 hours there looking at different diamonds under the microscopes, discussing each one with them, learning to see the differences. I would recomend buying from them.

I shoppped BlueNile and a few other online places and heard nothing but great comments and reviews and even met 2 other people who bought their stuff there. I was going to buy from them

but

then I just got impulsive and said get it over with, I had the cash in hand from something else, literally,

I went to Calvin's http://www.calvinsjewelry.com/AboutUs.aspx
in Austin and found what I wanted, they ordered the setting, I picked out a stone from their current collection and we had a deal. I worked with the owner's sister Kathy Smith-King, everyone their has been great! My wife bought my wedding band there and we drop in about once a year and get her ring and band cleaned. I probably could have saved about 5%-10% by buying elsewhere, but we have no buyer's remorse and are extremely happy with our purchases. Obviously I recomend these folks. It just felt right.

Bought a setting by Varna http://www.varna.com/ also liked the stuff from Tacori http://www.tacori.com/

Obviously most of my comments refer to both stones and settings,

I will send you a pm w/ the name and number of a guy in CA who is a diamond dealer in West Hollywood, his wife and mine are College girlfriends, and he is a Longhorn so you know everything he does has to be great!

 

Of course you can save on sales tax, if you have it shipped to an out of state address,
or you if you buy from out of state.


Sometimes people ship empty boxes but I know nothing about that

 

If you can afford something nice, you're a fool to buy the stone already mounted, IMHO. Learn, learn, learn before you go shopping, and know about what you want.

Check out forums like www.pricescope.com before you buy. Think of it as the LS1tech of jewelry. I always research before I buy anything, and this should be no different.

I ended up buying mine (stone and setting) from DFW Diamonds, now in Frisco. Very nice to work with, and they ordered the setting I wanted. Best of luck and congrats in advance.

 

I bought her a titanium band... didn't want to buy her a rock, she doesn't wear jewelry much at all, and if I'm going to get her something to wear, I wanted it simple and something she wouldn't worry about losing if it happened.

I used to deal in gemstones and even diamonds, as well as the settings and rings themselves, and used to work with a variable amount of platinum, so I designed a few custom rings here and there and never got around to doing anything with them, they just sit in a lock box at a bank in WA state

don't buy preset stones like was mentioned, buy the best certified stone you can find... amazingly, Jewelry Exchange (houston location) has a rather impressive selection of very nice diamonds, all GIA or EGL certified and they've got some very reasonable prices. Also they carry some Trillion cuts, which many places don't carry


Just Remember your 4 C's when diamond shopping.
Carat Weight
Color Grade
Clarity
Certifications

know your clarity and color scales... if you examine a diamond under 10x magnification and can see very little carbon, you'll be in the VS2 category ... learn what its about, the more you know when shopping stones and inspecting them for yourself, the better. Don't just take somebodies word on it all the time, because they can crew you extremely badly.

also remember that the more difficult the cut, the more expensive the stone will be, and the easier it will be to see any flaws in the stone over all (which is why they're also harder to cut in the first place to mask any flaws they may have)... the cheaper cuts like round, oval and princess are also cuts that will mask many of the flaws or can be cut so they're not noticable unless magnified. It's also easier to get a much more brilliant luster in a basic cut, the light refracts differently.

take for instance a pair of diamonds, same carat weight, same color and same clarity, but two different cuts (say Round vs. Trillion), the trillion will look smaller but possibly deeper to refract more of the light inside the diamond. You'll be paying a bit more in the end for the less traditional cuts

just things to think about.


after you've found the stone you really want, then you start shopping settings, rings and materials.

you can get a platinum ring with a white gold setting (platinium settings are far ******* harder to manipulate unfortunately, I lost quite a few of them my first tries) for a much more reasonable price that way. Go to a local jeweler, somebody who does not have a "retail" presence... they will do more custom work and will do a better job of it ... may take more time to find the right settings, but the workmanship will be better quality, and more to what YOU want it to be.

anyone can just go buy a cheapo ring somewhere, but if you truly value what you're doing and want something different... go wild, as long as you learn beforehand, you can do no wrong

 

some of their stuff, unfortunately, is far far overpriced for what they are.

they do have some nice things though I do have to admit.

 

local pawn shop or flea market? JK bro, try the jewelry exchange (Houston) fairly competitive. Good luck man

 

quarter machine at walmart, her and the ring are now gone.!!

 

go 2 the most popular flea market where u from... they might throw some earrings half-off or so...lol

^^^jk

I went to Gordon's Jeweler for her engagement ring..

I spent money on her instead of car mod's but I will do all the modding when I'm done with school.

GL