LIWs, what are your feelings on recycled diamonds?

[beadchick]

I, also, am not an LIW. I'm still not really feeling the dating thing after what happened last year. At any rate, I was in a similar situation, and here is what I found out/did.

So, practically, I tried to sell his ring. No biters on ebay or another forum site I am on (when offered at less than half of purchase cost). So, then I tried to sell on craigslist, a Nigerian scam ensued, snide remarks on pricescope when I attempted to warn people of the scam, and then finally, tried to sell it back to a jewelry store. After I was offered 200 bucks for a $2200 ring (from a reputable jeweler), I finally decided to hang on to it. I have no idea what I will do with it, but you know what, I don't HAVE to know what I'm going to do with it right now. I can use the diamonds for another project later, wait til the market improves, whatever. As long as I don't look at it, I'm good. The important thing for your guy friend to do is make sure its somewhere that he cant SEE it in the near future so that he can prevent evenings after he's had a little too much to drink and decides to pull it out, look at it and feel sorry for himself (not that I ever did that). Important thing is, out of sight, out of mind.

MY engagement ring became a pendant (sorry ladies, have been holding out on pics, work is nuts lately) and I LOVE it. I picked the diamond and have to pay for 1/2 of the cost of the ring, so why shouldn't I keep it? I debated for a while, but you know what, you loose SO MUCH money by selling it. It really ends up being an emotional, not a logical, decision to make. Would I use the diamond for the someday asscher 3 stone e-ring if I met someone right? You bet. I see so many upgrades, new settings, etc on here. I am one of those who strongly feels that the best way for a guy to propose is to pick out a GREAT stone, put it in a plain presentation setting, and let HER decide on her setting. If your buddy has a great stone, it can go in a generic setting and he can let the girl he will give it to someday decide on what ring she will wear for the rest of her life.

All in all, its just a diamond. To get rid of it for the sake of ridding bad karma is just gonna give him more regrets b/c he's going to feel taken advantage of b/c of how much money he will lose. At the very least, if things just happened, he should put it away and decide in a year. I'm a big fan of not making major decisions when there is a lot of emotion involved.

Btw, I have a friend whose father is a diamond vendor in NY. You all DO know that most of the diamonds on the market are already recycled, right? They aren't coming out of some vault at DeBeers. A diamond might have been worn by a woman who was in love with her husband for 50 years, or it might have come out of a horrible divorce. Part of the mystery of the stone, I guess!

 

[iheartscience]

I'm glad he's made a decision that he's happy with, and I'm sorry he's been so hurt.

I do have to admit I'm a little insulted that those of us who do not want to be given a gift that was chosen for another woman are being painted as impratical, not down to earth, etc. I, for one, would rather not receive any diamond, or any other gift, than receive something my boyfriend picked out with love for his ex. I'll take no diamond, just the boyfriend, please. No gifts at all is about as practical as it gets. But to each his own.

Ditto this. I wouldn't want a "used" diamond from my boyfriend's broken engagement, but I also wouldn't want to date (or marry) a guy who thinks my opinions are impractical. Honestly, diamonds are impractical, so using a diamond as a litmus test is ridiculous. For that matter, any sort of test in a relationship is ridiculous, too.

Let's hope your friend doesn't meet anyone for a while. His bitterness is pretty apparent, and I don't think it's going to help him win the affections of any woman, practical or impractical.

 

[karpouzi]

Personally, I don't care for larger stones in rounds. 1 ct round is about my limit. Other women don't like rounds at all and would prefer a fancy cut. Or a colored stone. Or a sim. Or not even having an engagement ring and instead putting that money towards a really fantastic wedding band, or a vacation, or a down payment on a house. I could go on, but my point is, he bought this stone for a particular person, and his theoretical future fiancee might not care for it at all, putting aside the back story. I think he should sell it now at a loss (or hold on to it until the economy improves in case he can get a slightly better price, perhaps) and put the proceeds in a savings account for the theoretical future ring purpose.

I too don't understand how telling his dates about the diamond is going to weed out the "impractical" ones. I think it's kind of a cruddy attitude frankly to say "here, I picked out this diamond for someone a while ago and it didn't work out, but I already have it, so whether you like it or not, this is what you get."