My B&M experience today

[Addlepated]

I''ve been looking for so long online that I decided I''d better to go see some diamonds in person.

First store I went to had the Hearts on Fire round and square cuts. I''d been looking at the square H&A cut, so I thought it would be nice to see something similar. They had a couple of diamonds there. I liked them very much, but all they had was a .75 and a 2.5, so I asked to see the 1.5 round stone. 1.57 carats, I-VS2, $18,000.

Then I headed to the jeweler where I had seen a color change garnet bracelet piece about 18 months ago. He still had it in stock. About 8 carats total of color change garnets channel set in a tennis bracelet with 14k gold. $9700. And the worst part was that all the stones looked like they were slightly off in size. There were larger stones set next to smaller stones, and it looked shoddy. I''ve been corresponding with Richard Homer about buying a piece of rough and having him cut it for me, and the jeweler at the B&M store told me that concave faceting would look terrible with the garnets; it needed a lighter stone to look good and the garnet was much too dark. I mentioned that I''d seen some spectacular sapphires that Mr. Homer had cut and at that point the jeweler found that he had something else to do.

 

[Camellia]

Date: 1/8/2005 1:59:35 AM
Author:Addlepated
I''ve been looking for so long online that I decided I''d better to go see some diamonds in person.

First store I went to had the Hearts on Fire round and square cuts. I''d been looking at the square H&A cut, so I thought it would be nice to see something similar. They had a couple of diamonds there. I liked them very much, but all they had was a .75 and a 2.5, so I asked to see the 1.5 round stone. 1.57 carats, I-VS2, $18,000.

Then I headed to the jeweler where I had seen a color change garnet bracelet piece about 18 months ago. He still had it in stock. About 8 carats total of color change garnets channel set in a tennis bracelet with 14k gold. $9700. And the worst part was that all the stones looked like they were slightly off in size. There were larger stones set next to smaller stones, and it looked shoddy. I''ve been corresponding with Richard Homer about buying a piece of rough and having him cut it for me, and the jeweler at the B&M store told me that concave faceting would look terrible with the garnets; it needed a lighter stone to look good and the garnet was much too dark. I mentioned that I''d seen some spectacular sapphires that Mr. Homer had cut and at that point the jeweler found that he had something else to do.

Very convenient! I''ve basically decided to use retail jewellers as an opportunity to see what different designs look like on and in person and to see if they have any reasonable items discounted to a price that justifies the quality. I think we are getting very spoiled on PS by dealing directly with skilled craftspeople who care about their product.

 

[fortheloveofdiamonds]

Date: 1/8/2005 4:27:22 AM
Author: Camellia

Date: 1/8/2005 1:59:35 AM
Author:Addlepated

1.57 carats, I-VS2, $18,000.

GASP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Addlepated]

I''m glad I''m not the only one who nearly fainted at the price. I froze a smile on my face and thanked the sales lady.

 

[blueroses]

I mean, really, that''s obscene. Not surprising, but come on!!!

 

[chantal990]

Date: 1/8/2005 4:27:22 AM
Author: Camellia

Very convenient! I''ve basically decided to use retail jewellers as an opportunity to see what different designs look like on and in person and to see if they have any reasonable items discounted to a price that justifies the quality. I think we are getting very spoiled on PS by dealing directly with skilled craftspeople who care about their product.

Agreed with that one

 

[Addlepated]

To be fair, there is a local jeweler whom I like a lot, but they don''t carry very much in the way of loose diamonds, and no local jewelers that I know of have the same breadth of information that the online vendors do. I will most likely buy a stone online, and either have my local jeweler make a setting or order one for me.