The Perils of buying a Ring

You don't know much about jewelry, diamonds, gems... the idea never occurred to you. Here's where we can help, by presenting some resources for more information, and pointing out some pitfalls to avoid.

BAD DIAMOND BEHAVIOR

Some of the things to worry about with diamonds are:

Lasering: this is when a Diamond has tiny holes drilled with a laser to reach inclusions (flaws) which are then injected with acid to bleach and lighten them so they may appear less visible and will look like a better grade of Diamond.

HPHT: High Pressure High Heat treatment which will alter the color of a Diamond making it appear to be more colorless and therefore look more valuable.

Fillers: Fissures and hollow inclusions are filled with a glass like substance (often in conjunction with lasering) to, again, make the Diamond look better than it is.

How to avoid these? Good paperwork in the form of a grading report from a major lab such as GIA (Gemological Institute of America) is a must these days.  BUT, how can you be sure the piece of paper, the certificate, actually goes with the diamond you are getting? At Foxfire Jewelers, when you buy a diamond from us, we will show you with our video microscope, the features that match the certificate, often including the microscopic serial number on the diamond. If you are buying a diamond from us via the web, you will get a signed paper from the owner of the company, Michael Babinski, Diamontologist, GIA trained diamond grader, stating that the diamond matches the paperwork. We haven't stayed in business 26 years by cheating our customers.

See our page about Diamond Quality.

CHEAPLY MADE JEWELRY IS EXPENSIVE

When you shop with commercial jewelry stores, the total cost of the jewelry is less than custom jewelers. However, let's consider the two business models.

When a ring is made for commercial jewelry stores it is mass produced. This usually means that the people who are working on it are paid low wages because they don't really need skills beyond one part of the assembly line. It may even be made in China. So there's some savings there. But what about the costs of the factory? The Manager, foremen, advertising execs, janitors, sales reps that sell to stores, their sales managers, export managers, etc. all add to the cost. 

With all these added costs, commercial jewelry would be more expensive than custom, except for one thing: they cut down on the jewelry itself. Factories have made a science of reducing the precious metal content of jewelry, using paper thin sheet, hollow forms, thin shanks, to save a bit here, shave a bit there. The skill levels at the factories sometimes even mean that the jewelry is shipped out, new, with stones that are already loose!

Then there's the gems. Really gemmy, beautiful gemstones and diamonds that really sparkle cost money, because they are precious and beautiful. Their very poor quality counterparts are almost free. The difference between a clear, clean, ideal cut diamond and a cloudy, off color piece of carbon that can technically be called a diamond can be 20 to 1 or more.

Years ago, I went into a famous jewelry store whose name I won't mention (breakfast, anyone?) and I was stunned at how their diamonds sparkled. Special lighting? No. I figured out that they were using ideal cut diamonds even for the small side stones in their rings. We found a precision cutter in New York who produces these, and we now use them exclusively. The funny thing is that they won't cost you any more than fair to average cut diamonds of the same quality.

So how about custom made jewelry? About 1/3 of the cost of a custom piece is spent in getting it made specific to you. There is consultation, designing, modeling, and casting that is done by very skilled people to make it just for you. The rest of the cost is in the higher quality way the jewelry is made. It is typically heavier and the casting quality is superior. The polishing is done by hand to ensure no loss of detail. The gems are usually, well, really Gems. The stones are set by a skilled artisan, with precision, in settings that are designed to offer more security. You may pay a little bit more, but you get a whole lot more.

See our page about Custom Jewelry, or our Custom Jewelry FAQ page.

BUYER BEWARE

The FTC guides for the jewelry industry have been softened, and are not really being enforced.

Retailers are permitted to lie and call themselves "Wholesale." Stores mark down totally fictitious prices 50%, even 75% and no one questions it. (50% OFF What?)

Here's some terms to watch out for:

"Diamonique, Diamonessence, Diamon-whatever"... these are not diamonds, they are not 'superior to mined diamonds' they are just cheap imitations.

"14KHGE, 18KHGE", the HGE stands for Heavy Gold Electroplate, but in fact it's just gold plated costume jewelry. Gold plating is much thinner than paper.

"Clad entirely in 23 Karat Gold".... more gold plated costume jewelry.

"Clad entirely in platinum".... more plated costume jewelry, most likely rhodium or palladium plated.

"Faux" a pretty sounding French work for Fake.

Remember to read the fine print, if they even bother with it.

Choose a jeweler with a passion for the business and a history and good reputation.

THE SAME RING

Gentlemen; You save up your money, choose the prettiest ring at the mall store, present it, she says yes... Great! Then she's at a party showing it off to her girlfriends, one of whom turns out to have the same ring. How does she feel now? Much safer to go with a custom ring that shows her how much more effort you were willing to put into making it one of a kind for your unique love.

FAMOUS BRAND JEWELRY

If you really want a famous name on your jewelry box, be prepared to pay as much as 3 times what a custom jeweler will charge for a piece which is the same quality. Maybe that's important to you, maybe not. That being said, don't ask the custom jeweler to knock off the big guy's designs - the custom jeweler probably has great designs of their own.

BUT HEY! DON'T WORRY, WE'VE GOT YOU COVERED. CHOOSE FINE QUALITY, UNIQUE CUSTOM JEWELRY BY FOXFIRE JEWELERS.