After 4-6 weeks of emailing, he finally quoted me a price that didn't seem very competitive. The next day, I went into a cost-plus brick and mortar store and bought a rock with the same specs (4C's) for $1-2,000 less than what he was quoting me. It's hard to know for sure how much less I paid because he isn't very transparent with pricing, but that tells me you probably have some room to negotiate with him.
This is the route I’m going to take. I just can’t pull the trigger on something this big without taking some time to look it over. Yeah, my only concern is this: as more and more companies get this technology and are able to increase production efficiency, the cost of lab grown will go down. As a result, I am a little worried about the value of a lab grown diamond depreciating over time. It’s the same exact thing, but there’s a stigma attached to it. And the labor and process that goes into it affects the cost and thus the value
Same deal here. Went to a highly recommended place in Atlanta and got a rock my wife love and gets compliments on. Don't over think this. Stay out of Jared and zales and just make sure it's eye clean.
Agree with this. Fiancee gets compliments all the time on the rock I got from the brick and mortar store that was 100x easier to deal with than the rivals guy
Buying diamonds with value preservation or as an investment is a fools errand unless you're buying investment grade million dollar stones. The only downside to a lab grown diamond is that they keep getting cheaper so invariably you'll have overpaid compared to the future, but it will always be cheaper than a mined stone.
Fair enough, but with lower price comes lower perceived value. If there’s a stigma now, it could potentially get worse the cheaper and cheaper these get Don’t get me wrong, I think the diamond industry is a huge racket regardless...just playing a little devils advocate
The Credit Card thread led me to look at moissanite. Ended up replacing my wife's old wedding ring for less than half the price of original and she gets WAY more compliments. They'll even work with you on the band/other stuff on a ring. I told her what I was planning to do and got her on board (didn't want to blind side her with a fake diamond). She sent them pictures of the design she liked and they made it look exactly like she wanted. It's easy to get carried away and go too big because they're so cheap. I think we ended up going with a 7.75 mm or 1.75 carat equivalent and I'm glad we didn't go bigger. It looks huge. Diamonds are a waste of money and only worth something because women have been brainwashed. Do people ever sell their old rings? We still have her wedding dress and original wedding ring. I'd love to recoup some of the money.
You can't tell a difference. She got it cleaned and the lady at whatever jewelry store was in love with it. Wife told her it was a moissanite and the lady couldn't believe it. The lady was probably an idiot, but it's nowhere near what a CZ looks like.
We are the same. I haven't proposed yet, but my future wife was completely on board with it, and when I showed it to her mom she couldnt believe it wasn't a real diamond. About 40% of the cost, and was custom made for us too.
I've looked into it. You cannot tell the difference from one on the lab made diamonds unless you have a special machine to perform some type of test. Debeers has a subsidiary that makes these diamonds now.
Which place did you go to in ATL? I'm 99% going to go through Lake, but curious as I went shopping last weekend in ATL
Got my wife’s band here, and have also had them do some work on her engagement ring. Can’t recommend highly enough.
Yeah. I was really surprised at how reasonably priced everything was too. They have a million diamonds and a great selection of settings.
This guy has made so much money off of the rivals main board and orangebloods. Something about him rubs me the wrong way.
I’m guessing he’s from Texas. Y’all are born and bred to chug dick...doesn’t mean anything’s wrong with him per se.
I didn't like how he said something along the lines of being the direct source to jewelers in the Southeast. His price ended up being more expensive than two of my local jewelers. Owsley did you check out the rivals guy?
Anyone who tells you this is lying. There’s no “direct source” to any consumer jeweler. Close to 90% of the world’s uncut diamonds go through Antwerp, then various other exchanges before making it to consumer sales.
he was telling me about his 3 (or was it 4?) houses when I was going through the process with him in mid 2018. By his account, they bought a house in Park Hill neighborhood of Fort Worth, but couldn't decide if they wanted to live here (instead of Austin) or not. He indicated they were leaning towards selling the home after not ever living in it. That was about the least of the things that rubbed me the wrong way, but the actual transaction worked out fine.
I used him and it's a pretty intensive sales pitch. Expect super long emails. In all the back and forth, he actually ordered the wrong band. When I messaged him about it, he said he'd try to replace it and kind of blamed it on me. He said he asked for the design number and I responded with the name/description, so that's why it got confused. Whole thing kind of soured me on the transaction. Luckily the wrong band actually looked really good and I just kept it. But overall the ring looked great, price seemed a little high. We had to get it resized locally and the jeweler commented on how good the stone was, so it feels good to know that what I received was quality. I could see how the intensive sales and not being able to see the ring beforehand would not be ideal for some people.
Just depends on whether or not you buy the story he’s selling or you believe the testing labs. I compared and got a much larger diamond at a better cut and clarity online at Blue Nile or James Allen
Im posting in this thread hammered. But I need help/tips. My budget is only 4K on the ring so I’m pry screwed but any and all help is appreciated
Plain small gold band, one single unique shape diamond, no halo, no cushion, not a round or not a square diamond. Ps love you more!
You’ll likely get a better price online than you will in a storefront, no matter how good the guy is you’re going to
I used rarecarat.com to find a diamond, stonealgo.com to validate it, then brought it to a local jeweler to have it officially appraised and set. Got appraised for about 50% more than what I paid. Use the credit card option to pay though, even if it’s a bit more expensive. Just for the extra assurance.
I bought on bluenile.com. Free re-sizing and lots of other services as well. They have tons of options that can fit any size budget
And if you live together, use an incognito window when you’re shopping online. Otherwise you’ll both get inundated with engagement ring ads.
They have a whole section on education where you can read up on everything. I also would just google a lot of questions i came up with too if that site didn’t clarify it enough
I used jamesallen.com and was extremely please with everything. Think I ended up less than $4k. I'd definitely recommend them even if it was just for research. I'll have a Busch Light in your honor oldberg
Looking into rings right now, whats everyones feelings on lab vs natural diamonds? and/or your significant others feelings? You just get so much more value for a lab one. I am just so split, my girlfriend loves designer type shit but is also a tree hugger type.