Engagement Ring

BobbyFowler

It might not be the romantic approach but here it goes.....
I've just ordered a brand new Seiko Watch through Ebay. The retail price is 650 Euro & I've got it for 360 Euro. I'm going out with my girlfriend nearly 7 years at this stage. Am I fooling myself by thinking that it will work out well if I buy a ring worth 7K for 4K on Ebay. I don't have a notion regarding rings. I'll probably laughed out of it for saying I got the ring on Ebay......Maybe someone has an idea if I'm fooling myself here.

m8

I would say it's ok to buy some pc kit but I don't I would like to spend that much on that kind of kit unless you know whats what....might be buying a dud.

Bluehair

You're nuts. If you want to save money on the ring book a long weekend in Dubai and buy the ring there. I've bought/sold a lot of things on ebay including a car but i'd never buy an engagement ring on there.

kaizersoze

4K for an engagement ring:eek: . Are you mad?

rubadub

I will be selling a curtain rail ring, ehmmm diamond ring next week on ebay, always on the lookout for suckers, ehmmm good customers like yourself.

doesnt matter if it is genuine and worth €100k, if her mother finds out you bought it on ebay you're a dead man! just sounds so wrong...

shaneos

I think that the Dubai idea is good... at least you get something out of it too!

Your best to bring the future missus along with you to pick the type of ring SHE likes. Price doesn't really matter as long as she likes it. Pick a price range and then get her to choose a design. Once she has decided on the design you go off with the jeweler and talk price.

It doesn't matter if you are getting a 3K discount off a ring or not - as long as she likes it!

BobbyFowler

Yep, I reckon you guys are right. I'd be ripped to shreds by her family if it leaked out. Come to think of it, my own family would disown me. We were actually over in Antwerp at the weekend and that's what got me a thinkin'. I'll have to give this a bit more thought. I heard Dubai mentioned - anywhere else worth looking at? What about Buy and Sell?

tabatha

i would never buy a ring on ebay. i have bought many things but not jewellery. i wouldnt even consider buying a watch on there as so many of them are fake.

frankie pickles

BobbyFowler wrote:

It might not be the romantic approach but here it goes.....
I've just ordered a brand new Seiko Watch through Ebay. The retail price is 650 Euro & I've got it for 360 Euro. I'm going out with my girlfriend nearly 7 years at this stage. Am I fooling myself by thinking that it will work out well if I buy a ring worth 7K for 4K on Ebay. I don't have a notion regarding rings. I'll probably laughed out of it for saying I got the ring on Ebay......Maybe someone has an idea if I'm fooling myself here.

You should really bring her out and get an idea as to what style she will like... you only get one chance and your future "frustration levels" depend on making the right choice...

daiixi

whatever you do, make sure you get a receipt and can return it coz chances are she's not going to like it!!! I know I'd much prefer a ringless proposal than a ring I hated and couldn't take back (coz chances are the shop won't have another one I would like and I'd hate to have a 4K credit note for a shop which I hate)...

chicken_food

My girlfriend and i both have an agreement for IF (and a big if) we ever get engaged. Whatever one spends on the ring, the other will buy a gift of similar value. That way I wont be spending 10k on a ring, which she'l end up paying for if its a marriage ie 50/50. This way we both for example get 5k of presents. Sounds a bit weird when i say it, but we'r both happy with the arrangement!!

alc

We got her engagement ring made by an Irish designer, makes for a real personal result, she didn't want a diamond in the end, went for an aquamarine stone. The ring was made of plenty of platinum and the final price was 1600e. The shape and design of the ring was completely up to us but he brought us lots of pics, ideas & drawings. He even made a mockup in silver before the final platinum one to show us what it would look like. For the stone he brought us books and samples and sourced a particular shape/cut of stone for us from his own dealer as he didn't have one in aquamarine.

A good example why this was a more personal direction to take: One of the reasons we eventually went for a non-diamond stone is that they actually aren't that rare (raw diamonds occur in vast quantities naturally), the "rarity" and hence price of diamonds is artificially controlled by business cartels. He was full of useful info like this, like what stone is hardest & rarest, what cuts are not good for a particular stone (eg: unless you pay megabucks for emeralds they can crack and shatter easily), what stone will resist the oils from your hand (so u dont need to be cleaning the effing thing all the time), platinum while looking quite similar to white-gold is much denser and so is much heavier and substantial-feeling, etc etc etc.

My sister did something similar, she went out with the hubby-to-be to an arts & craft market and found a ring with a design she really liked, thing was it was made of silver & cheap stones and cost about 20euro. So they took that ring to a designer/ringmaker and had them replicate it in platinum and precious gems.

Anyway, just a few cents on the topic. I can look up that chaps details if you want but there are loads out there, the only tricky bit to choosing a designer is you need to get one certified to work with precious-gem-stones. The best thing to do to find one is to go to some of the snazzy design shops and take down the name of the designers whose rings you like and then look them up in the phonebook (there's lots of design shops that will "broker" for you, but this will of course mean part of your bottom line will be going to their pockets just for phoning the designer for u!).

a bit OT - I agree on the 50/50 thing, I got a scooter for my troubles!

Santa Claus

If you have an idea of what she wants you can get it cheaper in south africa.
2 of my mates have brought their fiances there in the last 2 years and ended up getting a free holiday and some change in their pocket compared to what they would hve spent in Dublin for the same ring !

m8

chicken_food wrote:

My girlfriend and i both have an agreement for IF (and a big if) we ever get engaged. Whatever one spends on the ring, the other will buy a gift of similar value. That way I wont be spending 10k on a ring, which she'l end up paying for if its a marriage ie 50/50. This way we both for example get 5k of presents. Sounds a bit weird when i say it, but we'r both happy with the arrangement!!

LOL You just want to make sure she dosent gain out of the deal.....he..he..he

garyh3

Hi All,

I bought my wife's diamond on ebay. 1.75 Princess cut D colour Si1 for about 4000 Dollars ( i was living in the US at the time)this was 5 years ago. The guy I bought it from gave me a free platinum setting. The diamond had a certified appraisal

I would def do again.

Just do some research about dimaonds the 3 C's. Get an idea of the type of diamond she is looking for an there you go

Lindaloo

My friends original engagement ring fell apart so she used the diamond and got a ring made. It cost less than 800 Euro and is worth over 1500

It was jewellers on Abbey Street and they are supposed to be fantastic. Check out getting one made, costs a fraction of the price and it'll be exactly what you/you both want

rubadub

garyh3 wrote:

Hi All,

I bought my wife's diamond on ebay. 1.75 Princess cut D colour Si1 for about 4000 Dollars ( i was living in the US at the time)this was 5 years ago. The guy I bought it from gave me a free platinum setting. The diamond had a certified appraisal

I would def do again.

Just do some research about dimaonds the 3 C's. Get an idea of the type of diamond she is looking for an there you go

Did you get it valued since or accepted their appraisal. Just wondering if there is money to be made buying and selling stuff like that.

Tazz T

garyh3 wrote:

Hi All,

I bought my wife's diamond on ebay. 1.75 Princess cut D colour Si1 for about 4000 Dollars ( i was living in the US at the time)this was 5 years ago. The guy I bought it from gave me a free platinum setting. The diamond had a certified appraisal

I would def do again.

How many times do you plan on getting married?:)

garyh3

LoL;-)

Well if she ever lost the diamond I would claim the insurace and replace via ebay.

If you use ebay then you should know the right way to buy items.

Gazza22

Not worth the risk!

Just go to a jewellers like most people and cut out the gamble!
And the wife to be wouldn't be too impressed if she found out you bought it on eBay....i can see the arguement now! :rolleyes:

m_stan

we did all our research for our engagement ring on ebay - just to find out what she wanted and liked. We came across a seller that had an ebay store. we followed it up and checked out their own website and ended up buying from them. got a lovely platinum ring with all the paperwork for half what it would have cost here and she was delighted.

we got ours from www.shenoa.com around three years ago

again, what does it matter where you get it once you dont get ripped off and she is delighted

Dades

m_stan wrote:

again, what does it matter where you get it once you dont get ripped off and she is delighted

Agreed. She's not going to care if the ring is twice the size!

I bought a car over the net, but I'd be hesitant about diamonds. Instead I used a guy who has a workshop on Wicklow St (Dublin). Made to order, saved about 1/3rd on shop price. PM me for details if interested.

bk

rubadub wrote:

Just wondering if there is money to be made buying and selling stuff like that.

No, the value of Diamonds is completely artificial. The resale value of Diamond rings is only a fraction of the original purchase price.

The idea that Diamonds are worth something was created by the greatest marketing campaign any company has ever produced. The idea of giving diamond rings as an engagement present only arose in the 20th Century due to an incredible marketing campaign by De Beers (the marketing campaign is required reading for all marketing students).

The other part of the equation is that De Beers controls most of the diamond mines in the world and artificially keep the supply low to keep up prices. When massive diamond mines were found in communist Russia, De Beers made Russia a partner to ensure that the diamonds didn't flood onto the market. Diamond reserves are actually so large that if there was a free and open market in them, you could buy a Diamond ring for less then an iPod.

People who get a personalised ring made is a very good idea as it has far more sentimental value, they are often better quality and because of their uniqueness, might even end up being worth more then a mass produced diamond ring.

rubadub

bk wrote:

No, the value of Diamonds is completely artificial. The resale value of Diamond rings is only a fraction of the original purchase price.

The idea that Diamonds are worth something was created by the greatest marketing campaign any company has ever produced. The idea of giving diamond rings as an engagement present only arose in the 20th Century due to an incredible marketing campaign by De Beers (the marketing campaign is required reading for all marketing students).

The other part of the equation is that De Beers controls most of the diamond mines in the world and artificially keep the supply low to keep up prices. When massive diamond mines were found in communist Russia, De Beers made Russia a partner to ensure that the diamonds didn't flood onto the market. Diamond reserves are actually so large that if there was a free and open market in them, you could buy a Diamond ring for less then an iPod.

People who get a personalised ring made is a very good idea as it has far more sentimental value, they are often better quality and because of their uniqueness, might even end up being worth more then a mass produced diamond ring.

Very interesting post. Never knew any of that, so I presume there is nobody really investing in diamonds like they do with precious metals. You mention the resale value is far less, this is what I would expect and more the point I am getting at for making money. i.e. if you were a jeweller or knew your stuff you could pick up dirt cheap second hand rings and sell them on in a shop. I am sure some could be cleaned up and sold as new or just sell legitimately as second hand but out of a shop where the buyer will have comeback if they find it is fake.

RotalicaV

Its the thought that counts, give the woman an onion ring or if you really want to spoil her.. a hula hoop.

BobbyFowler

Whatever about my original query - the watch arrived today and seems to be the real deal. Brought it to a jeweller to get the strap tightened. They said it's the genuine article. It was in their store for 690 and I got it for 355 Euro (inc package)

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=8915228406

I'll hold off on the engagement for the time being though........

bk

rubadub wrote:

Very interesting post. Never knew any of that, so I presume there is nobody really investing in diamonds like they do with precious metals. You mention the resale value is far less, this is what I would expect and more the point I am getting at for making money. i.e. if you were a jeweller or knew your stuff you could pick up dirt cheap second hand rings and sell them on in a shop. I am sure some could be cleaned up and sold as new or just sell legitimately as second hand but out of a shop where the buyer will have comeback if they find it is fake.

Shops do buy and sell second hand jewellery, however it is extremely discouraged by De Beers, if any shop was doing it too much, De Beers could just instruct it's traders (middle men licensed by De Beers) to stop selling Diamonds to that shop and they would probably go out of business. This has happened.

Of course there is also the whole issue of "conflict" diamonds. Diamonds mined in areas controlled by revolutionary insurgents and smuggled out and sold on the black market. De Beers claim these are immoral as the profits go to funding the insurgents war and you should only buy De Beers diamonds. But then is that any worse then the money De Beers gives to the dictators in power throughout Africa and the communists during the cold war?

There was many people investing in Diamonds, however De Beers tried to stop this and after a bubble developed, investors started to realise that there wasn't any real value in them and the market went pop!

There is a really long but extremely interesting read about hte whole Diamond industry and De Beers here:
http://edwardjayepstein.com/diamond/prologue.htm

mad m

BobbyFowler wrote:

Whatever about my original query - the watch arrived today and seems to be the real deal. Brought it to a jeweller to get the strap tightened. They said it's the genuine article. It was in their store for 690 and I got it for 355 Euro (inc package)

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=8915228406

I'll hold off on the engagement for the time being though........

Fairplay.Nice watch and a nice price also.

Victor McDade

BobbyFowler wrote:

We were actually over in Antwerp at the weekend and that's what got me a thinkin'. I'll have to give this a bit more thought. I heard Dubai mentioned - anywhere else worth looking at?

Cyprus. Far cheaper than this country for jewellery. And prescription glasses, strangely...

johnnyrotten

garyh3 wrote:

Hi All,

I bought my wife's diamond on ebay. 1.75 Princess cut D colour Si1 for about 4000 Dollars ( i was living in the US at the time)this was 5 years ago. The guy I bought it from gave me a free platinum setting. The diamond had a certified appraisal

I would def do again.

Just do some research about dimaonds the 3 C's. Get an idea of the type of diamond she is looking for an there you go

Its the 4 C's
Clarity - Cut - Carat - Colour

alc

Not only is the entire "diamonds are rare, pay loads for them" something conceived and managed by DeBeers, but now there are 2 commercial companies making near perfect diamonds (one of them making them too-perfect) using presssure and plasma technology. They're actually developing the techniques with the aim to use diamond wafer instead of silicon in circuitry boards, but are going to sell to the GemStone market to raise extra capital. Great read:

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.09/diamond.html

so if you want something actually rare and precious, pick another stone, there's lots of them.

joolsveer

I bought a diamond ring for my wife in the Jewish quarter in New York last year and she had it appraised by Weirs in Dublin. They valued it at nearly twice what we paid for it.

patch

joolsveer wrote:

I bought a diamond ring for my wife in the Jewish quarter in New York last year and she had it appraised by Weirs in Dublin. They valued it at nearly twice what we paid for it.

Just out of curiosity, when a place values a ring at a high price does that mean they will hand you out that amount of cash for it?
Or is it simply a 'value' ie. not in reality worth quite so much cash.

joolsveer

patch wrote:

Just out of curiosity, when a place values a ring at a high price does that mean they will hand you out that amount of cash for it?
Or is it simply a 'value' ie. not in reality worth quite so much cash.

I think it was a valuation for insurance purposes but it must be based on some kind of "market" or replacement value.

Takeshi_Kovacs

Four grand for a piece of vanity!! that will most likely be replaced after a few months with something even more expensive... Damn people have lost sight on whats real and whats not...

bk

joolsveer wrote:

I think it was a valuation for insurance purposes but it must be based on some kind of "market" or replacement value.

I'm afraid not, if they were making the valuation for insurance purposes, they base it on how much you would have to pay to buy a "new" one in a store in Ireland. If you actually asked them to buy it, they would only give you about a third of the value.

This article pretty much explains it all:
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/198202/diamond

joolsveer

bk wrote:

I'm afraid not, if they were making the valuation for insurance purposes, they base it on how much you would have to pay to buy a "new" one in a store in Ireland. If you actually asked them to buy it, they would only give you about a third of the value.

This article pretty much explains it all:
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/198202/diamond

But isn't that the replacement value?

Sigh!!!...men!
It isn't the expense that makes us girls want a diamond, it is fact that no other stone is as sparkley!!

Personally I don't want the same three stone or round solitare everyother irishwoman seems to have, I want a very detailed ring something antique, with a old european cut centre diamond. In low light these stones reflect big chunky mirror like flashes, mesimerizing! and I figure ebay is the best place to go, because it is pot luck, and it would take you years of trawling antique stores to see the same range as you would get in a 20 minute surf on ebay.

Also I really wonder why people chosse platnium, I know it is the most expensive option, but the metal dulls and scrathes really quickly.

animaal

It isn't the expense that makes us girls want a diamond, it is fact that no other stone is as sparkley!!

Yup, typical magpie behaviour. It's no wonder women are referred to as 'birds'. Don't get me started on 'nesting'

Dades

johnnyrotten wrote:

Its the 4 C's
Clarity - Cut - Carat - Colour

Don't forget "Cise".

the corpo

unless you're actually minted the idea of spending so much money on an engagement ring totally baffles me.

the money people spend could be so much better used against a mortgage or amazing honeymoon, especially with so many people getting trapped into insane 110% mortgages.

i'm getting married later this year, and we chose a cheap, but gorgeous, ring so that we could put the money towards an amazing month long honeymoon instead. we're hoping to get to new zealand, australia and japan. i think something like that is waaaay more valuable. different strokes, i guess...

JoeyJJ

just got engaged at the weekend while on holiday, need to find some decent Jewelers around dublin, looking for something around the 2k mark hopefully..

lynski

When we got married two years ago I didn't want an engagement ring, partly because I proposed and partly because I felt it was an artificial throwback to an age when women were considered as male property.
I did, however, want some sparklers, so we bought a beautiful white gold diamond set wedding band in Malaysia on the way to getting married in Oz and had the hubbies band made to order in Sydney. I have not had it valued, but anecdotally looking in shop windows we did pretty good, prob at least 25% to 30% less expensive.

the corpo

the corpo wrote:

unless you're actually minted the idea of spending so much money on an engagement ring totally baffles me.

the money people spend could be so much better used against a mortgage or amazing honeymoon, especially with so many people getting trapped into insane 110% mortgages.

i'm getting married later this year, and we chose a cheap, but gorgeous, ring so that we could put the money towards an amazing month long honeymoon instead. we're hoping to get to new zealand, australia and japan. i think something like that is waaaay more valuable. different strokes, i guess...

Personally the way I look at it is that a wedding or honeymoon amount to just a few days of your life whereas the ring is thing that will remind you of your love, day in day out for 50 years and it will be one of the physically piece of your realtionship that you leave behind.
Having said that I think it is important to love your ring and not it's price tag, If the ring I really wanted cost 200 yoyo, I wouldn't swap it for all the rocks in the worlds.

colincarnate

I read the start of this thread so don't know how it's went since but, if you buy an engagement ring off ebay you're a total Hero.

redman

Whatever you do, get to see the ring under UV light to see if any of the diamonds show Flourescence.

I got my wife a ring, it wasn't cheap , from a very reputable Dublin Diamond Ring supplier and a few months later in a nightclub we noticed one of the diamonds glowed blue. :eek: It looked quite perculiar and would have been fine if they all glowed!

Anyhow we don't do much clubbing now, so it's not noticeable.:rolleyes:

turbot

Now I use ebay all the time, though I wouldn't buy big ticket jewellery from ebay unless I personally had sufficient expertise to make sure what I was getting was actually good value, vs presented as good value.

I personally think you're mad buying a diamond ring on ebay because:

1) it's very hard to trust the quality of the diamond

2) there is a significant chance you'll have to get the ring modified to fit her finger

3) it's hard to know exactly who to trust for such things, and diamonds are specialist items


BTW. one of my best friends runs two Jewellery shops in Dublin, so I've heard all kinds of inside stories about what can happen within the trade and you might be shocked.

If I were buying a ring, I'd get one from him.

If you are interested, PM me, and I'll forward you his name and the shops he works in.

While I doubt you'd get as much as discount as you highlighted on ebay, I'm sure you'd get a very good deal and a very good ring for the money.

Found the perfect ring for me on ebay!! I was very particular about what I wanted and so he didn't get a say!
It an antique from the 1940's, is quite spooky actually because if I was designing a mounting this is the exact mounting I would have made, it is quite unique and harks back to the art deco period.I did do a round of the antique shops months back and that is how I decided on this setting.So I was sure it would suit my hand.
The only thing I had to compromise was on the cut of the diamond, instead of the chunky OEC the ring came with a transitional cut.Which is somewhere between the a modern and old stone.The diamond is a half carat GIA certified G colour and SI1 clarity, however the table has a good spread and would measure the equilvant of a 3/4 carat in the average well cut OEC.
The ring did have to be resized at a cost of 20 dollars, not an issue for me.
And all for less than 500 yoyo's.

daveg

For all those looking to buy a ring take my advice and don't buy in Ireland. We shopped around for my now wifes engagement ring. Some rings looked really nice and were keenly priced. However without fail on all occasions when we looked into the 4 C's the ring's were "way way" overpriced.

We bought hers from www.cooldiamonds.com. You can pick your exact diamond and setting so you get a great deal and peice of mind your not getting ripped off.