NYC Diamond engagement rings

HeeBeeGeeBee

Hi People,

I am heading to New York in two weeks and am going to pop the question to my girlfriend of four years. I was going to get her a nice ring in Ireland (Like a friendship ring of some kind) to use when asking the question and then let her pick her own engagement ring (providing she says yes!) in New york. Can anyone who has been to NYC please let me know of any good places to go to look for an engagement ring while there and give me a ball park figure of how much would be a good amount to spend to get a good one for her,

Many thanks,

HeeBeeGeeBee:)

Cathmandooo

Moved from Gift & Festivity & Party Ideas

HeeBeeGeeBee

Thanks Cathoo,

Am new to all of this!

seamus

You want to go to the Diamond District on 47th St.

http://www.diamonddistrict.org/

It's basically an entire street of Jewellery shops who specialise in selling diamonds. You're unlikely to find yourself at the wrong end of a con artist there, as the reputation of the entire place depends on the shops looking after people.

You should be able to get a good 1 carat solitaire (which is relatively big in Ireland) for somewhere between $6000 and $7000. You have to haggle. Have to, have to, have to. They would probably put a price of $10k on that diamond in the shop window but will knock 20% off it for any old reason, such as "It's a Friday". If you look like you might leave the shop, they'll knock another $1k off it.

That's just a guide price by the way - you don't have to spend $6k. You can get a perfectly beautiful diamond for half that or even a quarter of it.

There should be a sticky at the top of this forum about how to shop for diamonds, it's useful to read and know this stuff before you go. Your diamond must come with a certificate - this proves that it has been professionally examined and graded. If you get a GIA cert, the GIA headquarters is around the corner from 47th St and you can go there and they will do an appraisal and verify that the diamond you've been given matches the diamond on your certificate. That's just for an added piece of mind that you've not been ripped off, costs around $100.

I can only recommend one shop, because we only went to one . Diamond City is right at the end of 47th at the corner of 6th Avenue, they looked after us.

Lady

Depending on your budget you could bring her to Tiffanys and let her pick her own ring, a friend of mine did this recently and got a lovely ring for a few grand. And what girl doesn't want one of those blue boxes
Good Luck

Cavehill Red

seamus wrote: »

There should be a sticky at the top of this forum about how to shop for diamonds, it's useful to read and know this stuff before you go. Your diamond must come with a certificate - this proves that it has been professionally examined and graded. If you get a GIA cert, the GIA headquarters is around the corner from 47th St and you can go there and they will do an appraisal and verify that the diamond you've been given matches the diamond on your certificate.

Oh, such a good idea. I did a course in Antwerp on diamond grading before I bought a ring for my better half in Hong Kong. I reckon I saved the price of the course about five times over, when I was able to refuse the X10 loupe and demand they bring out their microscope to view the stone, queried the clarity grade, demanded to see the GIA certificate, etc.
Ended up with a stone that was valued at well over twice what I paid for it when we got it home.
I appreciate everyone isn't going to be as anal as me and go to do a course in Belgium before they buy a precious stone. But some sort of sticky would certainly help point people in the right direction.
Value = carat + colour + clarity + cut.
If you don't know the meaning of these terms or aren't sure how to evaluate them, then don't buy a diamond until you do.
Carat is the weight. How big the stone is. Colour is how close to clear it is. Clarity is how flawed it is when viewed through proper magnification. Cut is how well it has been worked by the stonesmith.
That's for starters. Hopefully a sticky will ensue.

SoCalBrent

While its never a bad idea to educate yourself about such a large purchase, a basic understanding of the 4C's of diamond grading will give you enough information to read and understand a diamond grading report. When it comes to grading reports the clear leader is the Gemological Institute of America (GIA). They were the lab the developed the 4C's of diamond grading system, and are a education and research institution. They have the strictest standards of diamond grading, and have been around for many, many years.

Always ask for a GIA grading report when your looking at a diamond. You can trust the information to be 100% accurate, and armed with that information you can ultimately make the best decision.

If your looking for a great, fast way to get a good understanding of the 4C's look no further than gia4cs.gia.edu , ive learned a ton from that site and its enabled me to shop in a much smarter way.

Congratulations on making the leap, and best of luck to you.

Shoves

We got engaged last year in NY and got our ring in Hanikens in the Diamond District - www.haniken.com

It's a family run business, and we dealt with Emily who couldn't have been nicer and gave us great advice. You pick out what cut / setting you think you'd like and they make it up for you. It takes about a day or two for them to do so and get all the paperwork sorted, so I would go there sooner rather than later in your trip. A lot of Irish get their diamonds there - friends of ours had been there a few weeks earlier, which we only realised afterwards.

All diamonds are GIA certified and when we got it home we had it re-valued - twice what was paid for it.

Best of luck with the proposal!

SmithySeller

Another one for the Diamond District. I bought a cheap ring to pop the question and then headed down the next day (convenient as I was staying on 44th Street). We got a fantastic diamond at a fraction of what you would get it here, although exchange rate was good too. They should show you charts on how the 4 C's are gauged and priced, although this is a guideline, but best to do a quick wiki lookup first! Best of luck..

HeeBeeGeeBee

Thanks so much everyone for the great advice. It will all be duly followed..