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Antwerp?

  • 04-12-2014 3:34pm
    #1
    ericzeking
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,662 ✭✭✭


    Hi there, first time post in this section.
    Myself and the girlfriend fiancee (ha) are recently engaged and are looking at rings as I used a token for the question. Anyway, we've heard lots about going to Antwerp for a great deal but from looking around I'm not sure that independent jewellers in Ireland who do bespoke stuff are not as competitive and the difference will be much of a muchness by the time the trip is paid for.
    I'm looking at a budget of 4-5 grand.
    Anyone with recent-ish experience out there? Thanks.


Comments

  • #2
    fits
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 13,777 ✭✭✭✭fits


    If you want great design by independent jewellers, Ireland is great. If you want a bigger better diamond for your money, and a weekend away for yourselves, Antwerp is probably the place to go. Never been there but am very happy with my experience here.


  • #3
    sydneyie
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1 ✭sydneyie


    hi there, I just came across your forum post and was wondering if you had any luck in Antwerp or if you stayed local in Ireland? it can be pretty overwhelming shopping around the city centre however we don't want to make the trip all the way to Antwerp if it isn't much different. Any suggestions or tips would be greatly appreciated, thanks very much!


  • #4
    ericzeking
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,662 ✭✭✭ericzeking


    sydneyie wrote: »
    hi there, I just came across your forum post and was wondering if you had any luck in Antwerp or if you stayed local in Ireland? it can be pretty overwhelming shopping around the city centre however we don't want to make the trip all the way to Antwerp if it isn't much different. Any suggestions or tips would be greatly appreciated, thanks very much!

    I ended up going with an independent jeweller in Cork, from the research I did, I figured that at my pricepoint (~5k) what I would have saved would been much of a muchness by the time the trip was paid for and the stress of landing on in a foreign city with a bag of cash to pay a dude you will never see again was accounted for. Most of the independent guys do fairly rigorous sourcing from what I could garner and they are competitive on price, I know that my valuation was a good bit more than what I paid.

    Maybe if you were paying mental money of 10 or 12 or 20 grand or something, it might be worth the trip for the discount but then if you have that cash you're probably not bothered by a bit of a saving!!

    I went back to the jeweller that I got the ring from for another piece for xmas afterwards and he looked after me again so there is a lot to be said for shopping local with someone you may become familiar with.

    Also, what we did find is that my wife picked out a ring that she never in her life thought she would go for, that was from multiple visits over the course of a couple of weeks, with a lot of thinking time involved and trying different rings, if you go to Antwerp you're going to be on an in and out operation so you mightn't have that luxury.

    Good luck with it.


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