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Cheapest diamonds in Europe

Mr Benevolent

I'm basically looking for an engagement ring, or a loose diamond. As we are all aware Ireland is a rip off.

I am aware of the 4C's of Diamonds, its more the prices i'm looking for. If anyone has advice on prices or experience in buying diamonds abroad fill us in if you can.

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bigbadcon

Have a look at www.bluenile.co.uk

They're website is great for either rings or just diamonds..

Mr Benevolent

Did you do it over the internet? If so how was it? Most important question, did you get the diamond? did ye get the GIA cert with it?

AnnieB82

I've ordered my engagement ring and our wedding bands on blue nile. I read up on the 4cs etc and then built my own ring. I expect it next week and will let you know what I think, but from what I've heard, most people seem very happy with their rings...

lasalle

get your ass to antwerp, bring US dollars cash, diamonds are valued in dollars, and by paying in cash select dealers there will cut out the belgian tax on the price,by going there you'll cut out any middle men, majority of outlet in ireland and elsewhere get their diamonds there

bigbadcon

sorry forgot all about this thread.. Yeah you get all the certs and documentation with it. Would highly recommend them.
Its insured post etc and the customer support were very quick to answer any questions I had.
The ring designer is very good too.

In the unlikely event that your girlfriend doesnt like the ring you get you can get a refund ...although there is a fee of about 100 for the price of the cert or something.

Check them out.Well worth it..

K-Stand Red

Long term lurker on this forum re engagement rings, felt obliged to post a brief detail of a recent trip to Antwerp with my fiancee.

I would definitely recommend Antwerp as a destination for engagement rings / diamonds your euro/dollar goes a long way, much much further than any of the reputable jewellers in Dublin.

We booked a 4 day break in Antwerp. I would suggest 2 days minimum to ensure that you give yourself the time to consider all of the options
available and ensure that you do not rush into a purchase that is most probably one of the largest cash buys that you will complete.

We had done our homework before we travelled and had a good understanding of what to look out for to ensure we were shown quality diamonds only. We booked 4 appointments ahead of the trip and had provided the various jewellers with a good idea of what we were looking for both stone/setting and budget wise.

I am not going to go into referring on names of jewellers in Antwerp, especially in a first post, what I can say is that we used referrals on previous threads on this forum and made appointments with these stores, it is fair to say that none of them disappointed. To cut a long story short, we were able to get an engagement ring custom made over 2 days with a HRD cert and 20% cash discount which has now been appraised at home in Ireland ( over 2 times more than was paid ). The appraisal means nothing as such as my fiancee is over over the moon with the ring, that said, its a great feeling to travel 2 hours away and get real value for money.

My advice is if you can get do your homework, get yourself to Antwerp cash in hand and bring your negotiating hat...

An Ri rua

bigbadcon wrote: »

In the unlikely event that your girlfriend doesnt like the ring you get you can get a refund ...although there is a fee of about 100 for the price of the cert or something.

Check them out.Well worth it..

That's one of the primary reasons we went for it. Total privacy as you choose your diamond and build your ring. Nobody standing over you and not feeling that, dammit, if we don't get this sorted by 6pm we're going home emptyhanded.

Surprised they don't send out a ring sizer when you first start searching. But they don't. I bought one on eBay myself. The string thing can go so wrong, in my opinion. You're talking about half-sizes and something you don't want to have to re-size. Or LOSE!

And like above, primary incentive is that if you don't like it, for any reason under the sun, they have to take it back! That's EU e-commerce law. I couldn't see one single reason not to go with Bluenile. GIA is the superior cert anyway. If you want to just buy loose diamonds, BlueNile is the closest thing there is to access to a real-world diamond market. But, I would never buy a diamond as an investment. Apparently, the price of diamonds rose from September crisis onwards, as Russian diamond-buying spiked for this very reason. Diamonds are not a great investment. See www.moneyweek.com for more on that. they may be a hedge against catastrophe, but they're not gold.

Whether you go Antwerp or BlueNile, you'll get double the value. But a diamond is never a true investment. Think of the love instead, man!

weddingtrainer

Confab wrote: »

I'm basically looking for an engagement ring, or a loose diamond. As we are all aware Ireland is a rip off.

I am aware of the 4C's of Diamonds, its more the prices i'm looking for. If anyone has advice on prices or experience in buying diamonds abroad fill us in if you can.

Go to turkey. The likes of Kusadasi have great diamond stores at unreal prices. I would be careful over there though as the untrained eye is easily fooled. Some mega deals on authentic diamonds though!

legalmillie

Has anyone been to New York to buy their engagement ring? We're considering going over but not sure if we will save anything by going. Has anyone bought from the internet sites - obviously you can't haggle with them and could if we went in person with cash. Thanks for the advice.

JohnWest

@legalmile Have you had any luck in getting details on jewelers in NYC. I'm trying to get information myself for the same reasons.

Betti

I got mine from diamonds.ie

I went around all the usual Grafton Street haunts first and the price differance was huge! It worked for us cause we were on a bit of a ridiculously tight budget and I wanted something original and sparkly!

You should have a look at the website anyway.

kitesurfingbum

I purchased my ring from www.voltairediamonds.ie
Had the ring valued (independently), my ring cost 50% of valuation.:D

PS
A. If you buy in a diamond online, only purchase if it has a GIA cert.
B. Online is cheaper than Antwerp, I am over there once a month and I bought online.

legalmillie

JohnWest wrote: »

@legalmile Have you had any luck in getting details on jewelers in NYC. I'm trying to get information myself for the same reasons.

Hi Johnwest,

Yes we got two good recommendations - I can pm them if you still want them. We've had a look around town and found what we want and we're going to New York in August. The prices are a lot cheaper - about a half again if not more here in Dublin. I also checked Antwerp prices and they are more expensive than NY. You can get out to New York for around EUR350-400 at the moment and even if both of you go it still works out cheaper to go to NY. HRD and GIA are the best certs to get btw.

Millie

martmcc

Hi

We recently bought directly from a dealer in Antwerp - before going over we looked at a ring here and got the full spec the stones. The Jeweller here wanted €23K. I provides all of the details inc photos of the ring to the dealer and gave him my budget which was €8K and asked him to get as close as possible to the ring we saw here which was a three stone ring. He sourced the stones and provided copies of the certs for out approval then had the ring set (no money changed hands until we agreed on the stones and then only €400 to cover the cost of the setting). When all was ready we went over to collect it and were stunned by the result. The ring was identical to the one we saw here. We brought it home and immediately had it valued in Paul Sheerans - they valued it at €17500 - we paid €8400. We also bought a single stone ring while there for somebody else - we paid €11200 and it was valued in Sheerans for €20500. So well worth the effort and leg work - If you want details of the dealer whos offices are in the International Diamond Exchange - ping me. PLease note all of his diamonds come fully certified and he is a pure gent to deal with.

pepe7

Just wondering if anyone has ever bought an engagement ring from www.factorydiamonds.co.uk? Unbelievable value but just sounds too good to be true.

PH4T

bigbadcon wrote: »

Have a look at www.bluenile.co.uk

They're website is great for either rings or just diamonds..

Was chatting to Blue Nile in Dublin this morning about getting a ring from them.

One thing they said to me was that if you get the ring sent to Ireland you pay 21% VAT but if you get it sent to somewhere like Switzerland you don't pay any VAT.

Does that mean if I get the ring sent to a friend in Zurich it's VAT free?

Theboinkmaster

I'd recommend Hanikens in NY - we bought an amazing ring there for about half of what it would cost in Dublin.

martmcc

Hi Guys

I bought from a Diamond Broker in Antwerp - 2 rings - one was a Solitaire and the other a 3 stone made to our spec. Paid 7K for the 3 stone and 11K for the solitaire - both came will certs and were assessed by Paul Sheerans in Dublin - the 3 stone is valued at 14.5K and the solitaire at 21K.

I will provide the details of the broker if you PM me

martmcc

Sorry guys - meant to add that I did an overnight in Antwerp and they were worn back on the flight.

susancollins

search in Google there are many results...:)

badboyblast

Whats the difference between the broker and the shop mart?

engol

I'm considering either online from bluenile or a trip to Antwerp (I'll be nearby anyway so not too far out of the way). Which would the recommendation be now? I'm nervous about buying such an expensive item online, sight unseen. I want to buy earrings. Can someone reassure me this is a good idea?

Edited to add, I was thinking of trading in my stud earrings to upgrade them, or have those made in to a ring and buy new earrings, can I do this in Antwerp or is there a way for that to be facilitated through bluenile, anyone done it?