Piglette
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« on: February 21, 2007, 09:59:36 PM » |
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It seems to me that only two "Types" would buy a major piece of jewelry over the internet.
A "Type I" Internet Jewelry Buyer is a Salvador Dali Venn Diagram: Venn Diagrams: you know, all those circles that intersect? Like from the logic classes you slept through in tenth grade -- "red marbles" inside the intersection of the "red" circle and the "marbles" circle? And Salvador Dali: the painter obsessed by the melting clocks? Imagine a Dali Venn Diagram. (Ick!) And the qualities in all those Dali intersecting circles are not good qualities. The "Type I" Internet Jewelry Buyer is at the intersection of circles labeled "naive," "stupid," "possibly greedy," "really, really, really dumb," "hopeless," and "there's one born every minute." In short, the Type I Buyer has LOST her marbles -- red or otherwise.
Now, on the other hand, we have a lovely sketch of the "Type II" Internet Jewelry Buyer. This is the very picture of careful wisdom. This is a buyer who spends with caution. It may be a buyer who has limited access to "brick-and-mortar" stores. This is a buyer who wants value for a dollar, and is smart about using the almost limitless choices available on-line. But only an idiotic melting clock would make a major purchase via the internet, without some serious research. You have to check stuff out! You know -- it's like the time that you needed a good used car, and Uncle Howard down South (who is your favorite uncle of all time) was willing to go check out the super deal you saw listed on eBay, and he looked under the hood and he kicked the tires, and it turned out that the eBay car was the genuine article: a good deal from a reliable seller.
In short, the Type II Buyer wants DaVinci to paint her a picture of Uncle Howard standing next to a nice Volvo station wagon.
Ummmm.... no.... I think that I got lost somewhere in those paragraphs...
Okay, skip those paragraphs. Go back and don't read them.
More succinctly: If you make a major purchase on the internet, you are either a total idiot, or else you do your research and get good merchandise from a reliable source.
So, it turns out that David from DBL/Rock Diamond is a very reliable source.
How do I know this? Well, I sent Uncle Howard off to New York City with a nice bag of marbles...
No. I did a LOT of research. I won't bore you with the details. You can easily duplicate my internet browsing and reference-checking. And you will likely come to the same conclusion as I have: David will sell you a gorgeous diamond or piece of jewelry at an excellent price.
I have purchased two rings from David: the first was an Asscher-cut-center stone ring, with the diamond just under a carat. (Did you notice that David sells diamonds priced from under a thousand dollars up to multiple hundreds of thousands? This impressed me, and it suggested to me that he likes all kinds of diamonds, is willing to scrutinize even the smaller ones carefully, and is also building a customer base and probably expects "trade-up" business and repeat purchases.)
The first ring is a beauty. The setting alone announces to anyone nearby that this is a ring of Quality. My ring has caught the attention of one ex-boyfriend, numerous former high-school classmates (including several obnoxious cheerleaders), my veterinarian, every bank teller who sees it, etc., etc., etc.
The second ring is, in theory, of "lesser" quality. (Disclaimer: By "lesser quality" I actually mean "not as completely flawlessly 'D' colored.") The center stone was a "K" color, with "I-1" clarity. Now, you would TRULY have to be a brainless wonder to purchase such a diamond over the internet. ... Stupid, naive, greedy, gullible, dumb-dumb-dumb. ... Unless, of course, you have either your trusted Uncle Howard, or else David.
David told me that the "K" diamond faced up white. He said that the cut was excellent, and the inclusion very difficult to make out. The only part he was wrong about was the inclusion: I honestly have yet to see it. I know it's there -- and my checking account (happily) knows that the inclusion is there. As for the rest: WOW, WOW, WOW !!!!!
I suggested yellow side stones (see discussion elsewhere, if you're not asleep yet!). David loved the idea. I wanted 18k yellow gold. David said "why not?" I wanted rectangular side stones. David said, no, go with the diamonds that are more nearly a square; the proportions will be better. (And these side stones that David was "pushing" were about $1,000 LESS than the ones I was first looking at! -- Well, I just figured that either HIS clock was melting, or else he was looking at the diamonds, in person, and actually cared about the overall design.)
In my small home town, we have a lovely, long-term, reliable family jewelry store. The best jewelry store in town. The owner sold my mother the diamond that Mom had waited 25 years to own. That jeweler doesn't sell junk. She sells lovely pieces at a consistent, fair mark-up. And she knows most of her customers by name, and she remembers what she sold them. She stands behind her work. But she doesn't deal much in colored diamonds. Or radiant cuts. And my small home town is about 1800 miles from where I now live. So now, in my small internet world, I have another reliable jeweler, who sells lovely pieces and stands behind his work.
And what scrumptiously yummy work it is, too!!!!
I like to think that I am a "Type II" Internet Buyer. And DBL is my chosen "Type A+" internet jeweler.
Good luck... Do your research... Buy with confidence and a giddy sense of happy expectation... And then prepare to gasp with pleasure as you open that nice box from New York City!
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