Diamond Jewelry Zales

Posted by admin on Friday, April 23, 2010 · Leave a Comment

diamond jewelry zales
Why are some jewelry stores so cheap?

Such as Kay’s or Zales? And why do they always have sales? Are their diamonds and rings flawed? Tiffany’s is like 3x the price!

Well, the wide range of prices is due to a number of factors. First and foremost, jewelry is marked up an obscene amount, always–generally 300 to 400%. If you’ve ever tried to sell a diamond ring back to a jeweler, you know what I mean. My ex-wife sold her ring for which I paid $5600 for $1200–after she shopped around at several jewelers and negotiated like crazy. That’s because a jewelry store doesn’t pay much more than that for the jewelry they sell to you. That’s also why jewelry stores will run specials that seem like insane bargains to you and I; there’s so much markup on the jewelry in the first place that the store is still making plenty of money on the sale items.

Any diamond you find at Zales, Kay’s, etc. will always be flawed to some degree. Internally flawless diamonds are extremely rare, and exorbitantly priced. A “flawed” diamond is not undesirable, though: there are several categories of diamond clarity wherein the flaws are not even visible to the naked eye (VVS1, VVS2, VS1, etc.). Some aren’t even visible under 10x magnification. So unless you’re planning on people looking at the ring on your finger under a microscope, paying 5 or 10x as much for a flawless diamond doesn’t make sense. Also, their diamonds are usually near-colorless, (color ratings up to I or J generally), which are generally not a noticeable difference from a colorless diamond, rated D. Cut, symmetry, and a number of other factors also come into play.

Any reputable jeweler will tell you the GIA ratings of the diamond you are looking at. These ratings contribute to the per-carat price of the diamond, which determines the final price. A good place to get educated about the grades of diamonds available is bluenile.com, which also has thousands of loose diamonds that you can search through to get an idea of how the grade affects the price.

As for high-end jewelers, and Tiffany’s in particular, the price difference is mostly due to the reputation of the jeweler. Although Tiffany’s will offer a higher grade of diamonds in most of their jewelry, this is an afterthought compared to the prestige of being able to say, “He took me to TIFFANY’S to get my ring!” Also, Tiffany’s and higher-end jewelers will carry jewelry designs by artisan (overpriced) jewelers, which cost more for the same reason: there is some prestige in being able to say your ring was designed by Soandso.

I’m not knocking high-end jewelers. For some people, the bragging rights of a Tiffany’s ring are well worth the extra cost. But, that’s the reason for the price difference.

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