Hi,
I was wondering about how people went with shopping online for engagement rings.
I'm currently on james allen and bluenile, trying to find a bargain. What did people do and how was their experience?
I'm leaning towards james allen for the fact that they have rotating pictures of the actual diamond that you buy, although it seems the choice of the ring/setting is not as varied as bluenile.
I think 'cost effectiveness' in this context means price vs. most likely to say 'yes'.
Isn't it almost a no brainer. What percent of proposals are not discussed to some extent before the question is "popped", I wonder.
When you wrote cost effective Engagement Rings…. When you wrote cost effective my brain went into overdrive wondering what you meant, something like best return on the fiance or something like that :)
Well I went to the other end , didn't read it well till I came into the post only to be disappointed, thinking on the lines of "Enlargement rings" or something like that.
I got mine off Amazon. Dont tell her that though. But you seem to be on the right track anyway.
We were living in the US at the time and contacted a diamond broker. He got several diamonds in, based on our criteria. We rejected all of the ones in the first lot. Maybe the second as well. We got a better diamond than you would find in most shops. We paid the price he allegedly paid for the stone and 15% commission. It was good value.
Be careful of buying one without input from the GF. I once actually saw a woman who had a diamond bought for her, start bitching quite bitterly that it was retarded as soon as she opened the package. She just kept saying it was retarded. What a blow for him. This was a stone that was over 2 carat. I think it was the setting that was retarded, but I bet he always remembered that. Once we got my stone set and the ring on my hand, I started crying. My husband kept buying me diamonds after that.
A good man wants to do the right thing by the woman he loves. If he thinks he's capable of it and gets rewarded for it, he will keep doing the right thing.
Be careful of buying one without input from the GF.
Really depends on the people. For some this is great, for others it is not. If you are confident that you can pick something close to what they want and you will be appreciated for this, then my recommendation is to go ahead.
I sincerely feel that the ring should run a distant second to the sentiment expressed. I'd hate to be entering into a commitment with someone who cared more about a rock on a ring than the quality of a life together.
IMHO, people are becoming far too materialistic & superficial.
/rant ;)
I get what you are saying, my meaning is this: If you can pick out something that is in the style that your partner likes and they appreciate you going to the effort then the materialistic token actually has more meaning than an expensive rock. Also I don't think that it has to be expensive at all to fulfil this (or even diamond).
Agreed.
'If he thinks he's capable of it and gets rewarded for it, he will keep doing the right thing.'
Mrs Pavlov?
and if she doesn't like them at least you have your first meal on your own- ready to go…no cooking recq.
Aaaah it burns!!
My suggestion is go and look in real life at at least 3 places. You need someone to talk to in real life to understand what you want and what looks good. If you have already know that then its a no brainer
Then buy online if you really want
I would honestly look for alternatives to diamonds. Ok, it's not a diamond, but you can get dozens of other gems that look much nicer or even the same as diamonds.
Here's an article from 1982 about diamonds and their "rarity". http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1982/02/have-you…
Of course, you can't really go wrong with a diamond, but there are plenty of other beautiful gems out there, I don't see why diamonds are automatically… set in stone.
(Apologies for this poorly worded post, I'm tired)
I completely agree, with one limitation:
Only do this if you think your partner is OK with it. If they have bought in to the whole diamond-fairy-tale-love-story marketing then getting something else might just make things unhappy.
Additionally the ring I purchased for my wife while diamond is not a traditional style engagement ring and though it is what she wanted she gets frequent comments from other women along the lines of the rings appropriateness.
I wanted to get a saphire as its what we used to use in the UK pre-diamonds… then bloody Prince William did it and I felt everyone would think I was copying him so I wimped out and went diamond anyway.
My wife supplied her own rings (Grandmothers Engagement and wedding ring)
Cant get any more cost effective than that.
How did you propose with your grandmother-in law's engagement ring ? Perhaps an arranged marriage ?
All depends on what your perception of cost effective is.
Below is a guide on the 4 C’s
http://www.thediamondbuyingguide.com/fourcsofdiamonds.html
All the C’s play a part so it is better to have them all treated equally per se.
There is no point getting the largest diamond but poor quality.
So what you would try to aim for is a balance of each C.
The criteria for me when choosing my fiances diamond was:
Cut – Very Good (minimum). Excellent (Preferred) Determines the amount of light (brilliance) from the diamond. Better cut = better refraction of light.
Clarity – VS2 (minimum). VS1 (Preferred) Very Small (VS) inclusions not visible to naked eye
Colour – G (minimum). F (preferred) Less colour means the diamond looks clearer and less tainted.
Carat - .5 (minimum). .7 (preferred) Size
Certificate – The certificates between organisations vary considerably. Gemological Institute of America (GIA) are regarded as the most reliable & consistent valuers. The price is generally higher as well. Other organisations will value a diamond and say it is the same quality but they aren’t equal.
What I ended up with.
Cut – Excellent
Clarity – VS2+
Colour – G
Carat - .7
Certificate – GIA
The diamond worked out to just under 4k. It can start to add quiet a bit when you increase the size obviously but also when you change from a G colour to F.
You can get a feel for whats in your budget here.
http://www.alldiamonds.com.au/
Just search based on the criteria your after.
I got it revalued once it was set in a ring. It was valued more than what I paid so I think it was cost effective.
Good luck!
I proposed to my wife with a cheaper aquamarine ring as I was confident I would not be able to pick exactly what she wanted. We ended up getting our ring made by The Goldsmithery in Glenelg (Adelaide), We told him our price range and what we wanted the ring to look like. He brought diamonds in a few different times until we pick the one we liked that was in our price range. It ended up costing us less than half the price it would have if we bought the same ring off the shelf in a jewellery store. He was very friendly and was not pushy and made the ring exactly the way we wanted. He also provides a certificate of valuation for insurance purposes.
recently went through this. best option is definitely to buy a cheap ring and use that to propose with. girls have dreamt their whole life of their perfect ring and wedding day. make her happy and get her to choose. it's fun as well. tell her she can get what she wants, but a ring bought from overseas will be 3x greater for the price. we bought a petite platinum ring with awesome stone for $3000 from whiteflash.com. here it would cost $10k
whiteflash are great, but if something goes wrong you are responsible for shipping approx AU$120
james allen and blunile are also great. also try amazon
girls have dreamt their whole life of their perfect ring and wedding day.
Some girls have. Others dream of being have the ring picked for them. Others just don't care. Be aware that generalisations don't apply to everyone.
Be aware that generalisations don't apply to everyone.
Be aware that generalisations don't apply to everyone.
That whiteflash site is ah horrible site to use ..
US COSTCO
http://www.costco.com/solitaire-rings.html
Positives - was able to get the exact same spec ring for about 1/4 of the price ring an Australian broker could
- can return/swap the ring easily
Negatives - very limited choice, better choice costco online but savings aren't as good as in Store
- will need to use a reshipper as they won't send directly to Australia
If you do go for bluenile, don't forget to sign up for ebates.com. They currently offer 5% back. I got about $300 back when i go it through them. Also amazon currently give back 3% for jewelry from ebates as well.
I bought a diamond from Blue Nile.
It cost less tha half the price of the same in Perth.
The transportation was swift and secure, came with the GIA cert and the stone is engraved accordingly.
Buying an expensive engagement ring is one of the BIGGEST waste of money ever, EVER.
I had to grit my teeth and smile because it made the other half happy.
If one has to buy one of significant value, Blue Nile is the way to go…then have a local jeweller set it.
Just be aware that you have to pay GST…….the gov will see the value of the rock then hold it until you pay the GST…I had to pay more than $1000 just in GST.
I wanted BN to put sub-$1000 receipt in there but that is not their MO (unfortunately).
I would suggest looking at second-hand rings.
There are plenty out there and can be obtained at a good discount to new.
If you want you don't even have to tell the fiance that it is recycled.
I used my g-grandmother's ring for my engagement and it worked out great. Didn't cost me a cent and, 17 years later, still going strong.
Good luck.
but the thing is a family heirloom definitely holds more value than some secondhand ring. And i don't see how you can sidestep the (frankly, inevitable) question of the ring's origin short of lying.
If your fiancé is happy with secondhand rings, more power to you, but unfortunately society has developed a certain stigma when it comes to owning secondhand goods from strangers, especially with items intended to carry sentimental value.
I spent around $10k on blue nile for the ring, a good deal in context, half the cost it would have been at a jeweller here. Since my wife got pregnant and had our first kid, it has sat in a safe in my parents house as it is no longer close to fitting her. She wears a larger ring she bought for $35 at some random shop.
Long story short, very happy with blue nile and would recommend them. I have ordered from them again since, and the bang for your buck as well as service is excellent. The above story is just to put things in perspective though - much like computers, it can be very tempting to spend an extra few hundred to get something bigger, and then a bit more again to get something even better than that. Set a total budget and see what you can do within that.
I'd also consider spending a bit less on the ring and a bit more on a fancy evening or setting for the proposal. If it matters to you what other people think, you'd be surprised how many look at and ask much about the ring, but everyone will ask 'how did he propose?'
A piece of jewelry that is not worn is a total waste of money.
Why not use the money to go on a decent holiday instead.
Spend min on rings and buy her something more practical instead e.g. a car. Thta is just me
Twenty years on, even divorced, I still have my diamond. It is worth, as a liquidation sale, a little bit more than we paid. I have been through three cars since then. It amuses me that people will spend more money and more research on a TV than a ring that may last a lifetime.
I am curious about this. Where can you sell the "second-hand" jewellery without getting it devaluated? Obviously stay away from gold buyers or cash converters?
In this instance, the tiffany style setting (Not "Tiffany") is minimal. 1% of the value. The stone would be removed when sold. Better to examine it.
Does it need to be a real diamond?
I mean a man made / "fake" diamond looks exactly the same to the point where not even a trained eye can pick them apart (This is why now all man made diamonds have must have microscopic text laser engraved on them to identify who made it and identify that it is man made)
Man made diamonds are also exactly the same as diamonds from the ground. The only difference being the way the diamond came into existence.
There are also lots of other stones and things which can be used that are not a diamond and look as good / better
I bought with WhiteFlash. I found the quality of cuts to be much better than James Allen. I bought a Hearts and Arrows diamond. H&A on James Allen are very…loose in terms of H&A quality. I liked how you could see their diamonds as well, and you could see a bunch of different scopes and the certificate. Very nice and detailed.
You will also find that AGS 0 is stricter than GIA excellent.
I personally went for the best cut (H&A), then everything else was less important. I looked at diamonds from D-I, since it's damn hard to distinguish between colours (lighting, skin colour, ring colour effect what the diamond looks like, and even then you need a reference to tell the difference). I looked at diamonds from VS1-SI1 as long as they were eye clean. I ended up buying an eye clean SI1. Theres no point getting VVS2 or higher, since you won't be able to tell the difference. Just go for eye clean because you can't tell between an eye clean SI1 and an IF unless you whip out the magnifying glass.
I ended up with a .64 F SI1 hearts and arrows diamond for about $2300. Spent about 800 on the ring with them.
In the end it's what she wants. I assume you know her well enough to know what type of ring she likes. If not, just get help from her friends or go with a classic style.
A person's value as a human being is inversely proportional to the price of the engagement ring.
Awesome. Mine was $239…so am thinking my personal value is rather high…
I'm surprised at how much people spend (even OzBargainers by the look of it). I knew we weren't spending a lot when I pointed out the ring and subtly hinted to my then-boyfriend "that's the ring I want…it would be lovely if someone proposed to me with it". But I didn't realise just how little we were spending in comparison to most people!
I always told myself that if I felt like I was missing out I'd buy a huge rock later…10 years on and I've always managed to find a lot better things to spend my money on.
i bought from www.diamonds-usa.com and got it posted to a friend's girlfriend who was in florida at the time visiting her grandparents. paid ~$7k and got a 1.62Ct. Radiant H VS1 Diamond in a bridal set (1/2 carat worth of tiny side diamonds around the band - set alone was $1275, diamond was itself $5694
from the research i did at the time, a rock that size/quality sourced locally would be pushing the $15k mark rather than $7k, they deliver to aus but you'll probably get reamed on tax, if you've got someone who can bring it back for you to avoid customs i'd recommend it. even with the tax it'd be cheaper overseas i reckon.
can highly recommend the store for customer service too, the damn thing was shipped from israel to florida in under 48hrs.
a workmate who studied gemology (random, considering we worked in IT) said that it was an awesome quality diamond & great deal i got, not to mention the now wife loves it to bits. possibly more than me~! :D
on a side note- i got my own ring (titanium/carbon fibre, yea!) from www.boonerings.com and can once again highly recommend them for amazing customer service
Huge, blingy rocks with claws get in the way of so many everyday tasks, go for something streamlined.
She has to wear it forever, so her input is key or she'll be cranky every time she looks at her hand. Try proposing without a ring (yes, you must get down on one knee!) and you'll get an honest answer, not a diamond-struck 'oh wow, that's beautiful, sure, yes' regret-it-later response. Go for the 'you want the life partnership to start right now so you want both of you to choose a ring together' angle.
I helped design my custom made sapphire-centred engagement ring, was gorgeous but I didn't factor in having to fit a wedding band alongside it (shape was not 'huggable'). Ended up getting a second engagement ring that was in a Michael Hill Jeweller matching wedding band set just prior to the wedding, so the two rings link in perfectly together. Matching set stays with me, custom one will go to daughter later.
Great topic!
Had a bit of a read, and it seems these all relate to white diamonds.
Does anyone know where they sell pink diamonds? 1PP to be exact. We got quoted $5k for a .7 carat.
So looking for something a bit cheaper.
$5k for a .7 ct means nothing. The quality of the actual cut even plays a part, as does clarity. Call Argyle diamonds, they can set you onto a retailed. Or use a broker.
You pay more for a deeper pink. 5k for a .7 pink diamond sounds pretty damn cheap. Pink is ridiculously expensive
Boy chooses & buys engagement ring - if the ring's not good enough for her, she's not good enough for him.
Girl chooses wedding ring - both end up paying for it in the long run as it comes out of the wedding budget.
Another option is to buy an estate jewellery ring, have it blessed, remove the stone/s and have set in a new ring.
thankyou everyone for the advice.
I am on a budget, having been an eternal uni student. However, I'm looking to pay approximately 3.5-4K for the ring, inclusive of gst. That leaves me approx 2800-3200 for the ring and approx 500 or so for the setting.
To date, I have been looking for:
round, princess and cushion cut diamonds
cut: very good to ideal
clarity: SI1 and above
symmetry: very good to ideal
polish: very good to ideal
grade: H through to D
carat: 0.7-1.0
Whiteflash and Jamesallen seem to be the go if I want an SI clarity diamond, that also has a great cut to it.
I'm quite uncomfortable going with bluenile on the basis that all I'm doing is reading reports, although I can limit the search criteria to VVS2 and above.
With regards to settings, it looks like whiteflash is a bit cheaper for 18ct white gold settings that I like. In addition, the first order with whiteflash saves you $50.00, although on both Bluenile and JamesAllen there are comparable discounts on offer.
eg-
REVIEW10 as a voucher code for jamesallen before may 31 gives you 10% off
bluenile - i joined ebates just so I could get the 10% off deal/voucher that they have on that site.
Anyway, the search continues. Thanks once again everyone, I really value your help.
Sign up to pricescope (diamond forums). Many sites, including whiteflash, offer discounts for pricescope members. Most also offer discounts for wiring the money (usually you have to wire the money anyway since we are ordering from outside the US). I saved about $150 with the pricescope discount and wire discount.
How about something like this?
http://www.whiteflash.com/loose-diamonds/round-cut-loose-dia…
After discounts it should come to about $3150. Hearts and Arrows (super ideal), VS2, H, 0.712 carat
Thank you very much.
This is right in the range of what I am looking for. I've still got enough time to make up my mind, but I will likely bite the bullet and make an order next week.
As an aside, it's amazing how quickly diamonds move on whiteflash. I found an absolute stunner two days ago and it's already gone by midnight last night. With some long forgotten skills I learnt while in primary school, I've been taking out a very fine tipped pencil and ruler and have been drawing the diamonds to get an overall impression of the size in accordance with the GIA / AGS reports.
I've come to a decision that it will be a 0.7ish round brilliant, or a 0.8ish princess or cushion.
I think I'm borderline obsessed now, but at least I will be able to hammer some local retail jewellers in order to find out what they can do to match everything.
As an aside, my mother was of the belief that diamonds in aussie stores are rubbish, and that I should go overseas to get this. She's going to go nuts when I tell her how much I won't be paying for this ring.
A further Q
when people ask the father, do they show the ring to the father first or do they ask and then go about it?
I am not sure about protocol, or if there is one even, however I would think that asking permission with ring in tow presumptious - what if he said no? Taking the ring would be moot, IMHO.
Being presumptious myself, CONGRATULATIONS, very exciting.
Two families and countless extended families have been waiting for me to propose since it's been over 5 years. I'm way overdue. I don't anticipate any problems although I might get a punch in the guts for taking so long.
Nothing that a lot of beer and good steak will sort out I hope.
and thankyou for the congrats
i dont think you show him the ring at all, it's more just a permission thing than "here's what i'm going to give your daughter"
some cultures require a gift to the father (such as a camel) so it might be worth googling for those kinds of traditions in their religion/culture background first.
my mate recently proposed and got his father in law to be a small camel statue (traditionally it's meant to be a real camel but times change and he sure as hell has no place to keep a real camel anyway!)
good luck with it :)
True story - my friend claimed the GST (TRS) on the engagement ring at the airport. TRS officer asks 'will you be bringing this back into the country?' to which he replied "well I won't be".
Soon-to-be fiancee was worried when he went missing at the airport for a half hour as he snuck off to do the claim.
I went with White Flash and their A Cut Above in house diamonds. I decided at very short notice that i had to propose on a certain date and White Flash crafted the ring and had it dispatched within 8 days. White Flash have the most comprehensive reports I've seen on their in house diamonds, especially for princess cut, which can be harder to address than RB. The AGS platinum cert, ideal scope, Sarin data and particularly the ASET images all helped immensely. If you do go with White Flash you can get a discount if you are a price scope member.
Done. This has not been a quick and easy task. Thanks everyone for all the support.
http://www.pricescope.com/forum/rockytalky/custom-ring-ausft…
Total Price @ James Allen: $3103.00
Estimate of landed price: 3103.00 + 325.30 = 3428.30
Customs value (Cval) 3103.00
Customs duty (Duty) @ 5% of Cval n/a
International transport and insurance or postage (T&I) 150.00 (pricescope example used)
Value of the Taxable Importation (VoTI) (Cval+Duty+T&I) 3253.00
Goods and Services Tax (GST) @ 10 per cent of the VoTI 325.30
Total payable Duty + GST 325.30
For the diamond nerds
Shape: Round
carat: 0.72
Certificate: GIA
Color: G
Clarity: VS2
Cut: Excellent
Depth %:61.40
Table %:58.00
Symmetry:Excellent
Polish:Excellent
Culet:NN
Girdle: Medium-Medium
Crown ∠: -
Crown %:-
Fluorescence:Medium
Pavilion ∠:-
Pavilion %: -
L/W/D (mm): 5.755.773.54
Now the wait begins..
Very interesting discussion here guys. I came across 'moissanite' on my search for a cheap diamond ring. Does anyone have any experience with this?
Interesting discussion. I guess everyone is different.
My wife would have been really upset if I had spent a lot of money on a stone (and fancy wedding) instead of something useful like towards a deposit on a house….
My high maintenance sister was upset that her husband chose a ring for her instead of letting her choose it herself (and didn't spend enough for her liking)
Another option is to go the lab-grown route. They are still actual diamonds, made of carbon (unlike CZ and other synthetics) and are almost imperceptible from natural diamonds (they have trace amounts from the creation process that an expert can detect). Though they also are flawless so some people find them too perfect.
Three sites I found through pricescope who have a good reputation are:
http://d.neadiamonds.com/
http://geolite.com/default.htm
http://betterthandiamond.com/
I'm lucky that my girlfriend agrees with me that the fact these are man-made actually make it more impressive than a dug up rock.
Ah, if only I had that option. I could have put that ring money towards a next gen console or a trip overseas :|
http://www.truthaboutdiamonds.com/site-reviews/jamesallen-co…
This was also one of the primary reasons why I went James Allen.
If I was smarter, I should have waited till our dollar was higher again. The suncorp bank exchange rate was AUD0.94 per USD1.00. I lost AU$50.00 for that oversight, although I knew that the SWIFT wire transfer fee would be $30.00.
Sorry came into this conversation a bit late
@Poseidon
If you are looking for a gem that looks like diamond but not after CZ, I would recommend moissanite.
We got mine from this website: http://www.moissaniteco.com/
They were really helpful - when they ship it, they don't put the full purchase price, so that it gets through customs/quarantine easier & faster. They've got heaps of designs to choose from as well, more than what you would get in shops.
It costs much less than diamonds and are real gems(even though they are lab grown). Moissanite is not CZ.
I can't wait til the patent expires on it too, it will drop in price. Though the patent was rejected in Korea, so maybe it could be found cheaper there too
yep, about 2500+ dollars too late argh.
check Blue Nile. My buddy got his there. Lots of knowledge about diamonds as well. www.bluenile.com/au/
You dont see the actual diamond though…
Compared with James Allen (the report with the actual photo) and the report is sometimes not very useful at all. Minor inclusions/wisps etc look ok on the report but look terrible on the pics.
Will look at whiteflash too. Thanks for the suggestions :) Any rebates/discounts with Whiteflash?
Hi all:
One of the first questions all of our sales people ask when a customer calls or e-mails in is "where did you find Whiteflash?" The minute they mention Pricescope, the Pricescope price applies. The customer does NOT have to remember to mention Pricescope, because they are ALWAYS asked.
The Pricescope price is a WIRE price. I believe that this is true for most of the vendors on Pricescope, although I won't swear by it. 99% of our customers have absolutely no problem understanding that the Pricescope price is a wire price - margins are very tight with these Pricescope discounted prices as my fellow competitors can vouch.
For customers who find Whiteflash through other avenues aside from Pricescope, there is a 2% wire discount off the list price.
Yes, Rhino, it would probably be easier to just set one price - but then again, each company has its own approach. Our Pricescope customers are thrilled when they find WF here and qualify for a further discount.
LesleyH
www.whiteflash.com
http://www.pricescope.com/forum/rockytalky/whiteflash-discou…
i typed in 'whiteflash discount' and found this.
It depends what you mean by cost effective… I bought mine from Tiffany's US and had it shipped here - was a bargain given the us to aus price comparison but probably wouldn't be considered cheap… The Tiffany's ios app gives an indication of US pricing
My current agreement with my GF is that if I ever buy her an engagement ring she has to buy me an engagement guitar of equal value.
$3000 ring = meh
$3000 guitar = badass
So Im not too fussed.
Glad you found what you were looking for Ankor. I also spent ages researching diamonds on James Allen, Blue Nile, Whiteflash etc when I was buying mine but actually ended up going with a local dealer because the price was about the same as Internet prices plus I could examine the diamonds in person.
I found the trick to getting a good price in Australia is to avoid the big chain stores and ones which operate out of shopping malls or high streets. The rent they have to pay for those premises is recouped in extra mark up on the diamonds.
There is a building in the Sydney CBD on King Street above the Westpac bank which is full of jewellers but it is an old building and they operate out of suites not at street level. The rents there for those dinky offices must be pretty cheap and so the prices for their diamonds was subsequently cheaper as well.
If I had the extra time that would have been great. I would much prefer to support a local trader but unfortunately due to scheduling and time constraints I've rarely been out of the office, or uni in order to do so.
Guys get your girlfriends to consider gemstone engagement rings. Just google image the term and click on a few websites. Personally there are so many I love that I am a bit paralysed by choice. I have been married a long time but who's to say we girls can't upgrade our rings. ;)
I don't believe with online diamonds, you just don't get to see the actuall product, images don't do much justice, it's best to see the real thing and have an better idea what your paying for, usually online you get something quit different from what you see.
I. Australia there's many cheap places like Michael hill, Angus & cut, etc.
Many sites give you magnified images, and some even give you different scope images to give you a much better idea of what you are buying. The only thing that you can't really tell online is the size of the diamond. Just go to a jewelry shop window if you want to see how large the online diamond is.
Michael Hill and Angus and Coote have really quite bad diamonds. Poor cut, plenty of inclusions, etc. Many are certified by random, lesser name/quality labs
I mentioned earlier that I had ordered a ring through Whiteflash. I made the order on the 28/4. I sent the money through on the 30/4 (had to transfer funds to a different bank account to send). They got the money on the 2/5. The ring was sent on the 10/5 (our saturday 11/5 morning). I got the ring today…it took 2 days to get to me! I've never got something from the US so quickly!
I am very happy with the whole process. Besides the 4 automated emails when making an account/buying stuff/etc, I got 8 emails from 5 different people. One diamond consultant (salesperson), One person from accounts to make sure I knew how to wire the money, one customer relations person to keep me updated on shipping time, one from the photographer to send me pics of the ring before it shipped, and one from someone telling me it was shipped. The photos sent by the photographer were DAMN good!
I got a comfort suprise ring with a 0.64 carat F SI1 diamond. Hearts and Arrows. The ring is extremely nice. The diamond is much bigger than I thought, and you can see the ridiculous amount of sparkle compared to the diamond rings of my family members. I was given a hearts and arrows viewer so that I can look at the diamond up close, and when you compare it to other diamonds you can really see the difference.
I'm really quite impressed with WhiteFlash. Paid less than 1/2 of what I would have paid here.
Damn that's amazing.
I am still waiting for mine, it took 2 days to clear and I have had about 5 emails with a customer rep. She cleared up my questions regarding customs and all that.
I'm not sure if JamesAllen have a photographer on standby, but I might ask now lol
They stated that they expected it to ship tomorrow, and apparently it will take 5 days to get here. So hopefully I will receive it before the 22 May. I leave for Melbourne on a work trip on the 23 and will be gone till sunday. If I get it before then I will be proposing in the cold on bended knee.
Do your mates/family a favour and don't show any women the ring before you pop the question. I made that mistake and now a ton of guys hate me now because their partners now want a ring too, or a bigger ring, or a sparklier ring.
I sent a photo to a female friend of mine, and she rang me up straight away and went "awwwww I want a ring too". In the background, I could hear her boyfriend swearing and cursing at me
..too late.
My g/f has a bestie who is dearly waiting to get engaged as well and I shared with her the results of all my research. I've now been hooked into helping him decide on the correct ring and stone, and she now says that she doesn't trust any of her other g/f to shop with him after she realised all the work I'd put in.
Just a minor update-
I am waiting to receive the ring and it should be arriving wednesday.
I had a delay of 2 days due to time constraints and getting to a bank to do a wire transfer.
Then a delay of 1 day when a coupon code that I entered into jamesallen ended up not being accepted midway through the transaction- I spent that day being hassled for an extra $44.00 dollars, which would have cost me $30.00 to transfer by wire. I showed them the orders from my end and how it was accepted at point of sale etc and they chose to give me the discount.
Then I had another delay of a day due to the setting not meeting their strict QA standards, and they sent it back to be redone. It is now on it's way from Alexandria AU, and fedex called me at 4.08pm today to pay GST. Since they called late, the earliest that it will arrive will be wWednesday.
To be fair to JamesAllen, this is right in the middle of their estimated time of arrival, but in comparison to FiftyCal who's already put a smile on his lady's dial, I'm a bit edgy.
Yay the ring has arrived just today. It looks as I pictured it to be, even better in some respects, and all the girls in the office approve.
Glad to hear it all worked out for you. When will you be popping the question?
I've also been looking at getting a ring. I've found these guys http://www.jewelry-model.com/ who are based in China. I have no idea how trustworthy they are, but they allowed me to use PayPal (with a 4% paypal charge) and the cad file they showed me looked right. Paid $780ish for a platinum ring minus the centre stone. They are currently making it, I'm going to see whether it all works out and I'll post back here. I''m posting here because this is the top forum thread that appears when searching for engagement rings, my experience might be helpful for others
Well my ring did arrive from them. Whilst it took them a week longer than they originally stated to ship it, it all worked out fine. Mike from Staryee (http://www.jewelry-model.com/) was very patient with me and the ring has turned out exactly as I wanted it. I've uploaded a picture that shows it (though its not the greatest picture, I'm not very good at photographing rings) http://files.ozbargain.com.au/upload/60834/16819/camerazoom-…
Good luck mskram.
When I paid for the ring and stone through jamesallen, it cost me 3182 australian, and that included the swift transfer. In this thread I detail what diamond i chose.
It was 3078US for the ring and stone.
When it landed, I paid 372.80 or so for GST.
I haven't even fully worked out how much I was charged for postage, but all up…
3182 + 372.80 = 3,554.80 to get the sucker landed.
My advice, if you are searching-
RE Stones:
Going through james allen and whiteflash, see if you can get extra photos of the diamond. Whiteflash offer it as a matter of course.
You have to speak to the reps at whiteflash for them to apply the pricescope wire discount, which is a significant saving. I actually spoke to reps from both websites and they were very helpful.
If you really want to go blue nile, I would ensure that VS2 would be the lowest clarity I would go and I'd try and pump them for information.
You can also try and haggle a further discount from these places, as I've read that this worked on some other forums.
Re: Expectations
Since you are buying stuff online, it is a very good idea to get a pencil and little ruler so you can draw the dimensions of the diamond. That helps you to gauge what you are after in terms of size. You can then draw the ring width to get an idea of roughly how it will look in the setting.
Of course, you can also go and hit up shops to get an idea of the different sizings. eg- i went to michael hill, and was legitimately searching for a diamond to buy- I'd asked for a 0.7 D-G grade VS2 round brilliant. Then the lady showed me everything BUT what I asked for. I show-roomed her for all she was worth afterwards, but didn't do the same for any other shop that I visited which were filled with polite and helpful salespeople that actually listened.
RE: Setting
When you are choosing the stone, make sure the size of the setting doesn't overpower it. Good luck with the stuff in china, but I would probably prefer going an american company because that's what I'm familiar with. I went 14ct white gold because
1) my g/f is fairly active and i figured 18ct whitegold would get a bit mashed up
2) going whitegold would make the diamond seem a bit whiter than it is (G)
3) going 14ct would also hopefully mean that if I needed to resize the ring it wouldn't be a pain in the ass compared to some platinum rings (apparently American platinum is very hard to resize in aus or something. Unsure of truth of this.
RE: Online
The customer service consultants are very good at both whiteflash and jamesallen. I went jamesallen because you can inspect the diamonds up close, and it's a bit quicker and faster than whiteflash in that respect for browsing. Furthermore, the packaging from jamesallen is excellent, and it lived up to what was written in this review
http://www.truthaboutdiamonds.com/site-reviews/jamesallen-co…
On fiftycal's advice, I stuck to getting the best cut that I could in order to maximise the fire and brilliance or whatever it is. I also ended up reading a lot of the GIA and AGS reports for the cut, polish, and symmetry of the diamond. 50cal also mentioned that the cut from whiteflash generally looked better, so I limited my searches on jamesallen for anything that had excellent cut/polish/symm.
I've shown the diamond to everyone at the office, and have gotten some wonderful compliments. I've also shown it to several of my g/f friends and they are also suitably impressed. I asked the g/f dad out last night and got his blessing, and showed him the ring and his jaw dropped for a bit.
So yeah, it's all shaping up to being a very awesome week.
If and when I get her to wear this ring, I will take a good photo and link it.
I think it is a good and cost effective way to buy engagement rings online. but i think it is the best to buy it on official shop or famous shop,which the quality has a guarantee
Hi everyone,
Just popped the question last week and my lady was very happy with ring that came from pure Ozbargain goodness (also she said "yes"). I also wanted to say thanks to everyone for all the advice in this post and provide some feedback on the providers I used.
I went with Whiteflash and have to admit I was pretty impressed with their level of customer service. Be sure to use request a "glamour" shot of the diamond before you buy it. It's next to useless in terms of judging defects, but if you girlfriend is anything like mine, she'll show it off at the same time as the ring to all the relatives.
I used the recommendation of Tim Blake the Jeweller from this thread and was really blown away. Tim doesn't necessarily hold to the Ozbargain ethos of the lowest price is the best price, but if you want old school good service then Tim is your man. He managed to source the ring I was looking for from the UK, based just on a picture! He then sat down with me for about an hour and a half once the diamond arrived from the USA to ensure that it matched every spec from the AGS Certificate (keep in mind he wasn't getting anything from the diamond seeing I went through Whiteflash). He even went so far as to apologise when he couldn't find a significant defect in the diamond, as he wanted to be able to show me this once everything was assembled to allay any fears I might have that he had done a switch-a-roo. I think it was mentioned above, but if you want to check him out his facebook page has all of his contact details:
He also has a stall at Lane Cove Markets (3rd Sunday of the month I think) once per month which is where I first went to meet him.
Anyway thanks again everyone. Now to scour the forums for hints on keeping these wedding costs down!
Congrats!
curious. is your fiance looking at this threat???
mine will be unhappy if does… ' cost effective ' …
wifey didn't know about ozbargain at the time. She loved the ring btw.
When you wrote cost effective my brain went into overdrive wondering what you meant, something like best return on the fiance or something like that :)
No I'm not going to use that other phrase involving buck. :)