Where to buy a ring

[TifffanyD]

I would suggest going to a real jeweler as well. A lot of them offer protection plans which cover things like ring resizing and lost stones. I got my engagement ring from qvc.com (what i requested) but needed it resized, which cost $75 at the jewelers.

Oh but shaneco is a fun site to play around with - you get to design the stuff yourself kinda. I used to dream about a ring from there

 

[RichNKatHolly]

I will agree with PPs who say go to an actual jewelry store.

After reading your post, I just keep thinking, "He went to Jared!!!!"

 

[SandrA9810]

You said it's more of a promise ring. So don't be afraid to go with your favorite gemstone. I love saphires, and had a saphire ring that I wore for a long time, but it started to get too small on my hand.
I probably paid way over price for our engagment rings. Especially in comparison to what other jewelry stores were offering. But I feel in love with the design of the ring. And the ring they had was in platinum at like 1500. So I had it made it 18k white gold. It requires more cleaning and polishing than platinum, but knocked the price to 825.

Any time you have a ring made, you're going to pay market price for the gold.
Sometimes you'll see two very similar rings in a store at two different prices because of the market price on the gold at the time it was made. So watch the stock market on gold too.

 

[horseshowmom]

Let me add another option - www.overstock.com. DD and her DFi looked at a lot of rings before purchasing from them (just for the record, diamonds have one of the highest markups in retail stores).

I buy quite a bit of stuff from Overstock.com, and I got an email from them one day about a sale they were having on wedding jewelry. I forwarded it to my daughter (about halfway joking). Lo and behold, she found a gorgeous ring at a much better price than what they had expected to pay.

They asked me what I thought about it (buying from overstock as opposed to a jewelry store), and I told them that if they weren't satisfied when it got here, it could always be returned. It was (and still is - one year later) absolutely gorgeous. I suggested to them that they have it appraised before they decided to keep it (plus, for insurance reasons). It apprasied at about a third again higher than what DFi paid for it. She frequently gets comments from strangers about how beautiful her ring is.

 

[Jennifer823]

Check out Cardow Jewelers www.cardow.com. They are a Caribbean jewelery store - based in St. Thomas, VI and in business for quite a long time. I have bought jewelry from them while in St. Thomas and they are awesome. You will get an appraisal certificate when you buy from them. There are great deals to be had when you buy jewelry from the Caribbean. They don't charge tax, either - US citizens get a duty-free exemption, I think it's up to $1800.

 

[Disneyglobegirl]

I know alot of people are leary of online Jewelers but DH and I bought new rings for each other on our 10th anniversary (8 years ago) from Sun Jewelry online and absolutely love them- They have many rings to chose from or you can do a custom ring. I called and talked to them many times while ordering ours and they were very helpful and made the online ordering less stressful. We had our rings appraised after we bought them and they appraised for more them what we paid. My neighbor loved my ring so much that she has also bought from them and has been very happy with everything that she has purchased so far.

They are worth looking at if you are looking.

www.sunjewelry.com

 

[branv]

I would never buy important jewelry from ebay or a private seller (unless you were meeting that person at a jewelry store you pick to have it appraised first).

I assume since it's a promise ring you aren't looking for something with a diamond? It's not the cheapest place, but try jamesavery.com. It's high quality and will last.

For diamond rings, I would never go to a commercial jewelry store now. You will get MUCH better pricing and quality if you go with a diamond broker. You buy the diamond loose and have it put into a setting you have, or have someone make the setting for you. I know, it sounds like something only a wealthy person would do, but not remotely the case. I actually know several people who went this route, from smaller rings to huge rings. And they all paid way way waaaay less than for similar rings they'd been considering from jewelry stores.

We actually bought my middle diamond loose from Mondera, which sold mapped and certified loose stones. They're no longer in business that I know of, but were really reputable at the time and you could choose from a big selection of size, style, quality, etc. Price and quality was amazing. We took it to a diamond broker, who sold us the side baquettes, and also had a designer on site who actually designed and made our ring for us. The final price for everything was astonishingly low. My ring has been appraised a few times now at about 3x what we paid for it.

 

[auralia]

blue nile if your looking for a very nice ring or an engagement ring they are the best by far.

 

[RitaE]

This thread is from 2008.

 

[mrudman]

I'm probably one of the odd ones, but I bought my wedding ring off of Ebay.

Long story short, but dh had bought me my engagement ring, and then when we got married, I inherited my grandma's wedding ring. When younger dd was born, she was an emergency c/s, so was told I needed to remove my rings. Gave them to my mom for safekeeping, but she lost them somehow.

So a few months after dd was born, we decided I needed a new wedding ring... looked at several local stores, didn't see anything I *really* liked... wanted a vintage-looking ring, to keep in line with what my grandma's ring had looked like.

Started browsing online for the heck of it, and found THE ring on Ebay.. being sold by a jeweler located in New York... was not a cheap ring (paid about $1700), but was being offered at about 30% of appraised price.

We ended up buying it, taking it immediately to a local jeweler who appraised it for just over what the amount on our certificate says.. so I'm happy, and got a wonderful deal on it.

And I LOVE the ring.. have had it for 8 yrs now, and still get compliments on it frequently.

Was a bit stressful to actually buy something that big sight-unseen, but it worked out well for us,

 

[mrudman]

This thread is from 2008.

Oops, just noticed that... oh well, lol!

 

[branv]

This thread is from 2008.

GAH! Okay, I got suckered For the record, I did NOT resurrect this thread, though I appear as the first poster after 2008. There was what was apparently an advertisement post above mine, which I reported, but FAILED to notice the entire thread had been pulled up by that advertiser. Sorry

 

[njsweetP]

GAH! Okay, I got suckered For the record, I did NOT resurrect this thread, though I appear as the first poster after 2008. There was what was apparently an advertisement post above mine, which I reported, but FAILED to notice the entire thread had been pulled up by that advertiser. Sorry

You're right - someone else resurrected this thread, a newbie with 2 posts..probably looking to self promote some jewerly websites like you said.

 

[princessnoelly]

If you have the deluxe membership and an AMAX you get money back. Plus, it's Costco!

 

[princessnoelly]

Oops, just noticed that... oh well, lol!

me too...oops but still love Costco!

 

[RitaE]

Quote:

GAH! Okay, I got suckered For the record, I did NOT resurrect this thread, though I appear as the first poster after 2008. There was what was apparently an advertisement post above mine, which I reported, but FAILED to notice the entire thread had been pulled up by that advertiser. Sorry

Ha Ha - those Mods really hung you out to dry.