The 4 Most Important Factors to Consider when Shopping for an Engagement Ring

Both in our personal and professional lives, we have encountered many people who have some form of regret involving an aspect of their own engagement ring purchasing process. It often ranges from things such as the design they had chosen, or the fact that they didn't properly educate themselves beforehand. So we decided to write this blog to give some professional advice on the most important factors to consider while you're shopping around.

Comparing Quotes from Different Suppliers

When comparing quotes, you have to always remember to compare “apples with apples” in order to get a true indication of pricing.This is one of the biggest mistakes we find the majority of people make when shopping for engagement rings, both online and in-store.We often get people ask us how we can promote ourselves as offering the best prices around, when they've found a better price elsewhere, but when comparing our price to the other they didn't notice that the diamond size or quality was vastly different.
Heres a picture of the scenario:

Josh is shopping for an engagement ring for his girlfriend, he knows that she is absolutely inlove with the Classic Halo Design and so that is what he searches for. He logs onto (his first choice of course!) and finds our range of Halo Designs. He chooses the Classic Pavé Halo Design as he knows this is the one she’ll love the most. He selects 18k White Gold as his metal and “J” as the ring size. He finds our price of R.... and decides to shop around just to be sure he really is getting the best deal. We cannot fault you for this Josh, in fact we encourage it! So Josh goes on and finds his way to another online jewellery website and sees the all too common phrases like “wholesale prices’ or “50% less than retail” and this catches his eye. He then searches the store for the same Halo Design. And WOW! It turns out they really are 50% cheaper! The exact same design halo engagement ring for R…..(Half the price) . and so he goes on and buys the ring from jeweller “X” and goes about his life thinking that Eternity Diamonds are a rip-off. Little does he know that the Diamond he just bought from jeweller “X” is a 0.25ct L SI2 and the diamond we had advertised in Our Ring is a 0.40ct I SI1. This makes a significant difference in the price, however the quality is far lower. So is Josh really getting a better deal?. The same can be said for the small diamonds used to complete the piece. Please be sure to compare the size and quality of the small diamonds to ensure you are receiving the same value. If Josh had compared the 2 quotes based on the exact same diamond size, colour and clarity, he would've seen exactly how our position in the industry benefits our customers. We do not need to advertise being wholesalers just to pull in customers, our prices speak for themselves.

The Illusion that buying from a "Big Brand" jeweller is better

Don’t get us wrong, we’re not saying that there aren't any good big name jewellers out there, we’re simply saying that you shouldn't fall into the trap that so many do, by thinking that these big chain stores are somehow of superior quality purely because they have built a recognizable brand. Most of these stores source their stock from people like us and so the quality is one in the same, the only difference is the large bloating of the price which you fall victim to when you purchase from these stores. You're not only paying grossly marked-up prices for your diamonds, you're also paying for the time, service and champagne they've used on yourself and the 10 people before you - who were wise enough to walk out the store and look elsewhere. The same can be said for designer jewellery lines, there is no bigger waste of money. There is no added benefit or superior quality. It is just simply a piece of jewellery designed by some old guy and made with the exact same materials and tools as any other diamond engagement ring.

Buying Diamonds without trusted Certificates

To the majority of people who aren't educated about diamonds and precious stones. A diamond is simply a diamond, and in these cases, ignorance can be bliss. We however prefer our customers to know and truly appreciate the quality of the stone that they are purchasing, and for this reason we only sell diamonds that have been certified by reputable and respected diamond grading laboratories. These being: GIA, EGL, DIA and IDL. You should never buy an uncertified diamond purely because the price is better, most people in the industry are very well educated and have a good idea of the quality of a stone even without seeing a certificate, so if they haven't had the stone certified, it is usually because they're trying to hide something from the customer.

Stay Away From Mall Based Jewellers

This goes against the way most people have purchased jewellery and engagement rings for many many years, but for reasons mentioned in our previous blog posts, you should definitely stay away from mall based jewellers to avoid falling victim to largely inflated prices due to the nature of the supply chain, and the high running costs these jewellers have to incur to base themselves in these malls. You are much better off buying from wholesalers such as ourselves, where you would in most cases be paying half the price or less for the exact same item.

Please feel free to get in contact with us regarding any queries you may have or for custom designs and quotes.

Phone: (011) 334-0824


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