HOW TO BUY YOUR DIAMOND ENGAGEMENT RING AT THE MALL (The Practical Approach) - Online Store

I knew nothing about buying an engagement ring except that it
had to be bigger than my girlfriend’s sister’s. My girlfriend
actually bought this for me and we downloaded it to my i phone.
I learned about how to buy a diamond for less. The book is easy to read
and understand. I learned some buying and negotiating tricks
and ended up a beautiful ring. It was an “in-between” size diamond
that looked bigger than her sister’s larger diamond that cost $1500.00
more. Having this information on my phone made the salespeople
pay attention. I loved having all of this information at my finger tips.
This $3.00 investment saved me at least $1000.00.

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I came across this while “helping” my fiance buy my ring.
We went to several stores where everyone seemed pushy and
of course they all said that they had the best diamond for me.
I could tell my fiance was getting frustrated and was worried
what kind of diamond i would end up with i downloaded this to my
phone and took it with us the next time we sent shopping.
Because we knew what questions to ask and what to look for we were
even treated differently. i ended up with an incredible diamond
that looks huge and is really sparkly but cost much less than the
ones swe had looked at before. It didn’t make me into a diamond
expert but it helped me to get a fabulous diamond.

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I gave this book 2 stars instead of 1 because it’s very inexpensive and includes some useful advice about diamonds (I should hope!)

Unfortunately, it seems like the book is written to make you feel like you know enough about diamonds to go out and spend thousands of dollars with confidence; ie, to help the diamond industry sell diamonds. It is not objective. It was just published in 2010, should be inclusive and up-to-date; but doesn’t tell you some of the most important things about the diamond market:

The price of diamonds is artificially inflated. Supply is carefully controlled to keep the price up. Diamonds rings aren’t worth nearly what you pay for them; used, you could not get half of what you paid for them new from the jewelry store. If more diamonds would flood the market, the price of diamonds would plummet, even the “real” diamonds, to a tiny fraction of what it is. I don’t know much about this, but I’d like to know more than the author is revealing, which is nothing.

Long ago, wisely purchased quality jewels, well-cared for, could be expected to retain their value. But now, man-made gems, diamonds, are being lab-created that are so real, that jewelers really can’t tell the real thing from fakes without equipment so expensive it would put any small jeweler out of business. Only the very richest diamond companies in the world have such equipment. Man-made diamonds are real diamonds, except they are perfectly brilliant, and usually cut perfectly because there is no need to maximize the weight. They cost far less than a comparable naturally-formed diamond, and are every bit as beautiful as the most expensive diamonds. Again, this author says nothing about this.

The author hints at these facts by these three sentences: “Think of buying a diamond ring as an investment. It is NOT a monetary investment…it is an investment in romance.” and “Remember, you are buying romance and brilliance, don’t get overly technical.

The author tells the reader, whom he presumes to be male, to shop alone for the engagement ring, leaving the wife-to-be out of the decision-making process, because “diamond selection is best done logically, rather than emotionally.” Therefore, he reasons, males should do it, and leave the woman who will wear the ring, hopefully for life, out of the selection process. Are males who agree logical? I think not.

He says that all your girlfriend really wants is a diamond that appears bigger and more brilliant than her girlfriends’ diamonds. If the author really believes this, then he knows less about women than he wants you to know about diamonds. For the hearts and minds of women vary more than all the diamonds on earth. There are plenty of women who are perfectly happy with a simple band of gold, and would rather you put the thousands towards something of real value, like a down payment on a house. If the woman you are courting feels the way the author is telling you she will, she is probably not emotionally mature enough for marriage.

I suspect that the real reason this diamond seller/author advises men to shop for the ring himself, is that actually most women will make a more careful choice, considering all the options, while the man is more likely to make a rash impulsive decision. Because men usually mostly just want to get the shopping done. He’s in love, he wants her to “say yes”… so the biggest, sparkliest diamond he can afford, and as quickly as possible. Emotional. Impulsive.

Although my beloved could have and gladly would have paid many times more for my ring, I chose a relatively inexpensive (but very beautifully crafted) gold band with 14 small diamonds; and together we made the final decisions on the rings. I don’t care for an expensive diamond solitare, which is possibly enriching slave traders in Africa, is easily chipped and must be removed to do almost anything (like dishes) and then is easily lost, and easily catches on and rips pockets. My beloved respects my opinion, wants me to have the ring that makes me most happy, and includes me in decisions. In my eyes, he’s a bigger man, and more brilliant, than any of my girlfriends’.

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