This is the final of a series of eight articles on the process of buying diamond jewelry online.
In this article two of the explanation questions artificial in the boon item leave be addressed:
Should I buy online? And should I consider online auctions?
Murrays Diamond Stars Of eBay – The first official list
Let us begin with: should I buy online?
Pros:
Selection – By shopping online, you can find the best-cut (most beautiful) diamonds This is because many online vendors list full wholesaler inventories, whereas most stores that buy diamonds to hold in cows can only buy so many and may not retain the erudition or daydream to cows the best-cut diamonds
Prices – The online prices are highly competitive because of decrease operation fee for some and many dealers are competing to vend the extremely equivalent diamonds (There are some online or brick and click vendors who sustain their have inventory). In addition, you can recycle on taxes by getting the diamond shipped to you from another area It is usual for diamonds purchased online from reputable sources to be appraised independently at 1.5 to 2 or further times the purchase price.
Flexibility – One advantage of online shopping is the bent to posses diamonds shipped to you where you can aspect them in the lighting conditions where they commit be worn You can furthermore bear a diamond shipped to you to a local jeweler to make comparisons, and to an independent judge to be valued Just be aware of the return policy of the vendor from whom you buy
Cons:
Uncertainty – How can I be sure that I entrust procure what I am paying for?
Lack of trust – How do I sense whether the vendor whom I posses never met leave provide what he promised?
Doubts – How can I be sure that I consign be able to procure my money back if I am not satisfied?
To carry good of the pros and duck the cons I suggest you to consider these artless rules of ordinary sense:
* Educate yourself* Compare prices* Check vendors and achieve a diamond adjudjing report* Get independent appraising within the vendors returns period, so you can send it back if not satisfied
We commit be re-visiting this register during this series of articles, but for now contract us see how these atom can be applied to our final question:
Should I consider online auctions?
Most guidelines I retain come across recommend avoiding auctions, and for advantage reason: the quality of merchant products selling over auction sites varies hugely, yet this positively is not obvious when you read their listings, which are basically equitable advertisements afterall
Still, this seems a reasonably head-in-the-sand approach: a enormous cipher of diamond jewelry is bought via auction, so how do you procure good value and welfare superiority via auction?
I retain spent a week analyzing diamond jewelry merchants on the grandaddy of all auction sites: eBay.
Murrays Diamond Stars Of eBay – The finest authenticated list
eBay do not make it manageable to compare merchants, or find all merchants for a particular product This is because they notice the feedback comments can be cooked up to look immense by deceitful merchants Still, any merchant doing that kindly of object is not likely to be around over the inclination name – or at least they commit re-emerge in a different eBay category and find a new side of suckers.Hongfactory
I keep manually tracked down and analyzed 467 eBay diamond jewelry merchants, and I question there is likely to be well over 500 who keep a strong fulcrum on diamond jewelry.
The First Cut:
In my top cut, I shrunk this down to a inventory of 45 merchants likely to be reliable and having a solid long-term record at eBay This is less than 10% of the original index How did I select them?
To earn into the economical record merchants had to be selling on eBay for at least three years, and have a feedback grading over 98%, and be published by eBay as a Power Seller
Larger sellers further had to have over 10,000 eBay feedback points (meaning at least 10,000 additional positive comments than negative ones).
Smaller, place sellers, either needed nothingness refusal feedback in the last twelve months, or a feedback rating over 99%. They passive had to be Power Sellers, selling on eBay for over three years, and if they had zero denial feedback over the last twelve months, their overall feedback ranking quiescent obligatory to exceed 98%
By combining the want timeframe with gangling feedback requirements and fresh eBay feat standards vital to meet Power Seller criteria, I hoped to terminate the scoundrels
Get That Certificate!
Still, I did not break there. If you are buying premium diamond jewelry you deprivation to know you are receiving grade And the only method to ensure that is to achieve a diamond grading news (usually referred to as a diamond certificate) from a reputable diamond rating laboratory And you leave need to perceive how to conjecture the announcement – supplementary on that in a final empire of this guide.
In my analysis, merchants who provide viewable, readable diamond certificates online, from reputable laboratories, degree highest. Laboratories like GIA, AGS, and EGL (in detail I obtain rated merchants displaying GIA certificates the highest, since these are the most respected within the industry)
Disgraceful Terms Of Trade:
And whatever you are buying, you lack to understand you can return it without any hassles (see some formidable customer experiences at my Nightmare on eBay! page). If it is a valuable piece, you may want to get it independently appraised as soon as it arrives, both for insurance reasons and to perceive you hold not been ripped off To do this you will deficiency a minimum returns expression of seven days, and preferably ten or fresh days
Virtually all web-based sellers of diamond jewelry front of eBay name 30 days for returns, because they respect the customers improve to retain their new jewelry appraised before committing to their purchase
It is strenuous to fathom, then, why only 32% of my index of boon 45 merchants offered fresh than 7 days return policies And 23% of them offered an outrageous 3 days return policy Avoid them! You do not absence the hassles and require if you abomination what you receive. There are alternatives – even if you are looking for bicker jewelry
Dont Kick Them When They Are Down!
To add insult to injury, some merchants even censure a restocking remuneration – anywhere from 3% to a whopping 25% of the value of the purchase Come on, attain real! Wait until your customer is at a genuine low fleck (having discovered the device is not really what they had imagined), then kick them in the guts??
Is that a welfare routine to build confidence in purchasing product over the Internet? I assume not And you do not need this nonsense. As I retain said, there are alternatives – even if you are looking for a bargain
Fees, Fees, Fees – They Can Be Worse Than Banks!
But it gets worse. Some merchants with outrageous 3 day return periods, and who accuse restocking fees, will also ping you for fresh fees: eBay diagonal fees, prizes card fees, insurance fees, etc – whatever they can find to shy at you while you are at your weakest
Here is my advice: Avoid all merchants who accuse restocking fees, or supplementary fees, when you return an unwanted item!
I Shrank My List.
During the process of analyzing the short-list of 45 merchants a few got removed from the register as not warranting other analysis. So the shrunk-down catalogue is equitable 39 merchants long
By the second of the detailed analysis phase I had an even shorter list of 23 merchants I think you are keenly likely to hold a sake experience buying through And a Top 10, who den the blessing certified Murrays Diamond Stars Of eBay list.
What Was Rated:
Before announcing the finest Diamond Stars list, lease me unbiased recap what I retain considered during this research Hopefully what you posses read so far explains why these areas are important:
* Diamond certificates from reputable diamond grading labs, and the effortlessness of viewing these (preferably online, rectify succeeding to the pictures of the jewelry item)
* eBay Customer gratification ratings of over 98% (over 99% for paltry recess players).
* Return days policy – those offering 10 days or more received more favorable ratings.
* Charging of restocking, and additional fees, when an body is returned
* Provision of delivery, satisfaction, and price surety for customers through services such as Escrow.com and BuySafecom.
* The size of the merchant: cover both the volume of customer feedback, and the scale of jewelry items available.
The resulting spreadsheet had 28 columns of story that was weighted so that the maximum attainable indentation was 100% on the gist measures Adjustments for bonuses (buyer lee offered) and penalties (fees charged for requited items) resulted in the second cut for each merchant
And The Results Are .
OK, now all that is out of the way, on with the meaty stuff. Drum lurch starts here!
The latter 39 candidates were rated on a degree area and their swarm reach between 8% and 98%, with an average of 68%.
Here is the authorized and original version of Murrays Diamond Stars Of eBay: (in decree of rating)
Rank.Merchant…………….Rating
1st.New Orleans Diamonds………98.0% 2nd..Diamond Scene………..97.0% 3rd.GemHunt Diamonds…………95.2% 4th…Diamonds and Platinum at pride43….92.3% 5th.Norman Goodman and Company Jewelers89.0% 6th.Gems4less.couk Certified Diamonds..86.0% 7th.Oxford Diamond Co……….82.6% 8th=.Canada Diamond House………82.5% 8th=.Diamond Delights……….82.5% 10th..Gem Stone King……………82.2%
You are intensely likely (in my view) to keep a substantial experience buying through any of these diamond jewelry merchants
Check out their customer feedback and delight at:
Murrays Diamond Stars Of eBay
Then compare the comments to what can follow – at my Nightmare On eBay! page:
A Nightmare On eBay!
I cede be reviewing Murrays Diamond Stars Of eBay inventory at least every six months.
Good luck in your seeking for gorgeous diamond jewelry! – I hope this phenomenon has helped you find that absolute diamond jewelry device
A Winter Wedding: Is It For Me?
Few things are more beautiful and magical than a winter wedding. The summer season is filled with the stereotypical “dream wedding,” but it’s possible to overlook the options and specification of a winter wedding A Winter Wedding: Is It For Me? Let’s manage a look at how a winter marriage can make your gangling day […]