Engagement Rings

My main advice is don't go to Tiffany and spend twice as much for a blue box. If you live near a big city, head to the diamond/jewelry district (wherever that is) and pay half as much.

I bought my fiancee's ring earlier this year in the diamond district, paid 8k and it was appraised right afterward for 11k. Something similar at Tiffany would probably go for 12-15k.

Some people would say that 8k is a ridiculous amount to spend on a ring-- I am sure there are others who would say that is cheap. It's all relative. To me the important thing is getting value for whatever you pay.

Pawn Shop. You can't go wrong with the pawn shop. And when you are done with it, you know that they will buy it back.

Just because your lady isn't materialistic doesn't mean she wouldn't appreciate a nice ring. Go for the good ring, you won't regret it but if you go "cheap" and she looks disappointed you can't undo it. It's only once in a lifetime (hopefully).

Straight up, she's lying about not caring about the ring, trust me because that is what I thought initially. I find if you can afford two salaries worth than you give a damn...haha! On a serious note, if you can afford to get her a nice ring then do so. She will appreciate it in the long run. Make sure the diamond is at least an I-J cut and clarity of SI-S2... ;)

Best Wishes!

*whispers* PAWN SHOP

True, true...I've known friends who have gotten a great deal on an excellent diamond, just make sure it comes with papers!

Thanks for the advice all.

Spent over 6k...1ct princess cut center, .38 side stones, white gold. Nice quality from Jared.

Read about the three Cs...Cut, Clarity, and Color.

Alan

An engagement ring will cost you much more than what you pay for it.

I call bs. LR posters aren't "in to" women.

I ended up spending more on the custom design platinum band with pave stones than I did on the diamond (total = $5k). She's a ring size 4 so even a 1 carat was borderline gawdy - .8ct was plenty and opted for a much better cut, resulting in greater brilliance.

That being said, it was a pretty sad day when I found out that she was a "regular girl" and didn't really care about the whole blood diamonds thing. The economics of diamonds really make me want to throw up. At least platinum has gone up $150 an ounce since we bought the ring, which should slightly offset the massive depreciation of the diamond as soon as we left the diamond district (which I recommend going to).

Charming Charlie wrote:

*whispers* PAWN SHOP

amen

what other countries have this fetish for wedding rings and diamonds?

...none....

50% of the worlds diamonds are sold in the US. DeBeers knows it is a losing game

The price of diamonds has fallen 60% in the past 10yrs, and will continue to decline. So don't waste your money. The 2ndry market for set stones SUCKS. So all this crap about a "stone that holds value" is marketing schlock people here believed when they bought their rings.

Get something that LOOKS nice. Thats it. It can be as low grade as you want, because they are all worth 20-30% of what you paid if you try to sell it.

This entire market in the US was created by South African diamond miners looking for a market. They searched high and low until they found a population stupid enough to think adornments such as these are actually worth it.