Christian Jewelry Store
Q: Can you bargain with a jeweler as you can with a car
dealer? My girlfriend and I have seen some rings we like a Henry
Silverman's.
A:Probably not at Silverman's, and generally not at any jewelry store. The
exception is with expensive stuff (> $2k or so); local places might be
willing to dicker a bit. (Big places, like Tiffany's -- if you want to
go to Dallas for it -- won't dicker on stuff less than about $5k.)
A couple of bits of unsolicited, impertinent, advice:
Silverman's stuff isn't really all that high quality. Before you buy
anything from them, try looking at the same or similar stuff at other
(i.e., better) places like Sheftall, Benold's, or Sam L. Majors.
Silverman's may be cheaper (but maybe not...) than better places, but
you generally do get what you pay for in honest jewelry stores.
There's a lot to consider in jewelry quality, especially in gemstones,
especially in diamonds. (My wife's a gemologist, the coursework for
which took a couple of years, several thousand pages of textbooks, and
endless staring through microscopes at little tiny rocks.) Contrary to
most people's apparent opinion, size is not the only variable in a
diamond. There's also clarity (generally measured on a "GIA scale")
that ranges through Flawless (F), Internally Flawless (IF), Very Very
Slightly Included (VVS1, VVS2), Very Slightly Included (VS1, VS2),
Slightly Included (SI1, SI2), Included (I1, I2, I3). There's color,
measured from absolutely white ("D" color) all the way to really
ugly brown ("Z" worst case, but anything past about "M" is noticeable).
There's also cut: in a standard "round" diamond there is a very precise
(angles measured to a fraction of a degree) definition of "ideal" cut,
any deviation from which reduces the brightness of the diamond.
Other kinds of stones (rubies, emeralds, etc.) don't have this kind of
rigorous grading system, but they have similar variations. Most emeralds
these days, for example, are kind of chalky whitish-green rather than a
brilliant "emerald" green. A really clear emerald is fiendishly
expensive.
Most of the diamonds in places like Silverman's (and Service Mdse, etc.)
are in the SI to I range in clarity, J to L in color. Better stores
carry, in addition to that, VS (and if you really want it, VVS) F-H
stones. And believe me, you can _really_ see a difference, even with
bare eyes. A clear, white, nicely cut stone looks a lot better -- and
can even "look" bigger -- than a muddy brown pebble of the same weight.
Also