On Fri, 20 Jun 2008 10:04:20 -0700, in rec.crafts.jewelry papa smurf
wrote:

Hello All,

I am in the market for loose diamonds. I have been to several stores
in my area, but recently decided to look at how diamonds are selling
on E-Bay. From what auctions I have found, diamonds sell considerably
less on E-Bay. I am interested in purchasing diamonds on E-Bay;
however, my dilemma is the following:
1. I feel uncomfortable making such an expensive purchase over a wire
without seeing my product first.
2. I worry that I'm getting scammed.
3. I wonder if I truly am getting the best deal.
4. I'm not sure what probing questions to ask for my protection.
Can anyone offer good suggestions as to how I can protect myself while
making such a large purchase? I would also love to hear from folks
who have actually purchased diamonds on e-bay. I appreciate your
advice and time!

papa smurf,

You need to tell us a little more for a meaningful answer.

Are you a jeweler or collector looking to buy for stock or inventory or
otherwise in significant quantities? If so, you'd be better off cultivating the
usual business relationships with standard wholesale diamond suppliers and
dealers. if you're really at this level, then you'll know where and how to
educate yourself about diamonds so as to be able to compare dealers, as well as
evaluate the stones.

I'm assuming, though, that this is not correct, but that rather, you wish to buy
diamonds for your own use and ownership. Right? So you're a "retail" customer
looking to save money. That's natural enough, since traditional "brick and
morter" stores often charge a higher markup than you may wish to pay. For that,
you get better service, warranties, sometimes buy-back policies, the right to
expect that what you're buying is indeed what it's described as being, and the
fun of knowing you're making a salesperson happy. Sometimes, very happy.

The internet, however, has changed many of the old rules of buying diamonds. it
used to be that any jeweler could sell you diamonds, that most such jewelers
were fairly competative with each other, and this standard retail market was the
main place most people bought diamonds. The usual markup between wholesale and
these retail sales varied from 200 to 300 percent, and any shopper doing a bit
of store comparisons could find the best deals, while the higher price levels
might offer things like more exclusive designers, or more libral financing
option. or just more advertising.

But the internet has seen any number of people go into business by setting up a
web site on which they host the inventory list of one or more of their diamond
wholesale suppliers (real wholesalers, not the scam "wholesale to the public"
sorts of things), to which the web site would add a markup. In these sites, the
markup sometimes would be as low as a ten percent markup, VERY low by any
business model or retail standard you might choose to look at. Even wholesale
clubs like costco or sams, or your grocery store, usually need to mark things up
more than that just to break even, so these web sales of diamonds really have
put a dent in the diamond market. Now, many of these brick and morter stores
have had to compete. I know any number of retailers who will order a stone to
be sent on memo, show it to a customer, and if it's Ok, will sell it for a
fairly small added markup, sometimes as low as that ten or fifteen percent,
though usually a bit more. Still, it's a LOT more competative than it used to
be. Some of the more pricey and exclusive stores don't do this, but still
charge the same high markups they ever did, and there are people who will still
happily pay these prices. But you don't need to any more if you're careful. And
if you shop on line, and do your research into reputations and the like, you can
still find those sites selling at a very reasonable and low markup.
www.tradeshop.com is one such. Started by one of the original regulars to this
newsgroup way back in the mid 90s, Ray Elsey, who sadly, passed away earlier
this year. But his company is still in business, and they're still happily
giving people bargains on diamonds. And they're not along. Blue Nile, a
Seattle based company, has in just a few years become one of the biggest diamond
sellers in the country, all on their web site. Not quite as cheap as tradeshop,
but still a fine firm to buy from, who's ****ing off lots of the traditional
retail jewelers by being cheaper than they are... And a bit of a search of the
net will show you many many more such options if you look.

As to ebay. Well, it's not the site that matters. it's the sellers. Remember
that, as an auction site, ebay has nothing to do with the merchandise. It's
all individual sellers, who may vary from crooks to fine dealers to individual
housewives who no longer want their jewelery and are trying to dump it somehow.
Just how you protect yourself here is kind of up to you. Hard to check on
people aside from their ebay feedback records, which sometimes can give you a
skewed view. You don't know who their buyers are, how experienced and
knowlegeable those buyers are, and thus, how valid their feedback. Sometimes
you can check out a seller to verify who they are, and other times you can't.

Ebay is a good place to shop for things IF, and only IF, you know what you're
doing as regards the merchandise. if you know diamond grading and evaluation,
and thus can form an informed opionion of a stone based on it's description, as
well as knowing when a description isn't telling you what it needs to do in
order to be accurate, then you've a hope of finding some decent deals. i've
seen some stones sold on ebay for less than their wholesale value, and others
sold there not only for more than their retail value, but which shouldn't have
been sold at all, due to fraudulent descriptions. To do OK on ebay, you need
to first already know what the market prices for a given item or stone should
be, and then you need to know how to be sure the item is as described, and what
the description needs to tell you to be meaningful. This isn't a simple list
of questions we can give you here on the newsgroup which you can read down and
rattle off to a seller and get answers or no answers to. You need to actually
understand the subject of you are a sitting duck for the shysters and won't know
it. Still, you might get some fine buys. But will you know them when you see
them? Can you read a discription and know that what it's describing tells you
a stone is worth buying instead of a stone with lots of fancy sounding labels
that tells you nothing? You know the old saying. buyer beware. Loose
gemstones on ebay is one fine example of that. Many sellers there are fine
people and their wares are honest. But whether they're a great bargain is
another question. A simple list of things you should ask won't help you. You
need to understand diamonds well enough to have figured out what the questions
are on your own, I think. Otherwise, someone could still just tell you all the
right answers, and still send you a piece of crap, and you won't know the
difference.

Peter