GETTING THE REAL VALUE FOR YOUR OLD DIAMOND IN A TRADE

HOW DOES DIAMOND BROKERING WORK?

Brokering is your best advantage to find the finest diamond possible within your budget. Once we know your budget, we can go shopping to find the right stone for you. Most shoppers are leery when asked about their budget. Their first thought is the jeweler wants to know how much money he can get. Our query is quite honest. Bear in mind, you do not have to buy from us. You can take our best offer and move on down the street until you hear what you want to hear, so giving us a budget does not hurt you. A budget allows us to fulfill your dreams without pushing you to engage the savings and loan industry.

An engagement ring budget should be healthy, but not beyond your means. If the budget does not allow for a diamond center, then sapphire may be the gemstone of choice and the one most often used in the royal weddings of Europe. Keep in mind that a quality Tiffany style mounting, even though simple in design, can run from $195 to $375 depending upon the style and size. Tax on $1,000 is $70.00. Do you want diamonds on the side? It all adds up. All of these little factors have to be deducted from your budget before we know how much is left for the center diamond. Then we go shopping. A $500 budget is not a healthy engagement ring budget. Can it be done? Yes, but to preserve high quality and maintain the integrity of the JBM name we have to be highly creative.

First off, let me say, we do not buy diamonds. We do not own even one. If we were to begin stocking diamonds, we start down that road of selling you what we have in our stock instead of what you want. We do not even buy back our own diamonds. We have successfully remarketed nearly every one that has come back to us. Remarketing means we add your "diamond for sale" to a list and check it against our customer’s wish list. If we sold it once, it already meets our criteria. If we find a match between seller and buyer and the buyer is not put off by buying a resale diamond, then we will broker it for you. You get back your original price and we make our 10% or 15% from the buyer.

We have had customers who have purchased diamonds from us and then, to avoid embarrassment, went elsewhere to try to sell their diamond after a divorce or breakup. These same people then came to us and reported they were offered less for the diamond than its real value, which sounds like it could be a reflection on us. That is when I give them the following lesson:

If a jeweler can buy a $100 diamond today for $100 by lifting the phone, dialing a number and signing a Fed-Ex slip tomorrow, then why would he pay $100 for it today if he does not need it? That is bad business. He knows he has you over a barrel because you need his money but he does not need your diamond. He will offer you less so that he can make money on it, even if it sits unsold in his store for a couple of years before he moves it. That is good business. When you pay one jeweler $200 for a diamond with a real value of $100, and then another jeweler offers you only $50 to buy it, it is understandable why you might be angry with the jewelry industry. It is also one of the leading factors in the popular misconception that jewelers have such a high markup.

If you bought a diamond from us, you know the real value. If you did not buy your diamond from us and you want to find out what the true value of your diamond is before you sell it or trade it, take it to your local guild store and tell them you are considering buying a matching diamond and having the two of them mounted into a pair of earrings. Ask them, "Is that something you can do, and how much would it cost to get an identical diamond?" Then sit still while he figures the true value of your diamond.