It is simple. The worst time to buy a diamond or make any major purchase is immediately. Always sleep on it. A major acquisition should never be based on impulse or emotion. Most diamond engagement rings are emotional and/or impulse buys. The engagement moment, not the engagement ring purchase, should be an emotional time. At Jewelry by Michael we keep the emotion in the engagement moment, not in the purchase hour.

Historically, guild stores (high fashion jewelry resellers) make the majority of their money on diamonds. In order to do that, they have to stock a huge supply of diamonds and fully mounted engagement rings with the intention of hooking you upon your first visit to the store. If you leave without buying, you quite possibly might find a better price or quality diamond elsewhere.

It is not unusual for a jewelry reseller to have a million dollars locked up in a box the size of a small paperback book. The money to pay for these diamonds is often borrowed so these diamonds are on lease from the bank. Once a month their "rent" is due. This affects how jewelry resellers sell diamonds.

When you enter a guild store you may have a good idea of what you want, but they have a better idea of what they are going to sell you, and it is most often something from their inventory so they can pay their diamond rent. This is not necessarily best for you, nor is it necessarily what you desired when you entered their store.

A good salesman is taught to play on your emotions, explaining this is a purchase that represents your love. When the salesman sees hearts flowing up from your fiance’s aura, he flips from the emotional to the impulse and offers a discount if you purchase it today. The hook is set.

Here is our "skinny." In 1983, when we opened our first retail design studio, we decided to broker diamonds rather than to market them at retail. We could not align the Golden Rule with charging $30,000 for a $15,000 item (standard retail markup) when our investment in the sale was minimal. That is not how we would want to be treated. Since that time, we have been brokering diamonds at 10% above their real value (wholesale cost) for diamonds weighing more than a carat, and 15% above real value for 1/3-carat to 1-carat diamonds. This is how brokering translates in real dollars. A hundred dollar diamond may cost you $110 to $115 at Jewelry by Michael depending on size. Down the street where the emotions flow before the purchase, that same $100 diamond is $200 to $250. However, if you impulsively make a decision today, they will let you take it home for $160 to $200. The difference can be huge, but the big difference is this. When you go to trade it in, our diamond will always be worth what you paid for it minus the brokerage fee. That’s our policy and that’s the way we have been doing it for nearly three decades.

We work hard for our brokerage fee.  Our specialty is a well made diamond, ideal or premium cut, G or better in color, no less than an eye-clean SI2 grade, so all SI grades are carefully reviewed. We scan the certification papers, choose what we think are the best, order them in for observation, and then scrutinize them ourselves before we ever call you back for a look. If at first we don’t succeed, we try again until we find what we think is the best value for your budget. We call you for a look only when we believe we are in the zone. Most of these processes take 24 to 72 hours. If we are looking for a very specific diamond, it may take a little longer.

One of our diamond suppliers called us last week and reported we ranked highest among his customers for number of sales per diamonds ordered. That might not sound noteworthy until you know they are one of the largest diamond suppliers in the country. The reason we are his #1 is because we are so careful at what we do. We need not return many diamonds because we are so customer specific on finding the right diamond to fit your desires before we bring them in. If you can understand why your best advantage does not come by our filling your order with what we have in our stock, then you will see the benefit of buying from a diamond broker. Our brokerage fee covers our time in finding your diamond, all postage, all certificate work, and the setting of the diamond into your finished JBM  piece.

CAN I KEEP THE 'SURPRISE' AND STILL INVOLVE MY FIANCE IN THE PROCESS?

Jewelry by Michael  is not in the "diamond business." We are jewelry designers who use diamonds in our designs. We do not mine or cut them. We buy them from importers who work directly with site holders, making your purchase of a diamond from us as economical as possible.

At Jewelry by Michael, we broker all our large diamonds (one carat and above) at 10% above our cost, 15% if the diamond is between .33cts and .99cts. We do not keep a diamond inventory in our design studio. Large diamond inventories translate into bank loans for hundreds of thousands of dollars, double digit interest payments, and retail diamond prices. When the loan payments are due, retailers are more interested in selling their inventory and selling "up", than they are listening to what you want and finding it within your budget. That perfect diamond is only 24 hours away.

When purchasing a diamond for an engagement ring or anniversary, we will educate you, find out what you desire in a diamond, and then choose diamonds from one of our three diamond suppliers’ inventories. We bring them in, inspect them, and then call you to view the best of the selection. You can choose to purchase a diamond from us, or use a diamond of your own. Some customers have "family" diamonds that are being passed down, others choose to shop the internet for diamonds. If you are one of the savvy internet shoppers who prefers the do-it-yourself plan, one of our suppliers will work directly with you. The only thing we require at JBM is that your diamond is a fine quality diamond so as to reflect the quality of craftsmanship that goes into each Jewelry by Michael design.

THE DIAMOND OF YOUR DREAMS

AT A PRICE IN YOUR BUDGET

WHY TODAY IS NOT A GOOD DAY TO  BUY A DIAMOND

To all the Guys out there considering an engagement ring purchase:

Over the years we have developed a way to keep the "surprise" in your engagement moment to make it perfect. We allow you to purchase the diamond at its real value, and then we will set it in a Tiffany style, 4 or 6 prong setting so that you can pop the question without getting your fiance involved. After the engagement she can choose to keep the timeless and traditional tiffany style setting, or the two of you can come back and work together through the process of finding a final design in which the engagement diamond can rest. We take back the tiffany setting and deduct the entire price of the Tiffany setting from the finished price of your wedding set. Simple, easy, and emotional with the "surprise" element intact, all with your budget in mind.