Jewelry is perhaps the dearest subject of all women. Women love to adorn themselves with sparkling things to create a lasting impression on crowd. There may be hardly any woman who is not fond of jewelry, at least seeing it on someone else, though not for herself. But that doesn’t mean that women have great knowledge about jewelry. In fact, they need to know a lot about it so that they don’t fall prey to the various jewelry scams. And this does not only apply to women; even if you are men and buying, say, gold or silver necklaces for women, you need to know many things about jewelry to get your hands on real good stuff.
There is No Such Thing as Natural Colored Gemstone
Yes! It’s obvious that you are going to buy a piece of jewelry from a jewelry store – online or brick-and-mortar – and no jewelry store has a thing like natural-colored stones in a finished jewelry piece. (BTW, you also should know the term “finished” jewelry which means a piece which has been completely finished, unlike a ring setting which has not yet got its center stone mounted on it). So, if the salesperson tells you that the stone is natural-colored, either s/he is lying to you or doesn’t know much about jewelry (which is not possible, so only the former is possible). You can ask a tricky question on this, like if the stone has not even been heated, upon which s/he has to either admit that it is processed and won’t dare to lie to you, or continue the lie.
There is an exception though. Natural pearls do exist. However, they are very rare – so much that you must ask for a certificate confirming their authenticity, or buy from a reputed store specializing in natural pearls.
Here what you need to be careful of is stones which are irradiated or injected with silicon or colored glass – today’s commonest technique used especially on sapphires and rubies. To ensure that you get a real quality stone, you should buy it from a store giving a guarantee to take it back if it is proved to be unauthentic after it is appraised by a third-party expert.
Never Buy Anything on Very First Visit
This is because you can shop around and compare. Remember the pieces you are interested in and check similar pieces at other places and even online. Study them, do homework and visit again. Taking a friend along with you is good, because you can discuss with her/him loudly enough for the salesperson to hear about some other store offering you the same piece for a said (less) price. But remember not to say that you have someone in the jewelry business. The salesperson will at once identify the lie or will think that you are wasting her/his time. Both things are bad for you.
If you buy jewelry online, it is even better with a limitless array of designs, patterns, materials, and even prices. Only disadvantage is you cannot play with the salesperson!
Importance of Bargaining
I am giving here the opinion of a reputed jeweler who is in the business for last some decades and admits that he gave the best deals to customers who insisted on low prices, that too, too low! He says that whether you are in De Beers, or Graff or Neiman Marcus, you should be shameless while bargaining. Also, it doesn’t matter whether you are purchasing a piece worth $100 or $100,000. Just offer half, he says. And he further advises to get the price as close as you can to the jeweler’s price.
And last but not the least, get the jewelry appraised by an independent expert before buying it. That will remove every doubt from your mind and you can rest assured that you have spent on a real thing.
