NOT boating related...need to buy the wife a 25 year anniversary diamond ring

[BUDMAN]

Need to, have to, or want to, there is a difference

 

[boatpi]

It’s all about budget. My wife has almost so much bling. She’s running out of fingers.
Last year I came across a jeweler, second generation, and a Chinatown in Los Angeles. He went to school with my sister-in-law, UCLA.

He custom made this bad boy.

It was for our anniversary.

 

[boatpi]

Let me just give you a general rule of thumb.

For $10,000 at the right place you can buy her a pretty decent rate for 15,000 at the right place. You can get something very special.

Everyone has their own budget that’s just some guidance. My wife’s engagement ring was a GIA I think 2+ carats just the stone was 20 G from a family connection so we can go up from there and get a little wild. Got a diamond necklace with 20+ carats. This is what happens when you marry a beautiful woman that’s 14 years younger than you.and smart!!

If you go to the right place, like one of my connections, I would highly recommend just bring her with you let her choose what she likes not pick it out and make a surprise she’ll be happy for years to come.

I’ve got a family connection a little Saigon for kind of the average stuff for a little above but this guy in Chinatown has a lot on the counter and stuff he can custom make within about two weeks. His prices are outstanding. The quality is just superior.
I want to go back to him again. Please note the last post above.

 

[satellitemike]

I know a guy (not me) who scraped together enough cash to buy a very nice stone to ask his girlfriend to marry him on the shores of Lahaina 20 years ago. There are bigger and betters rocks out there but this one was very nice and it hurt to buy it. 15 years later she lost it in a water park with their children while I was at work.

Anyways, her 15 year upgrade was about 50% bigger and CZ, a very nice CZ But jewelers need a lupe or a tester to tell if it’s real or not for the annual cleanings and prong check. In fact, last prong check the jeweler called 3 days later to tell her it was CZ because the person who received the ring missed it.

Talk to your lady, maybe she would prefer not walking around with a boat on her finger to worry about. Young girls need to have you spend a mint to prove you love her. Often times more mature women don’t want to worry about walking around with the equivalent of a car on her finger to worry about losing.


Ask her, talk to her about it. CZ worked well for this guy I know and his wife.

Where did he find good CZ's? My wife has way too frequent habbit of loosing here Diamond studs.

 

[Dirtbag]

Where did he find good CZ's? My wife has way too frequent habbit of loosing here Diamond studs.

you guys know they can grow diamonds in labs now right? Way cheaper than mined diamonds. They are not fake. They have the same makeup as a real mined diamond. Cubic circonia is a fake diamond..... just trhowing it out there

https://www.brilliantearth.com/lab-created-diamonds/

 

[rrrr]

Have you shopped the Pawn Shops?

I purchased a necklace for my wife at a Pawn Shop. Mr T type. All gold. I paid $900 in 2007. It’s currently valued at 8k. We affectionately refer to it as The Cleopatra. It’s pretty cool looking. Just a thought

You guys have read my pawn shop posts.

In 1999, our 10th together, I bought a loose 2.5 carat round diamond for my wife at a pawn shop based on a friend's inspection with a loupe. I gave them $10K cash for it. The shop gave me the name of a guy that would mount it, who turned out to be an ancient Jewish man in a 400 SF office located in a run down building. He dug through some loose bands in a box, I picked one out, and in a few days the work was done.

I sent the ring for an appraisal and GIA certificate. It came back valued at a bit more than $20K, a VS-1 G.

I hafta admit during the entire experience I was about to shit my pants. Yeah, I'd been buying stuff at pawn shops for decades. But not diamonds for lots of cash.