Buying heavily priced jewelry without research is a notorious gamble. Without vetted knowledge, you can end up paying a great deal of money for low grade jewelry pieces.
Jewelry items need to be assessed at many levels, and it is solely your responsibility to do so. Getting the perfect piece of jewelry for the right price can be mind bogglingly difficult, and therefore you need to consider some of these essentials before making a purchase:
Know the basics
This mostly applies to men who intend to buy jewelry for their better half but cannot differentiate between an emerald and an opal. Educate yourself about the common gemstones like ruby, aquamarine, sapphire, emerald, and opal. If you are buying a sapphire ring, you should know that they don’t only come in white, but also in colors like pink, yellow, and blue.
There are also different kinds of metals like platinum, chrome, gold, and sterling silver, and their prices greatly vary. You can research the starting price for different types of jewelry pieces so that you have a rough estimate of how much you will be spending.
Educate yourself about certification
High-quality jewelry pieces should not be purchased without jewelry certifications. A certified appraisal is mostly for diamonds and other precious gemstones studded on a jewelry piece to guarantee their features and worth. A certification should always be issued by a reputed company and include its seal in it. Some reputed firms for certifying gemstones are UGL, GIA, and EGL.
If you are buying a diamond, your certification appraisal should include a certificate from the diamond grading laboratory. Certifications are important because your jewelry is an investment for you, and also because it helps in its insurance.
Inquire about the origins
Whether you are buying a diamond or a precious string of pearls, it is important to know the origin of the gemstone for many reasons. Firstly, the gemstone’s origin reflects its quality, mainly because of the myriad of mining practices around the world. All stones originate from under the earth, but where and how they are mined can make a great difference.
Secondly, gemstone origins matter to most people based on ethical grounds. Most patrons demand conflict-free stones; these are stones that have not been extracted as a result of conflict mining, which is mining in a war zone.
Consider other attributes
Colored gemstones like sapphires, emeralds, and amethysts can also be purchased by size and weight, but the selling approach is different from that of diamonds. If two diamonds have the same carat weight they will easily fit into settings of the same size, but a sapphire and a ruby of the same carat weight are extremely unlikely to fit into the same setting. This is because different gemstones have different density values (also known as specific gravity).
Gemstones are also defined by other attributes such as saturation of color, tones, clarity, and hues. Rarity is also a major attribute that contributes to a higher price tag on the gemstone. Unlike diamonds, colored gemstones are not given any certification appraisal. For diamonds, the brilliance, fire, and scintillation are also deciding factors when it comes to the price. Luckily, a diamond grade report, which is stated in a diamond certification appraisal, includes all of these attributes.
Article Submitted By Derrick Manning(Community Writer)
