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FI and I did. He ended up negotiating $4000 off on my diamond, engagement ring, and wedding band. It helps to do your research and be willing to walk away if a seller can't meet your demands. Before we went in, I searched online retailers for the specs I wanted and brought in their quotes to the store. FI also requested to deal directly with the store manager who is always worried about store quotas sale. Engagement rings are big business and there is a lot of competition out there. They know it.
My bf did, he bought it preowned from a man who had never even proposed with the ring! It cost the original owner $31k and my bf bought it for 18,500--still alot of money but a great deal nonetheless!
my FI did we went to an outlet store for zales and found one I love that was 50% off and they added the discount to the wedding band (we were firm in not purchasing the band that day if it was not a huge benefit to us) we ended up getting a $3000 set (before taxes or insurance) for $1600 after taxes, setting fees, and insurance plan (granted our center diamond was a family heirloom so we saved megabucks not having to purchase one and only pay to have it set ($150), its possible you just have to find a style you like in a place holding a sale or willing to deal.
I felt like we got an awesome deal on my solitaire enhancer, not because it was on sale or anything, but because it has blue sapphires in it so it was much less expensive than diamonds of that size, and adds a lot of charm and character to it
Im a huge fan of saving money too. I have turned crafy and have done a lot of DIY for our wedding, which had turned out really well!!
My FI did the same thing, he got a preowned stone from a family jeweler. He had the diamond set in a new band that he picked out all by himslef! It really is my dream engagement ring! It's perfect :) its almost 1.5 carats and a really good quality stone. They said it would retail for over 6,000 I think he ended up paying about 3,000. I think it was a great way to go, after all diamonds are so old, they are probably all preowned at one point, wouldn't have been worth spending an extra 3,000 just to get a non "preowned" one!
My FI got my ring for approximately 97% off and here's how:
1) He worked at the jewelry store (employee discount) and he got to wait until the very last second when it was as cheap as it could possibly get.
2) The store was going out of business and everything was being liquidated anyway
3) It was already in the clearance case
4) It was never an "engagement" ring...just a diamond ring I fell IN LOVE with
5) Its doesn't have the paperwork stating its creditentials and stuff. I'm not the type of the person who cares about things like that. When I saw this ring, it was MEANT TO BE and no other ring on the planet would do.
The original MSRP sticker on the ring was $4400.00. Its 1.86 TCW (we did have it appraised recently), white gold, and FI paid $410.00 for it. With all the money in the world, there isn't a ring I'd rather wear.
I LOVE this thread!!! I love a deal!
My DH bought the stone from a broker and had it set at a local jeweler. Total he paid $2300 and it appraised at $11,500.
My fiance was able to get my Neil Lane engagement ring & wedding band set at 20% off during Kay's Labor Day sale :)
My FI got a great deal on the center stone so it made the entire ring much cheaper! A family friend was going on a business trip to Thailand and was going to be visiting a huge sapphire mine. My FI asked them to bring back a stone if they could find one in the dimensions and color he wanted. They found one, and it is absolutely gorgeous! It's a 2 carat round, untreated, brilliant blue sapphire that was appraised at $1,700. He only paid $450 for it. The setting he bought is 18K white gold and has a .4 carat diamond halo. The ring cost him about 1,400 total dollars and it is valued at about $2,900!
We got mine for 20% off at Kay's semi annual sale...it is from their Neil Lane line but I've never seen anyone else with it. I actually love it more than a Simon G that I had picked out and was thisclose to him making the purchase.
Yes. I was so proud of him. Took 3 hrs of negotiating but we walked away with a 8K 1.5ct stone for 5K, a free watch, and a 3ct tanzanite for 2K less than the original asking price. Months of homework really paid off.
Yeah, we got a great deal. e-ring, we found on ebay for 75% off store price... it was being sold for $3000 and we got it for $750. My band was being sold for $1600 and we got it for $575 as the store was going out of business.
2.5 carats total between the two for $1325!
My FI went with his future brother in law to their family jeweler and got my ring for about 1/2 price. The diamond in it is so clear and beautiful, I'm really happy.
We actually bought my ring together at a local jeweler -- they're also a very high scale pawn-shop so we got a great deal. We found a diamond that is almost flawless and colorless and was a .49ctwt (so it was in the lower pricing bracket for diamonds). Then I found a setting that I loved and they merged the two.
It ended up being about 60% off the total price. The jeweler was amazing about staying at or below our budget and showed us plenty that was way below the budget (as opposed to most places that bump right up to your budget). Ended up paying about $800 total :)
Yes we sure did! My boss owns a watch store and used to sell jewelry purchased through a wholesaler who is also a good friend. He took my FI to him and saved nearly half the price charged at retail stores! We have also seen him for our wedding bands and will be saving on those as well thankfully.
We have a good story about this.
When my FI purchased my setting he decided he wanted to change out the diamond for something bigger and better quality. The diamond he chose was a Leo and it was already set in one of their Leo bands. So basically Kay switched the Leo diamond out into the setting he chose. When he picked up the ring he got my engagement ring, the original diamond and the Leo band. He didn't think anything of it and just held on to it.
Cut to a couple of months later we went into Kay to find a wedding band. He mentioned that he had this other band and diamond and wanted to see if we could trade it in to put towards my band. Well the sales person said that he should not have gotten the other set and called the store he had made the purchase at. The other store had been LOOKING for this band and diamond and even brought in an investigator because they thought there was a theif amongst the staff!!! Since we were not obligated to give the band/diamond back, since it was their error, we negotiated.
We were able put both my band and his on hold for $100 (they usually make you do 10%) until they had their big regional store sale when everything was a couple hundred dollars off. On top of that we got a $50 giftcard then an additional 10% off the sale prices. We ended up saving a ton because of their error.
I went to Jared's and had my ring held and when we came to pick it up a stone for the same size but better cut and clarity was available. Sometimes this kind of those slip by so it was my lucky day:) went from a 1.2 carat SI clarity cut good to 1.21 VS clarity and cut very good!
FI paid about $300 altogether for my engagement ring.. he got the diamond for free since it was a family stone and all he bought a white gold solitaire setting. He got pretty lucky!
My FI had my ring made locally, he paid 3400.00 for it, we just had it appraised for insurance reasons and it is valued at 9500.00. Aparently because he bought the diamond seperately he got a better deal than if her had bought an already set stone :)
We did! :) Got appraised at nearly double what we paid. My aunt took us to a diamond dealer she has been dealing with for quite some time and he "hooked us up"
We got great deal for my ring, I love this style and strongly hinted I wanted it for months. It was $1200, on sale for $450, then take an extra 15% off, then an extra 20% off and also free shipping (it was on sale still for $1000 in store). So after shipping and everything it came to $324 for the engagement ring and wedding band :). Gotta love a deal; especially for college students who are on a teeny-tiny budget. 
Round brilliant 1.04 SI1 J Excellent/True Hearts GIA with laser inscription in a platinum band for $6.5K. I thought J would really look yellow but the cut is so perfect it looks whiter than another stone I know is an I.
I don't find appraisal vs price terribly helpful since appraisals are bloated for insurance purposes. We got our deal by going with a diamond wholesaler with an added discount by paying in full and paying via wire transfer. We also got the band when the platinum market crashed.
We did!
Granted we did not got the traditional jewelry store route. My fiance is a deputy sheriff and one of his coworkers had recently gone throigh a divorce where the ex-wife gave him back the rings. My fiance's friend just wanted to finish paying off the balance of the set. My fiance paid 4k for a platinum wedding set. the center stone is 1.5cts (E, SI1) and the side stones are .3cts (d&E, VS) . the wedding band has an additional .75cts (d&e, vs) of diamonds as well. the rings came with the GIA certification and we had an independent appraisal done as well. The rings were appriased for 20k. My fiance's father gifted us with 3k for our wedding, but as we are having a very small destination wedding, we used that gift to pay the majority of the ring cost. So out of pocket my fiance paid a grand total of one thousand dollars. Deal of the century if you ask me. ;)
We did =) we picked a ring coming in slightly under 1 ct so it was a lower price! We got a lower clarity too but a better color so it saved us even more! Because we got my engagement ring and band from the same store we also got the lifetime protection plan for free and she gave us my FI's wedding band free too! We saved $400 on FI's band, $500 on the protection plan and about $2000 on the engagement ring.
The original price of our wedding bands was $5,400 we got them for $2,080!!!!
FI did a great job on the engagment ring so we wanted to get a good deal on our wedding bands as well. I really wanted a channel set diamond wedding band, and FI wanted a white gold hammered wedding band. We found the perfect ones, they said that they could order it, the price would have been over $1400 for his and $4000 for mine, that was just way more then we were willing to spend. But they had the same rings sitting in the case, they have been there since 2008 so the gold was based off of 2008 gold standard prices which brough it down 50%, they were both 1/2 a size too big, they said they would resize the rings for free. at 700 we definitly wanted to get his, i felt a little guilty spending 2000 on mine so I was going to wait. At check out I asked if they did a police officer discount (FI is a police officer) the check out lady said no, but the owner was sitting right there, she looked at us and said that they should and that she would give us 20% off, so I said well I may as well get mine too!!!! We got them both rezied and engraved and they look fantastic!!!!!!
Never hurts to ask for more discounts!!
We got my ring custom made and still discounted :) Bought it for 5,500, appraised for 9,000.
Also, wedding band was 1,500 but they gave it to me for 400.
I did! During my first marriage I needed a new wedding band (I won't go into that mess) and decided on a channel set diamond band. I searched online and found a 1/4 band on ebay for about $70. When I got it, I decided I wanted a bigger one so I went into Kay's. They offered me $500 for a trade-in, and the 1 ct. version was on sale for $1000 (marked down from $2,000 so they say, I think it was more like $1500), and I had Santa Dollars which they let me use with a tradein (even though they weren't supposed to). So it ended up costing me $200, plus the original $70, + tax and the lifetime ESP plan.
I feel like we got a great deal! My ring is custom made, and that process can be super costly, but we found a jeweler who did the custom design for FREE and only charged us the cost of the materials. We got my custom ring for $8k and it was appraised at $23k.
IMO, we got a great deal. We went to Tiffany and tried on rings, then went on Bluenile.com and got the same exact diamond but with better color for 1/2 the price. Since then, diamond prices have gone way up, so we definitely bought at a good time.
Also when I got my new setting I shopped around and negotiated the price AND stuck with white gold which was 1/2 the price of platinum. I ended up paying an insanely low price considering what I got and the work that went into it!
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We did...so happy he wentt to a pawn shop!
I'm a huge fan of saving money...a HUGE fan. I was just curious if any Bees out there got a really good deal on their engagement ring or diamond. :)