Your first decision is the overall color of the ring: Yellow, rose or white.  This is entirely personal and there is no right or wrong answer.

In terms of generalities, 14K gold is the hardest and will look new the longest.  The only real downside is that 14K prongs tend to break more than bend.  18K gold will develop of patina faster as it is more prone to scratching than 14K but the metal itself is warmer and purer than its counterpart.  Platinum is purest of the precious metals as it is used at 95% purity.  Platinum is a white metal that survives decades.  When is looses its shine, platinum looks light grey.

If you choose yellow your choices are 14K or 18K gold. 18K is 75% gold and 25% other alloys to harden it but it will be a softer metal and a warmer yellow tone than 14K which has 58.3% gold and 41.7% hardening alloys.

If you chose rose, you choice are similar to yellow with the biggest difference in the intensity of the rose color. 14K rose gold has far more copper in it which gives it a more intense rose color as opposed to 18K which is more of a reddish yellow.

If you choose white, things get a little more complex. The same hardness profiles exist in the 14K and 18K white gold categories but you need to understand that there is no such thing as “white” gold. Gold with alloys that lighten it only get it to a very light yellow or light bronze color and then the ring is coated with rhodium when it is finished. That rhodium plating does wear off over time and the off white color then starts peeking through. At that point most people look to clean their ring but in fact it just needs to be re-plated.

The better metal in the white category is platinum. Platinum is a white metal and is used at 95% purity. It is softer and more pliable than gold and will develop a patina sooner but will not wear down as much as gold. It is the metal of choice and has long been the more luxurious choice in jewelry because for most of our lifetime it has traded at close to double the cost of gold. The last couple of years have seen an inversion of prices with gold trading around $1900/oz and platinum around $1100/oz. Platinum rings are still a little more expensive that gold but the difference is too small to sway the decision away from the better metal.

In the picture above you can see the sometimes subtle differences between the metals.  Starting on the left, this is the color of a rhodium plated gold ring or platinum ring. It is as white as white gets.  The next one over is the actual color of white gold with no plating.  As is obvious, white gold is actually a pale yellow or bronze color which gets covered by the rhodium plating.  When the plating wears off, this color starts peaking through.  The next one on the right is 14K yellow gold which has 58.3% gold content.  You can see the 18K (75% gold content) has a richer yellow color.  Second to last is 14K Rose gold which is very pink.  The intensity of the color comes from the relatively large amount of copper alloyed in this ring.  Think about the color of a new penny.  Last but not least is 18K rose gold which also has some copper in it, but much less and as a result has more of a peach color to it.

There are no right or wrong choices, but oftentimes, we are not aware of the differences and hopefully this post will help clarify.

In this first example, much of the details are lost in the shadow.  In the second, the camera focused way behind the ring, blurring all the details.  In this third shot, something similar happened.  The macro focused on another finger and because of the narrow depth of field, the ring details got blurred.

I thought this would be a good place for a few tips on how to get a better shot:

It’s important to consider the purpose of the picture.  In our case we are trying to see the useful details of a ring so the primary subject should be the ring and the background should be a simple as possible.  If on the other hand, you are looking to create an artistic picture, then choosing an interesting background can add a lot.

Depending on your objective, place your ring on your background. This could be a table top, tree trunk, flower, or anything you want to use.

Try to find someplace where you don’t have to hold the ring as this will free up your second hand to take the picture.  If you have very steady hands (very few people do), you can try operating the camera one-handed and shoot the ring on your finger, but this might prove more frustrating than you think.

Make sure your primary light source is behind or to the side of you, not behind the ring.

Hold your phone about 8 to 12 inches away from your ring (depends on phone model) and zoom in about 30%.

Using your free hand focus (poke your phone) right on the diamond or main stone. This focuses the lens and adjusts the lighting for that spot.

Take the picture. If you find the picture to be blurry, try a few more times or try to find something to rest the phone on.  If you focus on a specific spot and then move your phone before taking the shot, the camera will refocus on whatever is in the spot you selected to focus on.

Using these simple tips can give you better results.

Happy shooting.

First of all, you go gym to get a good work out and this more than likely involves intense physical activity with your hands. This is a recipe for injury.  If you are boxing, you might bruise your finger or the ones around it.  If you spar with a partner, you may well unintentionally injure them.  It can affect your grip while lifting weights or playing golf or tennis.  If you jam or injure your finger and don’t have the presence of mind to remove your ring before there is swelling, your ring may well have to be cut off your finger or worse!  Just look at what happened to Jimmy Fallon of the Tonight Show (http://money.cnn.com/2015/07/14/media/jimmy-fallon-injury-finger/ ).   If you swim, water (especially salt water) causes your fingers to contract and you may not even feel your ring falling off.

On a slightly more materialistic side, do you really want to damage your ring?  We made a stunning eternity ring for a customer a few years ago and after a few weeks she called to complain that the diamonds felt rough.  When she came in, we saw that 6 of the diamonds were heavily chipped or broken.  It turns out this customer was a cross fit fanatic and never took her rings off.  She had been doing barbell snatches, pull-ups and rope climbs with her rings on.  Needless to say she no longer wears them to the gym!  This is an extreme example but even a plain, stone-free shank can get bent while lifting weights.  Boxing with your rings on can loosen the center stone and deform the ring as well.

I often see women wearing their ring on a chain around their neck but I have heard stories of scratched corneas from bouncing chains on runners, so I would not recommend that either.

So what should you do?  The best would be to leave your rings at home before you go to the gym.   Hidden and locked in your gym bag or locker are probably the most logical things to do.  One of my clients once told me she hid her rings in a tennis ball in her gym bag.  She put a 2 inch slice in the ball and just squeezed it to open it.  What’s more inconspicuous than a tennis ball in a gym bag?

We then present the CAD to our customer and upon approval move forward with the manufacturing process. In the case of the attached pictures, we used stones from our customer’s original wedding band along with sapphires from an heirloom ring.  We were fortunate that they were nearly the same diameter.  In the design process we were able to adjust the heights of both rings such that they would look good next to each other despite the difference in the size of the stones in the shanks.

Once the design is approved, creating the ring takes about a week to 10 days.  The end result is personal, unique and worthy of being yours.

This promotion runs from January 29 until February 13, 2015.  Shipping will be done via Priority Mail and can take up to 5 business days to arrive.  Please consider this when ordering.  There are also overnight and Saturday delivery options.  Please look at the pull-down menu when ordering.

Her family stone was set in a three-prong setting.  We kept this detail alive in the new piece, setting all the new centers with three prongs in stead of the traditional four.

Nearly everything you buy takes a hit on resale.  Diamonds are actually pretty good in that area.  Just try and resell a cell phone, computer, a piece of clothing, food or most of anything else you buy.  That said, there are few major causes for the difference between buy and sell:

1) Retail.  Yes, all of those sales people are paid.  Google gets paid.  Shippers are paid.  Labs are paid.  Appraisers are paid.  Setters are paid.  The free box wasn’t free.  Jewelers are doing this for a profit.  None of this comes back on resale and I assume none of that comes as a surprise.  This is true even if they call themselves wholesalers or some similar term to suggest that they’re cutting out the evil middleman.  This is not a bad thing, it’s the way modern economies work.

2) Market access.  The REASON jewelers rent all of that expensive real estate, hire those sales people, pay all of those per-click and affiliate marketing fees and so on is because they get higher prices if they do so.  Most people don’t have access to that.  They sell in what amounts to a distress sale marketplace and their only selling proposition is price.  Who is surprised that prices are lower?

3) Obsolescence. How could a million year old rock be obsolete?  People don’t care for ‘used’ engagement rings.  A used ring simply is not the same thing as a new one any more than a used mattress is the same thing.  The mounting component is usually scrap metal when it comes to resale time.  Sorry about that.  Occasionally people do better but don’t bet on it.  There’s also a fashion component.  Diamonds are fundamentally a fashion product after all.  Marquise cuts, for example, were hot 20 years ago and sold for a premium.  Not so much now.  It’s not that they’re any less beautiful now than they were when they were new and the stone hasn’t changed.  The market did.  It’s hard to find buyers now.  The dealer is going to have to discount to sell it and so they’re going to discount to buy it.   20 years ago, GIA had no cut grade and AGS’s was completely different.  In 20 years the rules will be different again.  Bet on it.  Hearts and arrows are hot right now.  Who knows what will be hot for your grandkids but it’s sure to be different.  That’s the way the world works.

4) Condition.  Damage is a problem.  Sometimes a severe one.  Yes, diamonds can chip.  ‘nuf said.

5) Misrepresentation.  I can’t tell you how many times a client has told me that a stone is D/SI1 because it is ‘certified’ as such.   That’s just not the way it goes.  There’s misrepresentation on both the buy and sell sides of the deal but I would have to say it’s TYPICAL that it’s not comparing apples to apples.

6) Financing.  Normally, new purchases involve a financing arrangement among the dealers called ‘memorandum’.  It’s basically a consignment.  When customers sell things, they normally want cash with no returns.  Not surprisingly, dealers prefer the memo path because it gives them access to a lot more inventory without screwing up their cash flow.

7) Misunderstanding value.  This is best described with an example.  A consumer buys a ring from a dealer with a diamond for $10,000 (dealer’s cost $8,000) and a mounting for $4,000.  Plus tax the deal is $15,400.  The dealer issues an appraisal that says it’s ‘worth’ $25k.  Bargain, right?  Wait for 5 years and then the bride goes to resale after she dumps the guy.  She’s got that appraisal in hand. The mounting is scrap metal and the dealer could get a stone like that on consignment from his supplier now for $9k.  If he buys this one he’s going to have to tie up his money for an unknown amount of time and he doesn’t have that much cash in the checking account anyway.  Jewelers are mostly small businesses after all. He’s going to flip it back to his supplier who will sell it to someone else with the above mentioned memo/consignment system.  The supplier is doing this for profit so he’ll give, say $8k for it.  The jeweler wants to make money on this deal too so he offers $7k.   So now the customer is thinking ‘it was worth $25 Grand 5 years ago, it must be worth more than that now.  What’s with the $7k offer?  This guy’s a rip-off.  Diamonds are a rip-off.  I’ve been screwed’.   We don’t actually have a clue if the deal is rip-off on either end or not, but the bulk of the problem here is a misunderstanding of BOTH transactions as well as the ‘appraisal’ in the middle.

Neil Beaty is a professional independent jewelry appraiser in the Denver area.  He is a frequent contributor to public consumer forums and brings a wealth of information to the industry.

(Kim Kardashian / Instagream; Pascal Le Segretain / Getty Images )

We made an appearance this morning on WPIX News (Channel 11 in NYC).  The segment was about Kim Kardashian’s new engagement ring, a whopping 15 carat cushion cut from Kanye West.  We were feature as a more attainable ring showing a 1.5 cara cushion cut set in a halo setting for a mear $15,000.  Kim’s new ring is estimated at over $3,000,000 !