wrongfullyaccuzd

OK hey I had no idea where to start this thread, so it somehow came down to Tilted Living...
I'm way ahead of the game this year and am looking for a Christmas present for my girlfriend. And what I ask of you (as of right now, anyway) is simple: the names of jewelry stores I can look at online.
I've looked at Zales, Mondera, and Tiffany's. I need more places to look!
If it makes any difference, I live in N. Va. so if you're from around here and know any places in Georgetown or Arlington or something, that'd be nice to know too...if you're not from nova and none of that meant anything to you, sorry, ignore it...
thanks VERY MUCH for your help!

NotMinus

don't buy jewelry online or at discount retailers, its cheap and it really is cheap, they won't be properly polished, the stone settings tend not to last and any details won't have been properly taken care of. Go to a local jeweller / goldsmith and take a look at what they make in shop, you will spend a little more but you will actually buy something worth keeping.

Lebell

GOD,

This is SO TRUE.

Jewelry is one thing I would NEVER buy online because each stone is unique and requires the buyer to know something about what they are doing.

I also recommend a local independent jeweler NOT in a Mall.

Take some time to get educated online about the type of jewelery you are interested in (gold karats, diamond 4c's etc.)

And NEVER buy from Zales. They are the cheap branch of another dealer (Bailey Banks and Biddle?) and the stuff they sell is little better than industrial grade. I took my loop (a nice Hasting's triplet) to look at their diamonds when the future ex and I were shopping for her engagement ring and I thought the damn thing was dirty when I first looked at one of their stones.

Turns out the "diamond" was full of inclusions, not that the price reflected how crappy it was.

I hear many Zales stores won't even let you borrow one of their loops now.

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alkaloid

I had good luck with bluenile.com. I got 4 things from them over the years including a diamond engagement ring. I really liked the whole experience and I would recommend it to others. I guess I haven't gotten the sweet deal that Uncle Guido could have gotten me on that fat 2 carat diamond, but I'm not too sorry about that.

I have also shopped at Tiffany's and Bailey Banks & Biddle and Kaye's. I generally found Tiffany's experience quite pleasant. My wife loves those little green boxes with little silvery things in it. I was less happy with Bailey Banks & Biddle. Kaye's had affordable jewelry.

One of my coworkers often comes to work with huge diamond earrings. She said her husband, a Marine Captain, got it cheap when he was in Angola or some African nation where the guerillas routinely chop off civilian limbs and mass rape a village to induce terror.

My view on jewelry is that you don't need it. But if you have to engage in conspicuous consumption, you are better off doing it in style. I realize that huge profit margins are maintained at all levels of jewelry trade and international conspiracy keeps prices of diamonds unreasonably high, but I have decided not to worry about it.

Good luck

Averett

Just once in my life I would love to get a gift from Tiffany's. Only for the blue box with white ribbon. Well, for the gift too...


I echo the posters who said no to buying jewlery online. It's best to go somewhere and look at it up close. Touch it and whatnot.

__________________
Absence is to love what wind is to fire. It extinguishes the small, it enkindles the great.

wrongfullyaccuzd

thanks everyone for your help. i wasn't really sure before if i ever actually intended to buy the jewelry online, but it was a thought. popular opinion is telling me to look in person, which is what i had a feeling was coming. but i'll still look online, which saves me driving time.
thanks again.

mew

BIRKS! that is if you want really expensive jewelery. If not, any jewelery store is fine..unless your woman its really stingy, whichever style she likes shes bound to love you just for thinking bout her.