With the holiday rush I’ve been being a little inconsistent with my posting. Now that everything is back to normal, at least for a week or two, it is time to get back on track with my Top Ten Tips to buying jewelry with a post about Shopping.
Shopping for jewelry is a unique experience; every diamond or colored gem is an individual and with a few exceptions two similar looking pieces of jewelry, from two different stores, are rarely of identical quality. This gives shopping for jewelry a special challenge and comparison shopping, like one would do for many products, is entirely different for jewelry.
In my earlier posts on Education and Questions I stressed the need to familiarize yourself with the type of jewelry or gemstone you are interested in and to ask lots of questions, not only as a tool to help expand your knowledge, but also as a way of determining the level of professionalism and knowledge of a store and its staff. Now it is time to go shopping.
The first step I recommend is to shop a variety of stores and get a feel for the differing qualities and prices. Customers often tell me that they would not know what to look for or be able to tell the differences in quality. Rest assured that with some time and effort you will be able to spot a really fine piece of jewelry over a merely mediocre or poor quality one.
Always keep in mind that all jewelers are not created equal! Anybody can open a jewelry store and call themselves a jeweler. It is sad to say but the industry I love is filled with incompetents, those who are ethically challenged, and far too many who have no love of jewelry and are just out for a quick buck. This is why asking questions are so important. A few good questions will quickly separate the wheat from chaff.
Be straight with the jeweler. Tell them exactly what you are looking for and what your needs are. I often encounter customers who are hesitant to tell me what they are really looking for and what is truly on their mind. I often suspect this tendency has to do with the fear that if too much information is revealed the customer will not get the best deal or that somehow they will be manipulated. This is certainly understandable given the bad behavior of many sales people and the deceptive nature of many sales pitches. The problem, however, is that a good jeweler will not be able to help you find the perfect piece without accurate information. The reality is that no matter how much research you do, no matter how many questions you ask, you still are going to have to rely on a knowledgeable, ethical professional to get the very best jewelry for your hard earned dollar.
In the end, you are shopping for a jeweler as much as you are shopping for jewelry. A good jeweler 
will help you find, or as we often do, create that very perfect piece of jewelry that exceeds your every expectation. A good jeweler will, more times than not, be able to do this for roughly the price of the over hyped and merely mediocre.
The next post in my Top Ten Tips is Discounts and Deals. Until then, that’s how I see the world of jewelry from Rochester, NY
David West Nytch CGA www.westandcompany.com
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