New York - Engagement Ring Shopping

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casiopea said:
You are kidding right? If the "poor man" feels he's being forced into spending a lot of money that he doesnt want to spend then I think he has bigger problems than getting an engagement ring....getting a backbone should be first.
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Precisely. It's a very sad day when such acts are seen as a "deal" in which one half is shelling out x amount of money and getting nothing in return. As i said already the amount is irrelivant it's the gesture that's important (and the manner in which it is done i daresay).

While any solid relationship is naturally based on compromise i fear for any 'poor man' (or woman for that matter) who see the purchase of an engagement ring in such a transactory manner i.e. "I'm gettin nuttin out of this" or "i want the ring to cost this much".

Btw Tiffanys etc aside there's some great advice above about where to buy in New York. As far as value for money is concerned it's much better than here.
 
Average spend nowadays would be 5K Euro.
You should have a look at buying a second hand ring for the stone and having a ring made in one of those places in the Powerscourt Centre.
New jewellery here is a rip-off. The agent buys a ring in Antwerp for 2K, sells it to the jeweller for 4K who sells it to the punter for 8K.
The real value of the ring commodity wise is still 2K.
a ring bought for 2K in an auction or antique store will be an 8K retail when re-set.
Buddy of mine bought a diamond in SA when we were on a golf trip and had the ring made here. Paid 1.5K for the diamond and was told by the jeweller here the ring would sell for 10K here.
 
Ok have been on the net looking up all the various recommendations. Is it really heading out towards New Jersey..is the saving of 5% discount from New York City in all jewellers there?
My head is spinning with all the differnet options! Know my girlfriend likes the three stone rings and thats the only thing I'm certain about (apart Does anyone know if there is a guide/chart with what a diamond of the various different cut,clarity carats cost in Dublin just so I compare what the comparable cost in New York
Think my girlfriend would like the whole Tiffanys experience but then again I alos know she likes the bling and quality!
 
Back about 3 weeks and bought engagement ring with Haniken and Son, google them and u will get their exact address. As another poster stated Aer Lingus staff use them so no better reference as they would be street wise if they fly into NYC regularly. Expenditure is down to personal choice but we dealt with the son and he was excellent, fiance knew her stuff but they are straight up and initial price was discounted by about 200 bucks only. Other places we went to for same spec were about 4k more and then when we pushed they reduced by 1500. Saw 2 glossy brochures from jewellers and based on size, colour, cut, etc specified we got it for about half price.
 
Hiya,
I purchased a engagement ring 2 yrs ago in NY. Great value for money compared to Ireland. Tiffanys is way over priced. TINY diamond for huge price. the diamond district off 5th Avenue is the place to go. very jewish area. very pushy but great choice. you can design your ring on the internet & they will make it up for you....
 
I know you said it was your last contribution, but i'm just curious.

Gone Fishin' said:
FOr me an engagement was something a hell of a lot more important than a financial purchase and, to me, the ring symbolised nothing.
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Why did you buy a ring at all then?
 
Hi there,
Well am in New York now and have visited Hanniken and Son as recomended. They are all really helpful there and i picked a ring. The stone is certifies by the European Gemologists Laboratory when I went on to confirm the Certificate number I discovered that it an Israeli lab and not the more renowned American Branch. The Us Branch told me that they dont endorse the Israeli branch! Does anyone know abnything about these labs or has anyone had a diamond that has been certifies by them appraised/valued at home and if so was the appraisal/valuation favourable?
All opinions will be gratefully accepted! Have to make decision today as going home tomorrow!
Thanks again to eveyone for their help!
 
Hi all,
How did you guys pay for the rings? credit card/bank transfer/travellers cheque/cash?
I'm heading to NY after xmas and would love to know what is accepted, and economic when it comes to fx/commissions/credit card fees..
Did anyone get charged extra to cover credit card fees?
I think i'll put my creditcard into credit and check with my bank that this will work.
Thanks
 
Presume you will all be walking through the red channel and declaring the ring purchase on your return to Dublin? :)
 
You can pay by credit card as this is what I did a few weeks ago.

We let our bank credit card dept know that a large transaction was going to happen on a certain day.

However the transaction did not go through and the jeweller had to ring his merchant (US), this was still not enough so we got the him to call the Irish merchant and we talked to them and all was ok, do not worry, in fact it is good to know that it is not easy for such a large transaction to go through.
 
As for Sunny's reply we arrived back from Shannon and there was no one working in the Something to Declare section, it was a flight from NYC and several passengers walked through 'Nothing to Declare' laden down with Macy's bags......some Irish people have amazing neck or are amazingly stupid:D
 
Sunny said:
Presume you will all be walking through the red channel and declaring the ring purchase on your return to Dublin? :)
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in reference to the later post, i'm irish..., so it will be green :D

Are customs clamping down on this and or general US shopping? I've been to the US twice a few years back and had to buy extra bags to bring stuff home....

Thanks for the answer to creditcard question, per-chance,did you get its limit raised? or are you a member of the gold card club :rolleyes: My current limit is probably a lot lesst than my partner would like.
 
more or less along the same lines but am looking 4 an enagement ring in boston????? have looked @ the threads and all seem 2 lean towards NYC......... unfortunately am heading 2 Boston... please advise
 
confused111 said:
Hi there,
Well am in New York now and have visited Hanniken and Son as recomended. They are all really helpful there and i picked a ring. The stone is certifies by the European Gemologists Laboratory when I went on to confirm the Certificate number I discovered that it an Israeli lab and not the more renowned American Branch. The Us Branch told me that they dont endorse the Israeli branch! Does anyone know abnything about these labs or has anyone had a diamond that has been certifies by them appraised/valued at home and if so was the appraisal/valuation favourable?
All opinions will be gratefully accepted! Have to make decision today as going home tomorrow!
Thanks again to eveyone for their help!
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Hi confused, am off to NY this weekend and would love to know how you got on. Did you purchase for Hanniken? Presume with xmas and all you have not got it indepentantly checked at home?

Any info from others would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
 
Not yet "ringed" but going to New York so am glad of all the advice. Did anyone else have "confused111"'s problem with the Certification. I'd be a bit worried about taking it home and discovering its a dud! Do the jewellers here value them for insurance purposes at the same value as in NY?
Must go checking out some jewellers to see what suits. Like the 3 stones too but they might look awful on stubby fingers!
 
Hi all,
Back from NYC with a ring!

Ringed, to anwser your points, nearly all the diamonds that we saw were GIA certified, so we did not come up against the different EGL branchs. Regarding it beening a dud, we took ours to macys to have it appraised before we returned home, cost something like $100 + %of ring value, ended up about $113. They also "valued it" something like 25% more that what we paid, this is not too supprising as the same quality rings/Ds were being sold at this value in a more of a high-street store. Have not got it valued in Ireland yet.

Regardin what would look nice, we had a look in Ireland before we left,one in castlebar and applebys in dublin. highly recommend this.
1 for seeing what style is nice...
2 for the learning experience about 4Cs
3 to realise what a limited style of ring settings they have here

I must say that applebys were very patient,nice, helpful etc...


People may be followin my question about creditcards, I think most of them accepted them and probably included the percentage they get charged in the prices they quote. However we were able to bargain this amount out of them if we paid cash, only $100-200.
I/we kept forgetting about sales tax when the quoted prices,however the main benefit of paying cash is that "some" were willing to drop the sales tax 8.x %, now that adds up! I'm not sure how our bargining went, they only dropped by a bit, but and the end we brought up the cash/tax.
I'm not sure how much they "bent the rules" by dropping the sales, even though the US does not have a tax reclaiming scheme for foreigners, items bought from outside of the each state do not need to pay this. Others communicated this in such a way that I felt that this was "an excuse" for them being able drop their price by about the 8%.


We took a good bit in cash with us and spent a few days withdrawing our max from 2 ATM cards to make up the cash. Hotel saftey deposit box came in handy.

Happy shopping
 
Thanks for all your advice bullseye.
Its a little bit daunting as you don't want to let the cat out of the bag to anyone and yet there are so many questions. Will pop into applebys for a look and make sure no-one sees us!
Congratulations to you by the way!
 
You know of course you are required to declare at customs any jewellery above a certain threshhold bought outside the EU. It is best not to commence a lifetime of promise with some initial dishonesty.

Further details from ever reliable www.revenue.ie
 
SOM42 said:
On the advice of Aer Lingus cabin crew and these girls know their jewellery I bought from Haniken and Son. I don't have the exact address but I think they are in the Diamond Exchange on West 47th St. The place is full of diamond shops and hard to trust alot of them but Haniken really appears to care and Mrs som was really pleased with the ring she got. At a guesstimate we probably got the ring at about half the price you would pay here. He will show you a selection of stones and settings and when you have made your decision pay a small deposit and collect it the day afterwards. No pressure and extremley professional and cool.
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I'd just like to thank Som 42 for his thread on Hanikens New York, and to say that they were absolutely brillant to deal with. Their address is 66 West 47th Street, We were a bit thrown at the start cos Number 66 hosts a load of small jewelry stalls, so go right in to the back. They asked us were we from Aer Lingus. I said no, but that they had been recommended to us by Aer Lingus (I didn't think they would know about AAM!). They said they would give us the Aer Lingus discount! Anyway, back two weeks now. Got the ring valued yesterday and it's worth between 4 & 5 thousand euro more than we paid for it, so two very happy customers!
Thanks again....
 
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