[Jewelry making - Article 00135] - Re: [Orchid] Weapons of mass-destruction

[Katherine Palochak]

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    David, you really owe it to yourself to go to Wal-Mart and other
    discounters, and look at the jewelry they offer. It will allay your
    fears of competition. 

    While working at the bench for a jeweler last year, we had a lot of
    this discount jewelry come in for repairs. Tables were pitted, there
    were chips, diamonds that had been sold as SI were full of carbon
    that was highly visible with the eye, cloudy, you name it. Then they
    were set in settings that were porous (the reason for the repairs was
    frequently a missing prong), the seats had not been cut properly, and
    the castings had visible pits. 

    The owner would patiently educate them without trashing their
    original purchase. He would pull out a diamond that was of
    comparable quality and tell them the price of it (which was less than
    what they had paid), and then put it next to a diamond that was VVS1
    or 2 (same size), and the difference would be evident to the
    uneducated at the very first look. He would reasonably explain that
    they at least needed a new quality head. He would show them the pits
    in their present head and how it would fail and lose the diamond, and
    he didn't want to be responsible for poor quality and have it reflect
    on his work. He would take the time to fuse new metal in the pits (no
    charge, but he sure took the credit for it), and generally made sure
    the basic structure would hold up. 

    The result was they often returned to get their significant other a
    ring, or at least a diamond, that was worthy of them and expressed
    their true dedication. He would suggest that they save the inferior
    diamond until the first anniversary, then buy another matching
    diamond and have them set as earrings, where they would be less
    noticeable and subjected to less stress. He got a lot of business
    this way, and yes, people were bringing back their inferior diamonds
    for earring sets for an anniversary present. He gained a lot of loyal
    customers this way. 

    Go and see what they really have to offer, and my bet is that you
    will be appalled at the trash they're trying to get rid of. After
    all, even poor quality diamonds have to find a market somewhere, yes?
    If nothing else, if you have a storefront, put up 2 large pictures,
    side by side, in your front window. One of a typical "discount"
    diamond (labeled as such) and one of yours that you consider to be of
    average quality that you sell. They'll be coming in to at least find
    out more, and that's your opportunity to educate them and to make 
sales.



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