Shop eBay to Save Money on Your Engagement Ring

But if you're a first time engagement ring buyer, follow the advice of this savvy eBay member and not only find the ring that's perfect for your partner, but save money on your engagement ring too!

Engagement Rings on eBay: A Step-by-Step Buyers Guide
by Matthew Clark

You want to save money on your engagement ring, but getting from point A (cash in hand and no diamond knowledge) to point B (ring in hand sized to fit your fiancé) is a more complicated process than it might at first appear.

I will be honest and say that buying off of eBay presents a more complicated and time consuming process than just visiting a few local jewelers and buying what you think looks nice.

But given the massive savings involved (easily 50% savings) eBay really is worth the extra effort if you want to save money on your engagement ring.

I did buy my engagement ring off of eBay and from my (extensive) search and purchase, I learned a few tips and tricks that can help you along the way.

Here is what I think is the best procedure to save money on your engagement ring off of eBay:

Step 1: Learn the 4 Cs-Carat, Clarity, Color and Cut. I won’t go over them here, but take some time to look online at some guides to what the 4 Cs are. You’ll need to know them eventually in order to make an assessment of what type of ring you want to get, so you might as well learn them now. Know them by heart, and as you move on to step 2, cultivate the ability to determine by sight the 4 Cs of any diamond you look at.

Step 2: Visit some local jewelry shops. Your local jewelry shop provides the only way to see rings and diamonds in person and lets you correlate the textual description of a diamond, say a ¾ carat round cut SI2 G stone, to what that stone actually looks like in an engagement ring.

Making this mental correlation is essential to your ability to choose a ring/stone, sight unseen, off of eBay that will have the size, proportion, color and clarity that you want.

In addition to listening to the jewelers’ engagement ring presentations, ask them how much they would charge for the following items: Setting a stone in a four or six prong setting in a semi-mount ring; setting a stone you provide in a simple Tiffany style ring bought from them, and for resizing a ring.

Step 3: To make sure you do save money on your engagement ring, determine budget and style of ring/stone. Take what you’ve seen at local jewelers and what you know of your fiance’s tastes and decide what you’re going to get. You can also do a little eBay research (search completed auctions for loose diamonds or diamond rings in the $x - $y range) to assist in your budgeting calculations.

There are three main options for how you can put together your ring:

1. You can get a ring with stone all from one ebay seller (sized by them or by a local jeweler).
2. You can get a semi-mount ring and a stone separately and have a local jeweler put them together. The jeweler fee may be in the $100-$250 range if a post and prongs are required to hold the diamond (price depends on size of stone and the material of your ring) but may be under $50 if your ring already has the post and prongs of the appropriate size to accept your stone.
3. You can get a stone on eBay and set it in a local jewelers ring. This option may be a feasible way to save money on your engagement ring if you want a simple Tiffany setting, as some jewelers will sell you their ring and set your stone in it for under $200.

Step 4: Find, bid, and win your ring and stone on eBay. It might take a while for the ring and stone you want to come up for the right price, but have patience and don’t settle for anything you’re not going to want to look at for the next 50 years (or whatever your expectation is for the longevity of your marriage).

Step 5: Put the ring together and get it sized, as applicable. Use the local jewelry store information you garnered in step 2. This may take a week and a half depending on the store and what you’re getting done.

Depending on how confident you are of your finace’s ring size, you might want to postpone the sizing until after popping the question.

Step 6: Think up some romantic way to pop the question and get her to say "yes." Enough said.

Enjoy shopping for your ring, and may your marriage be till death do you part. And if this guide indeed helped you save money on your engagement ring , give it a helpful vote in the rating system. It would be nice to see this guide eventually jump up in the rankings past all those simplistic and redundant guides expounding the 4 Cs.

About the Author: Matthew Clark is a structural engineer and amature photographer from Troy, NY, and has has been buying and selling on eBay since 2000. He is also a Top 1,000 Reviewer on eBay.

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