The DH’s ring was made for him to resemble the “one ring to rule them all.” Mine was handmade and I got it on Etsy. It’s a dainty, diamond band. I love it because I don’t like jewelry so it’s perfect for me. Neither ring was very expensive and both have survived 13 years.
Not married yet, however recently engaged.
I looked online at the many configurators to try to create the ring i wanted for my fiance. I found one, saved the images and took them to a local jeweler that a good friend recommended. They took the images, along with a few tweaks i mentioned and custom made the engagement and wedding band.
It's 3.2ct total weight, in Platinum bands and they saved me over $3k from the online price that was given, I got a better GIA certified diamond, and it's even more custom than what i was able to create online.
It also appraised for double what i paid.
What i learned in this process, is to stay away from big box stores. Costco doesn't seem bad on prices, from what i've looked at, but you can still sometimes find better.
Diamonds are the most over priced useless things on this earth, but the women love when they sparkle... So, ask around. Ask friends. Ask online, for local direct diamond importers that have a good reputation and save some money!
@MyFault wrote:It's 3.2ct total weight, in Platinum bands and they saved me over $3k from the online price that was given, I got a better GIA certified diamond, and it's even more custom than what i was able to create online.
It also appraised for double what i paid.
Congrats! But make no mistake about it, the "appraisal" is completely meaningless. The actual value of the ring is the cost someone would be willing to pay for it on the secondary market, and there is virtually ZERO secondary market for engagement rings or diamonds. Pawn shoops are basically the only people who will buy it, and there is no way a pawn shop would pay any more than 10-20% of what was originally paid for it. Nobody wants to buy a used ring or diamond. So the "appraisal" is just a sales tool, to help ease the buyers' concerns and close the sale - because if the buyer realizes the ring is going to only be worth less than 20% of what it cost new, the buyer may have second thoughts. A printed out "appraisal" piece of paper is an easy way for them to effectively kill that concern.
The industry standard for so-called "insurance appraisals" for jewelry, is to appraise the piece for 200% of the sale price. So don't get too excited about your ring's double-the-sale-price appraisal - it's the same inflated appraisal that everyone else who buys an engagement ring, anywhere, also gets.
https://www.diamonds2cash.com/appraisal/
That said, hopefully the resale value of the ring is irrelevent 
Total Loan Balance: $43k / $65k
Total SL: $78k
@coreysw12 wrote:
@MyFault wrote:It's 3.2ct total weight, in Platinum bands and they saved me over $3k from the online price that was given, I got a better GIA certified diamond, and it's even more custom than what i was able to create online.
It also appraised for double what i paid.
Congrats! But make no mistake about it, the "appraisal" is completely meaningless. The actual value of the ring is the cost someone would be willing to pay for it on the secondary market, and there is virtually ZERO secondary market for engagement rings or diamonds. Pawn shoops are basically the only people who will buy it, and there is no way a pawn shop would pay any more than 10% of what was originally paid for it. Nobody wants to buy a used ring or diamond. So the "appraisal" is just a sales tool, to help ease the buyers' concerns and close the sale - because if the buyer realizes the ring is going to only be worth less than 1/10th of what it cost new, the buyer may have second thoughts. A printed out "appraisal" piece of paper is an easy way for them to effectively kill that concern.
That said, hopefully the resale value of the ring is irrelevent
Appraisal can be semi-important for insurance purposes. We have a special addendum on our homeowner's policy specifically covering our wedding and engagement rings because of the cost it would take to replace them if lost or stolen. That said, in our case we set an insured value for the rings so that we could recoup our costs in such an event, but appraisals do have a meaning for rings that are insured without such a set price included.
I think if I were ever to sell any of the rings, and that's unlikely, we'd break them up into metal and loose stones first. Platinum has a well-known and monitored market rate that pawn shops usually honor, and if they don't there's gold and silver shops that will. Additionally, there is a secondary market for loose stones that holds value well (at least until DeBeers releases the flood gates and crashes the value). I do agree that the assembled product is less valuable than its parts because it then becomes something meaningful only to a few people.
@coreysw12 wrote:
Congrats! But make no mistake about it, the "appraisal" is completely meaningless. The actual value of the ring is the cost someone would be willing to pay for it on the secondary market, and there is virtually ZERO secondary market for engagement rings or diamonds. Pawn shoops are basically the only people who will buy it, and there is no way a pawn shop would pay any more than 10% of what was originally paid for it. Nobody wants to buy a used ring or diamond. So the "appraisal" is just a sales tool, to help ease the buyers' concerns and close the sale - because if the buyer realizes the ring is going to only be worth less than 1/10th of what it cost new, the buyer may have second thoughts. A printed out "appraisal" piece of paper is an easy way for them to effectively kill that concern.
https://www.diamonds2cash.com/appraisal/
That said, hopefully the resale value of the ring is irrelevent
Thanks! And I agree with you on the appraisal. The only thing it actually does, is provide a value to insurance so if it's lost, stolen, destroyed, etc. then I'll be reimbursed enough to replace it, with inflation.
And yes, let's hope the resale value is absolutely irrelevant! lol
@coreysw12 wrote:
The actual value of the ring is the cost someone would be willing to pay for it on the secondary market, and there is virtually ZERO secondary market for engagement rings or diamonds. Pawn shoops are basically the only people who will buy it, and there is no way a pawn shop would pay any more than 10-20% of what was originally paid for it. Nobody wants to buy a used ring or diamond. So the "appraisal" is just a sales tool, to help ease the buyers' concerns and close the sale - because if the buyer realizes the ring is going to only be worth less than 20% of what it cost new, the buyer may have second thoughts. A printed out "appraisal" piece of paper is an easy way for them to effectively kill that concern.
Definitely some strange market dynamics at play...
Diamond sellers could probably pay more than a generalist pawn shop, but their business depends on not offending customers' notions of value too greatly.
Diamonds are "forever" until they get lost, chipped, or go out of style. So "rare" that everyone can only have a few. 
But how many people do you know who own ruby or emerald jewelry? And some gemstone varieties are too scarce and exotic to justify the expense of trying to brainwash mass consumers. Benitoite is beautiful but too rare for many people to buy one, so it stays unknown.
A lot of people don't want used rings, and the mass-mined diamond may be new...but the gold in the ring may well have been recycled through many other products. Maybe some of the gold in that ring you're looking at was in a dental filling not so long ago.
I'm sorry for your husband....
They make silicone bands, which are affordable and safe for certain jobs. However I couldn't imagine putting my ring down, and forgetting it or losing it...
They make silicone bands, which are affordable and safe for certain jobs. However I couldn't imagine putting my ring down, and forgetting it or losing it...