DIAMOND & GEMSTONE RINGS - REAL BLING BLINGS!

Shown Above: Offers considered on this incredible large EMERALD and diamond ring appraised over $10,000 at VINTAGE JEWELRY SHOWCASE at RUBY LANE and VIANVI JEWELRY at RUBY PLAZA.


When it comes to REAL bling bling, you can't beat the real thing i.e. real diamonds and real gemstones. Sure, costume jewelry is often super pretty, nicely designed, and if it's vintage, generally of high quality when it comes to the crystals and rhinestones used. But let's face it: that costume jewelry takes a beating over time. Unless you keep it all in a box and never wear it, sooner or later stones chip, become cloudy or discolored or fall out altogether. And those old crystals are often hard to replace: after all, the pieces were made 20 - 50 years ago. Finding the perfectly matching crystal can be an impossible job, even more so if the designer is a famous one like Sherman.

But of course, costume jewelry is so much more affordable than real diamond and gemstone jewelry. So while many of us dream of owning a gorgeous emerald and diamond ring like the one at the top of this post, dream is all we can do ... unless we consider buying "used", "second hand" or what sounds nicer "pre-loved". Let's stick with pre-loved as often, that's exactly what the original owner probably felt: love for that special ring. She may not have worn it every day. She kept it boxed and put it on for special occasions. Being real diamonds and genuine gemstones, it wouldn't go cloudy or discolor. Being real diamonds and gemstones, chipping was much less likely as the stones are so much harder. Oh sure, they can be chipped or scratched, but if your seller is honest, they'll disclose any flaws. Even flawed, a diamond or gemstone still retains value. And if a stone does fall out and is lost, replacing them isn't anywhere near as difficult, though it is more expensive.

These are some of the reasons we like selling genuine diamond and gemstone jewelry at VINTAGE JEWELRY SHOWCASE and VIANVI JEWELRY. We try to give a buyer the chance to own truly valuable and beautiful rings, necklaces, brooches or bracelets at a fraction of what they would have paid had they bought it brand new. We go all out looking for quality items. We avoid chipped stones. We steer clear of diamonds with carbon deposits or poor clarity ie.. the diamonds look cloudy or milky. (If we do happen to have some that don't quite meet our criteria, you can count on us to have priced it according to its lesser quality). You might not know it, but many of the rings being sold in retail outlets today, if they seem affordable, are often of a diamond quality we won't touch! It sometimes shocks us looking at new rings in modern retail shops with price tags of $2000 - $3000 ... and offering diamonds we wouldn't want! But folks buy them because they're new. The little pinpoint lights make them twinkle in those glass displays and the buyer thinks they're awesome. We don't. The ones that are awesome, if new, are many thousands of dollars more!

So that said, feast your eyes on some of the diamond/gemstone rings we currently have in our VIANVI shops. These are true quality ... and the appraisals we have done back that up. No, they are not cheap. But we're selling them at a fraction of their value. What a way for you, our buyers, to afford quality jewelry!

Above: RARE natural ALEXANDRITE & diamond cocktail ring appraised at $8950. Our price: ONLY $3795! CLICK HERE TO SEE & LEARN MORE.

Above: Stunning cocktail ring feartures 1/2ct of diamonds set around a brilliant pink TOURMALINE. Fabulous ring at fabulous price during our 50% OFF SALE. Only $350!! CLICK THIS LINK TO SEE & LEARN MORE

Above: Appraised at $3800, it doesn't get much prettier than this RUBY and Diamond dinner ring, on sale now for only $1079. CLICK HERE NOW!

Above: Unheated, natural SAPPHIRE and Diamond Ring, appraised at $8850 is set in platinum. Only $3299. Rare gemstone! LEARN MORE HERE!


There are so many more gorgeous diamond and gemstone rings available in our shops, and right now, with our 50% OFF SALE in full swing, you can't get much better for so much less. Be sure to drop by and look for those items marked 50% OFF. Necklaces and bracelets too! Lots of real BLING BLING!

OUR EBAY EXPERIMENT: RESULTS & WHAT WE'VE LEARNED

Well our little experiment with selling at auction on ebay, after not having done so for months, is nearly finished. We still have a few auctions running but it's easy to project already how those will end up i.e. dead. Here's our conclusions:

1) Ebay will bring lots of page views and even bidders  ... IF the auction starts at 99 cents or less!

2) Ebay will bring few page views and almost no bidders if the auction starts at what an item is worth, unless it's worth very little

3) Lots of "watchers" doesn't mean lots of bidders. Now we know that's not news but in general, if you have 50 watchers, you're lucky to have 10 real bidders.

Of the 13 items I had listed, 5 were sold. Three of them went for between $30 - $46, at the opening bid price! The other two, higher end pieces, went for less than 1/10th their appraised value!! I let a $6000 Jabel ring go for $650! There were 13 watchers. Only one person bid. What were the rest doing? I suspect the rest were probably other eBay sellers just curious to see if that Jabel with one carat of diamonds (worth more than the entire ring!) would sell at all before they list theirs.

The other item that sold for 1/10th its appraised value had actually been previously "sold" on Ruby Lane for twice what I got on ebay ie.. $395. The original buyer never paid up. But here's the rub: either she or her relative bid on the eBay auction and got it for half price! Well good for her you might say ie. smart bidding and smart shopping. True. But for me as a vendor, it sucks.

Then there's my daughter's auctions. Several of hers finished yesterday and she still has several to go. The ones that started at 99 cents all sold. Did she get her money ie.. what it was worth? Well on one ring she got back her cost. But since ebay fees come out of that, she's down. On a second ring which miraculously she had priced with an opening bid of $475, she got all her money back but didn't make anything. Interesting that that one did gets bids and didn't start at 99 cents. The gorgeous diamond cross pendant shown in my previous blog post? It went for less than $100. Then take off ebay fees. It started at 99 cents. Now what if she'd paid $200 for that in the first place? Ouch!

Of the items still at auction, only one, a semi-mount for a ring, has any bids. All the others are high end items with the bidding starting where she must start or lose her shirt. On all those items there have been very few page views and just about no-one has a "watch" on them.

So final conclusion as far as we little sellers go: don't sell on ebay unless you can afford to start your auctions at 99 cents!! And don't complain if item sells below what it's worth if you do list there: that's the chance you take when you sell on ebay.

Our auction items are now back in our shops at RUBY LANE and RUBY PLAZA. If you're reading this and are a vendor or buyer, we're open to offers on all items, even when it doesn't state "make an offer". As summer sets in, sales slow down so we're a little more flexible, especially when we're overstocked. So why not drop over and take a look. Don't be shy. We'll listen :))

We have the gorgeous original set by STANLEY HAGLER (shown below) that's a real collector's item: Make us an offer!

Or how about this recently added sapphire/diamond brooch and earring set (below) that we've just added this past week. It's incredible!

VINTAGE JEWELRY IS LIKE VINTAGE CARS - RARE, SPECIAL, ESPECIALLY IF IT'S CARTIER OR TIFFANY

My daughter and her boyfriend are looking for their first car. Of course, what they like they can't afford and what they can afford isn't necessarily what they like or want.

It's a bit like that with jewelry, isn't  it. There's always newer, bigger, brighter and more expensive jewelry on the market. And women do so love to have the latest thing or follow the newest trend. But unless we're rich, we can't always afford what we want.

I suppose that's why I like vintage jewelry, especially designer signed. If it's a famous designer, like a Cartier or Tiffany, it's still going to be expensive, but comparatively speaking, it's affordable.

Just like today: hubby and I went out for a walk and stopped to look at cars. I spotted a Mercedes I liked. It was sold. Just as well. I couldn't afford it even if it wasn't. Then I saw another car I really liked, a BMW. It was a 2000 model but in nice shape, and being 10 years old, quite affordable. And for me, there was something so appealing about both cars: older but classy. Well made. Recognized names for quality. No, none of the fancy modern gizmos like GPS or something into which I could stick an ipod, but one lovely car. Again, a bit like that vintage 14k gold diamond Tiffany watch shown above: older, recently serviced but ever beautiful, elegant, classy and relatively affordable.

I wore that gorgeous watch to one of my daughter's shows last night (she's an entertainer). I don't usually wear something we purchase to sell, but I just had to have the experience of wearing a gold Tiffany watch for once in my life. It felt great! I kept looking at it, admiring it on my wrist, checking to see it was still keeping perfect time (it was) and secretly hoping every other woman around me might notice it LOL! Do  you ever do that?

Now on my other wrist, I wore the incredibly beautiful vintage 18k  Cartier Double C motif bangle/bracelet shown below (also a very new addition to our shops:

Yes, I really went all out! With the Tiffany watch on one wrist and this fantastic  rather rare Cartier diamond bangle on the other wrist, I felt, well, special! I could never had afforded them new when they were new, but now, being vintage, while they still cost a lot, they were far more affordable. For just one night in my life, I felt like the rich and famous ie.. wearing valuable designer pieces of fine jewelry. And it felt great! And boy, did those pieces look marvellous. It really helped me appreciate why owning a Cartier and Tiffany is so desirable. 

Well now, they're both back in their boxes where they will stay until some other woman who loves fine designer jewelry decides one of these is for her. They are both listed now in our RUBY LANE and RUBY PLAZA shops.  I've also been lucky to just today acquire the matching 18k Double C Diamond Cartier ring that matches that bracelet. It will be listed sometime in the next 3 -4 weeks. But what an incredibly valuable matching set that would be ie. an 18k Diamond Cartier Bangle and Ring in the tri-colored Double C motif. Gorgeous, collectible designer vintage jewelry. Watch for it!

EBAY SELLING EXPERIMENT PROCEEDING AS EXPECTED - POORLY!

If you read my previous blog post, you know that for the first time in a very long time, we decided to list some of our gorgeous fine jewelry on auction at eBay. Their offer of free listing i.e. no fees for a change, was an opportunity to compare eBay as a selling venue to our usual venues at RUBY LANE and RUBY PLAZA.  We were also hoping to use this as a chance to lure visitors to our new Ruby Plaza shop as it carries quite a few items that aren't or cannot be listed in our Ruby Lane Shop. We hope YOU  have checked out the new shop by now (hint! hint!)

So here we are with auctions ending in the next 24 -48 hours and going by the "page views" eBay supplies, traffic to the auction items have been dreadful! Whether that's because they're buried under so much other stuff at ebay that folks don't find them until the last minute (much to our disappointment of course) or they simply aren't what buyers want, we don't know. But we do know this much: eBay shoppers are still very loathe to bid or buy anything that priced higher, or where the opening bid is high, even if it's worth every cent and you can prove it by an appraisal. We have rings listed, like the glorious diamond and emerald cocktail ring below (which comes with an appraisal for $2150 CAD) on which the opening bid is a

very low $695, almost my cost, and no-one is even watching it. OUCH! This ring has 0.40 cts of VS - H diamonds (top quality) and 5 genuine, not lab-created emeralds! It's a absolute steal at that opening bid price.  But no, instead there's more watches on simple rings starting at $29 that aren't a patch on that one and will never match it for value. 

Well we do have bids on some items. Of course, they are the ones starting super low, like that incredible diamond cross shown at the top of this blog. That beauty comes with 0.65cts of diamonds and no kidding ... that one is worth bidding on. But here we are with 4 days to go in the auction at the bidding is stalled at $21.75!! How typical. We know what the watchers are doing of course: they're going to wait till the very last second and try to snipe it for pennies. And whoever wins it will score bigtime. But will they pay what it's really worth? I'm betting it doesn't even reach $200 and it's certainly worth more than that. 

Here's another example: the ring shown below comes with an appraisal for over $2200 CAD. The main diamond in this one is about 0.29cts and again, high quality. Bidding has opened (started at $49) and has reached a grand total of $87 at this point. Whoopee! NOT! Is this going to be another one of those items we lose our shirts on? Probably. Why do eBay sellers put themselves through this!

One thing's becoming abundantly clear to me: to sell successfully (ie. make any money) on eBay you either have to be able to buy items at rock-bottom prices or be a masochist. You certainly shouldn't rely on it as your only source of income ie. better keep your day job and do ebay for fun. Did I say fun? What's funny about losing money?!

One of the other rings we have at auction (there's plenty more) is the fabulous emerald-cut solitaire shown below. About a year back, we couldn't keep this style of ring in stock. Everyone was after emerald-cut solitaires. Well right now, this one's had lots of looks but only 4 watchers. Let's hope they're serious and not just curious. This is a 0.28ct solitaire engagement ring whose diamond is VS - VVS clarity and F-G color ... just a gorgeous and valuable stone. We have the opening bid on this at our cost! Someone will get lucky if they're smart enough to bid. But you can bet they'll do the usual eBay thing: wait till the last second.

For me, I find this type of selling utterly nerve-wrecking. I try not to worry but I know that I'm one of those unfortunate sellers who doesn't buy her stuff at bargain basement prices. We pay a lot for each and every fine piece of jewelry we carry. So if we list on eBay, we can't start auctions at 99 cents like the big guys do, though I must admit some of them do amazingly. I guess the difference is they have huge followings on eBay. Maybe they have retail outlets. Maybe their buyers are other jewellers who know the value of the pieces. I wonder how many "ordinary" buyers who'd just like a nice ring for themselves or someone they love know the real value of what they're looking at. We know the quality we're selling. We spell it out in detail in our shops at RUBY LANE and RUBY PLAZA. We provide that same detail to eBay buyers but they don't bite. Why! There sure is something different about buying and selling on eBay. 

And thank heaven for our loyal Ruby Lane/Ruby Plaza customers who buy from us again and again, knowing that that they'll get what they see and it's worth what we say. Make no mistake: there are some very good, honest sellers on eBay who do bend over backwards to serve the customer and who stand behind their product. But there's one thing we have seen time and again too ie.. sellers who sell diamond and gemstone jewelry, making lavish claims about the quality, and then, even when you prove to them it ain't what they say, they refund your money and relist the item exactly as they had it before! Hmmm! 

Well, we'll see how our auctions go over the next few days. I know we'll be disappointed. I'm willing to bet most of the items won't sell at all, even at the super low opening bids, and those that do sell will bring sad $$ for the value. Those who buy our pieces will be very happy as they'll get top quality for low dollars. As for us, it'll be back to where we like selling: RUBY LANE and RUBY PLAZA. Oh, while we have you: that's a genuine diamond and garnet JABEL shown below and bidding on that one starts at only $295!! That's giving it away!

IS EBAY STILL THE BEST PLACE TO SELL YOUR VINTAGE JEWELRY?

A few days back, a member of our jewelry group posited this question: "Is there really no alternative to ebay for selling items by auction"? From the answers members gave him, one couldn't help but sense a tiny bit of despair. Yes there were alternatives out there, but if you really wanted to sell by auction, eBay still rules.

Many, like me, prefer not to sell auction-style: we know that invariably we'll lose money in one or more ways:

1) eBay buyers are bargain hunters ...they have a garage sale mentality ie.. get it as cheaply as you can. Take advantage of a seller's need for funds at that moment etc etc. Hence, the seller rarely gets what they really would like or need for the item.

2) if you do get a price you're happy with, ebay's fees will cut steeply into your profit.

Either way, you usually end up with less money than you wanted, less than the item was worth, or if you had the misfortune of paying too much for it when you first bought it, of losing $$ altogether.

I guess that's why we deserted ebay over 2 years ago as sellers. We felt we were being eaten alive there. We moved over to RUBY LANE and everything changed. It's been great for us. We like it so much, we've even dared to open a second shop at their sister site, RUBY PLAZA. That one will take time to grow but we're confident that ultimately, we're better off on both those sites than selling on ebay.

BUT, eBay is trying hard to lure the sellers back. They've been running a very special offer that ended today, June 1st. They let vendors with good DSR's list auction-style for FREE! Well, since things have truly been a bit slow in the last couple of months, we've decided to test eBay out for the first time in a long, long time. We know we won't get the price we want for the items we've listed, but we're curious to see what will happen. Are the shoppers still bargain-hunting on ebay? Will they recognize value when they see it or decide that it's still too expensive for them? In short, we're conducting an experiment of sorts. It'll be interesting to see if we sell anything at all LOL!

If you'd like to have a look at what we've listed, you'll find our auction listings HERE There's quite a mixture of items: gorgeous diamond and gemstone rings, some Shermans, some fine jewelry like the necklace shown at the top, and even loose genuine gemstones. Auctions start as low as $29 for rings. The better rings, several with appraisals, start at only 1/4 to 1/5 or even in some cases, 1/10 of the appraised value! This is a great chance to get some of our fabulous jewelry at a price lower than we've had it in our SHOPS, presuming you win the item for the opening bid. Yes, we were careful not to cut our own throats on this experiment. We've done that too often on eBay LOL.

But if you're the type who doesn't like buying on eBay, but you want one of our items, here's what you do: locate that item in either our RUBY LANE or RUBY PLAZA shop and email us. We can talk about it ie. if item doesn't sell on ebay, after the auction ends, you can buy it from us that opening bid price. How's that sound?

Visit the EBAY LINK to our items today. Except for the gemstones, you can link straight through from the item listing in eBay to the listing in our shop and vice versa. Then contact us. Have fun!