Does the diamond jewlery you buy at Kay Jewlers or a department jewlery stores increase in value or depreciate

Question

I purchased a couple of pieces from these stores for my wife. They are mainly diamond and gold pieces. I was wondering how does it work as far as value retention. Do you pay more for it then it's actually worth. Does it increase in value?

Answer 1

As long as jewelry is in good shape it will retain its value. Diamonds never lose value as long it is not chipped. Gold can increase in value. Be warned you will never retire on the value of your jewelry. Any one who buys jewelry operates under the idea that you are selling the piece because you need money. You do pay more than it is worth. The jeweler needs to cover manufacturing costs and keep the lights on. Plus they are in business to make money.

Answer 2

If you buy jewelry as an investment, you are throwing your money away....I worked at a manufacturer of jewelry for years and many times people called us looking to sell...the most we could offer was 10% of their sales price. Most women's rings have less than two pennyweight of 14K gold (that's a big heavy one too) and at $400/oz that comes to about $30 worth at best. (20 pennyweight to the Troy ounce).

Example...I would buy a .45 carat diamond, VVS2, D color for $75 from a broker in NYC. We would mount it with a few 1 or 2 point stones, at about $1 per point our cost (100 points = 1 carat) on the side and with labor and metal and the extra stones, our cost would be $120. Standard markup is 100%. So we would sell it to a jewelry store for $240.
Most of the jewelry stores would also order price tags from us and so, we knew their mark up which varied from 350% to 550% depending on how fancy the store was and it's location. (if I remember right, XXXXX was a 400% mark up...this allows them to put stuff on 'sale' and still make a hefty profit) Chain dept. stores were usually like 350% mark up.


Therefore, a ring with a true, intrinsic value (the total combined cost value of materials and labor) of $120 is sold to the public for at least $1080. (and sometimes more) And you can see why the store can afford to give the "full sale price" trade in on a promise ring when someone "upgrades"...they still have made a nice profit on both (though not as much as a straight sale) AND have got a repeat customer for valentines day, mother's day, birthdays, christmas...just smart customer relations.

And boys and girls...you see the incredible power of repeated advertising...to create in the minds of people great value where there isn't actually any.

Answer 3

your jewelry value will be determined mainly by the market value of both gold and diamonds....you do have to consider that the vendor marked up the items however because they need to make money so your trade in value may not be the same as what you got it at because you have to take away the store mark up....in terms of the value of hte actual stone and metal, that will follow the market...

Answer 4

They assured us that the value would not depreciate on the jewelry. In fact, they told us that if we wanted to come in later on and trade it in for an engagement ring (we bought a promise ring) they would give us a credit for the full amount we paid on the ring.

I don't know if it would increase in value, keep in mind that if it is being used, it will get little bends and scratches from use.

Answer 5

When you buy at the mall, the price will always decrease a little, because the mall hawks up prices. In the future I would suggest you buy your wife stuff from a normal jewerly store outside of the mall.

Answer 6

keep its value