Articles > Cheap jewelry - Beware

Cheap Jewelry. Beware!

There is a reason for a piece of jewelry to be cheap. Firstly to sell cheap, one have to have low cost. Because of the updated daily set price of most of the materials involved (precious metal, diamonds etc.) the low cost can't come from bargain buys in this area. Then where to cut? You can cut on:

1. Weight of the precious metal - by reducing the thickness well bellow reasonable minimum.

2. Quality of diamonds - by using brown and grey overtone inferior diamonds.

3. Labor cost - by limiting the range to designs suitable for mass finishing.

4. Playing optical tricks like using small 0.02 ct diamond in the middle of a rhodium plated beaded metal to give an impression of significant size etc.

$100 sounds cheap for a diamond ring, but if you evaluate it, you will most likely discover it is grossly overprized. I have evaluated such a ring for a customer. The "bargain" ring contained 1.3 gr. of 9 kt gold and almost industrial quality 0.02 ct diamond with no value on craftsmanship whatsoever. In the most optimistic light the total cost was $18 !!

It is in the nature of jewellery to be expensive. One of its purposes is to show wealth and status. Jewelry is concentrated wealth and calling it cheap is defying its very purpose.

While one could be overcharged in every quality sector of jewelry, due to lack of knowledge and unethical retail practices, my opinion is that the low end, mass produced pieces are the champions of overpricing on value for money aspect.

As I mentioned in an earlier article, we have different value systems, therefore not all the values are objective. We can't do without food or clothing but we can, without "one-design-fits-all" jewelry that devaluate our aesthetic standing. Whatever our recourses are, using them on "cheap jewelry" will be a waste.