Tips For Buying Estate Jewelry For Your Mother
Estate Jewelry is the perfect gift for your Mom whether it's for Mother's Day, her birthday, or Christmas. Mother's will always enjoy a lovely piece of jewelry. But there are some things you should know before heading out to buy that jewelry to make sure you don't pay too much or don't land up with a fake piece of jewelry.
Estate jewelry is always an excellent choice because your Mom may have personal attachments to a certain piece or style. Follow these tips for buying jewelry for your Mother.
Check around!
Quality jewelry isn't cheap so before you even start shopping check around with co-workers, friends, and family and see which stores or web sites they recommend for purchasing fine jewelry from. Also take note of the ones they tell you to stay away from. Other peoples experiences are a great method of finding the best jewelry store available.
Get it Written Down
If you've been talking with a sales rep then have them write down all the information they've given you including the stores policy on refunds and returns. If you are buying online then print out all the detailed information supplied on the web site including contact information, return policies, and refund policies.
Watch The Markings
Gold plated is not 14 karat gold. Some might try to lead you to believe this but its just not so. 14K jewelry is made of 14 parts of gold combined with 10 parts of a base metal. Gold plated means that the cheaper base metal has simply had a layer of 10K gold bonded to it. Eventually the gold will wear away and leave you with the ugly base metal. How long it takes to wear away will depend on how well it is plated, how often you wear it, and how your skin reacts to it.
Watches
There are two different watch styles, the battery operated and the winding style. You'll have to decide which type is best for your Mom. You'll also want to find out how long the warranty is and what it covers. A personal experience with a higher end watch maker left me rather amazed. I had managed to wear the gold plating off the band which was listed in the life time warranty as covered. However upon sending it in for replacement I found out I had neglected to read the fine print that had a list of exclusions on the life time warranty. So the moral of the story is read and read it all. Don't have a big surprise later on. That replacement band cost me half the value of the original purchase price.
Ouch!
Understand Gems
You need to understand the different between a natural gem that comes from mother earth and a synthetic or laboratory created gem that is man made. To look at them side by side you cannot visually see any differences. But the biggest difference is in the price. Natural gems cost a great deal more. So if you really want a natural gemstone then you'll have to pay more. When buying a natural gem make sure that you understand what you are getting. Natural gems can have treatments that enhance their beauty. Enhanced natural gems are not worth the same money as a natural natural gem and they may also require special |