Why our rings cost less
Why are engagement rings so expensive?
I noticed a huge problem. I saw that young adults and those who want something special for their loved one were completely neglected if they couldn't scrape together an extra $4,300 for a ring.
Couples were completely sticker shocked
Excited young couples coming into the jewelry store shopping for wedding rings were completely sticker shocked. What their parents could buy for about $1,200 now costs $4,300. They didn't know that gold has more than tripled over the last decade. An ounce of gold was about $1,060 in early 2016 and it is more than $4,000 today.
So I got to work
At first I thought that there was nothing that could be done, and if you were in the market you would just have to pay the price. But as I started digging deeper, I found that diamonds, natural and lab, are not expensive because they are rare. They are expensive because shops still mark a stone up over 80% above what they paid for it. Lab grown stones themselves are about 74% cheaper than they were in 2020, and wholesale prices are down around 96% since 2018.
At this point I realized that I can't make gold any cheaper, but I can start a jewelry store that doesn't put that markup on my diamond prices. Since I was cutting out one unnecessary cost, I figured that I should just remove all the unnecessary and overinflated parts of the equation. So I got to work.
The most obvious part is the storefront itself
If I didn't have a storefront I wouldn't have to pay extra employees, no massive rent expense, no utilities, no wifi, no fees, and I wouldn't need a massive inventory. That's all stuff that you would have to have paid for! So I decided to not have a storefront.
With all those savings, and without overinflating diamond prices, I am able to sell my jewelry at a price that customers can afford while still keeping the quality that you expect for a lifelong investment. That's why I can save you literally hundreds to thousands of dollars on your engagement ring. Happy designing!
What that looks like on paper
A 14K gold ring with a one carat lab grown diamond is about $1,380 with us, all in. The same ring from a national retailer averages about $7,600. Silver starts around $480.
You get a drawing and an exact price within 48 hours, free, before you commit to anything.
Questions people actually ask
Why are engagement rings so expensive now?
Two reasons that have nothing to do with each other. Gold has more than tripled in a decade, so the metal in the ring costs far more than it did. And a storefront's rent, staff and inventory all sit inside the price you are quoted. The diamond is usually the easiest part to overpay for.
How can you sell a ring for $1,380 when stores charge $7,600?
By not paying for a showroom, staff, utilities or a shelf of unsold inventory, and by not stacking a large markup on the stone. The gold and the diamond cost what they cost. Everything above that is what we left out.
Is a lab grown diamond cheaper because it is worse?
It is the same crystal as a mined diamond, with the same optical and chemical properties, and it is certified the same way. It is cheaper because it is grown in weeks instead of formed over billions of years. Lab grown prices have fallen about 74% since 2020, which is why the markup a shop adds matters more than the stone itself.
Do I need to visit a showroom?
No. Everything starts with a message. Send a photo, a link or a sketch and you get a drawing and an exact price within 48 hours. There is no shop to drive to, and that is exactly why the price looks the way it does.
Has gold really gone up that much?
More than tripled in a decade: about $1,060 an ounce in early 2016 against more than $4,000 today. Nobody in this trade can argue with it, and it is the one part of a ring's price that is not a choice anyone makes.
Free to ask. You get a drawing and an exact price before you commit to anything.