This is the Mano Designs guide to purchasing fine jewelry on Ebay and elsewhere.  In this guide we will also briefly explain the difference between lab created diamonds and gemstones and natural earth mined gemstones. Fine jewelry is jewelry that has precious stones on it such as rubies, diamonds, sapphires, emeralds and more. There are also semi-precious stones which are called semi-precious because they are not as rare as the precious stones and therefore not as expensive. Diamonds are usually the most expensive gemstone, after which come rubies, emeralds, sapphires and so on.  The metal part of fine jewelry is usually white gold, yellow gold, platinum, and in antique fine jewelry we have seen precious stones mounted on silver in very beautiful settings.

Fine jewelry is usually very expensive, so expensive in fact that it is considered an investment, like a fur coat, or a house. As an investment it is guaranteed to go up in value over the years.  Any salesperson in a jewelry store will tell the customer that fine jewelry goes up in value by 1% every year. This is the minimum, but it's usually much more. In the last ten years the price of fine jewelry has tripled. A ring that was $300 in 1990 is $1000 today in the same jewelry store. Traditional jewelry stores usually sell jewelry at MSRP prices with occasional sales of 30% or even 50%. But no jewelry store boasts an 80% off sale, because they can't. Retail jewelry companies spend a lot of money on advertising, retail stores, and staff. This is why sellers have an advantage on EBAY because we can sell the same jewelry from the same manufacturers as the retailers and we don't have the expenses that they have, so we can give the customers discounts to get them to buy from us instead of the fancy jewelry store. 

However, in our experience some sellers on EBAY abuse the customers by selling very low quality items that are not even worth the low prices they are selling them for. In our experience certain sellers on EBAY grossly overstate the value of their items. There are differences in quality in the jewelry and quality determines the look and the value of what you purchase. Value of course determines the price that the item will sell for. You may see two items that are identical in every way including the size of the gemstones, but one item may be worth much more because the stones on it are better quality stones. No two stones are identical, this is why we don't like it when sellers auction one ring or necklace and then send you a different one with the same design but not the same stones.  This is a practice that large scale sellers on eBay are often guilty of, they may have 50 rings that are the same design but the stones on the rings cannot be the same because no stones are identical. They take a picture of one ring and do either multiple lot auctions or relist the auction with the same picture each time the ring sells. We encourage potential buyers to go to the GIA (Gemological Institute of America) website to educate themselves on simple facts about jewelry such as how color, cut, and clarity is measured in gemstones, and how these features relate to value.

We also see a lot of lab created jewelry on EBAY. Lab created jewelry sometimes looks even better than natural stones. Lab created stones are artificially created in the lab, they don't have the same imperfections as the natural stones that come from the earth. These stones usually look more like crystal or glass, but the natural ones are translucent and look more like gems. Lab created stones have very low value compared to the natural gemstones. There is no way that any seller can tell you that lab created stones are valued the same as natural stones. They also cannot tell you that they look identical to the natural stones, they don't.

Finally the most important thing to remember when buying jewelry on Ebay is that if it sounds too good to be true it really is. There may be rare cases when an individual selling her grandmother’s ring does not know its true value. But there is no way a professional jewelry company is going to sell you a $20,000 item for $5,000. It does not happen, the value of that item is grossly overstated. You can be cheated when buying jewelry on eBay and the worst part of it is that you may never know it. Our best advice is to find a reputable appraiser before you purchase any jewelry. A good appraiser will charge $50 to $100 per item. There is no point in using those $20 online appraisal services where the appraiser doesn’t even see the item but only a picture. Then buy from a seller that offers a return policy. Appraise the items immediately after you receive them, then judge for yourself whether you want to keep the item. Some sellers offer independent appraisal reports, these are worthless, do not ever rely on an appraisal report from a seller. The appraiser’s credentials may be impeccable, but the appraisal report in your hand may not even be for the item that you bought.