I just bought a wedding ring(1). How about that? When I got Sara's engagement ring, I only got her a simple set of three, the proper rings didn't come until a couple weeks later, and then she was with me helping to pick them out. So this finally feels like the grown-up moment.
I strongly recommend that anyone intending to buy a substantial ring should at least shop around on 47th St, aka the Diamond District. Even if you are sure you're going to buy from a more traditional or a big-box jeweler, or if you're not from NYC, you still owe it to yourself to experience the uniqueness that is the Diamond District.
Walking down 47th St the first time, I was overcome with curiosity at just how much money's worth of diamonds was stored in that small corridor. Billions would not be an understatement(2). The diamonds are overflowing from every shopfront for a solid block. There are guys standing about every 20 feet on the sidewalk wearing mini sandwich boards and basically doing anything they can to solicit your business. There are lots of yarmulkes and a higher percentage of beards than you'd normally see. There is a strong sense of activity and yet very few people are actually doing anything, and those are simply talking to customers.
I made my first trip there almost a month ago, and that is when I did my true "shopping." I spent about 90 minutes total and walked out of there honestly a little shell-shocked. You see, it's not just along the street where there is insane competition, it's within each "store." Most of these places are long straight hallways with booths set up on either side, usually not more than 10-15 feet wide, competitors stacked literally elbow-to-elbow. At one place I walked into, a person on the first booth on the right greeted me before I'd even fully crossed the door threshold. Just to put that person off, I chose to browse at the first booth on the left. This vendor ended up being pretty good and so I went through my whole spiel about what I wanted and let him give me a price. So I took this guy's card and turned to leave but the vendor right next to this one called after me. I half turned to see if maybe I'd dropped something and the dude waves me over. In a generous mood, I walked over to give him a chance. First thing he says is: "I was listening a minute ago. What price did he give you? I'll take $100 off it." Awesome. So I took his card too, even if he seemed like little more than a shuckster.
This process came close to repeating itself, though not as directly, everywhere I went. You walk into these places and meander through the maze of booths, constant exhortations raining down on you, and after about five stops to chat they all look the same. Dingy, cluttered, (curiously) poorly lit spaces, eager sellers behind a standard cheap glass case, sparkling diamonds all over the place, always the feel like you're in the bowels of a suburban mall, back where the janitors and shopgirls and boys take their breaks next to the bathrooms(3). I'm sure just the setting would put off a large percentage of Americans, and that's another reason why you've got to try it.
I dare anyone to walk into at least 5 or 6 vendors--go ahead and let them price something for you--and then go back into the street and try to distinguish any place from another. But they keep coming, they are everywhere. It's a paralyzing, defeatist feeling to stand out on the sidewalk pondering your next stop, but realizing you can't just stand there and compose yourself because another barker will latch onto you if you show the first sign of uncertainty.
Back to today. Since I couldn't stomach another round of price comparisons, my plan was to call the guy who did the blatant undercutting and see if he would commit to the same price over the phone. If so, that would be my guy(4). So this morning I called twice and got no answer. And that is how easily you can lose a sale. My new plan was to walk into that shop and deal with the other guy, the one who I trusted (whoa let's not get carried away with words like that) or preferred more anyway. Fortunately for me, this guy was very helpful in making suggestions and even talked me into smaller diamonds because they would accentuate better than the biggest ones. So nice going there.
Finally we got down to the price of my creation (I'd altered my specifications since my last visit). Being the tactful diamond-seller(5), he didn't tell me the number, he showed me the number on his calculator. My haggling consisted of: making a face when looking at the number that conveyed "sheesh, that's a little high," followed by about 20 seconds(6) of silent consideration, followed by me telling him I'd give him a number about 10% less than what his calculator showed. Next it was his turn to look surprised/offended. He stammered a little: "I don't know, that's hard for me," all as his English of course got a little worse(7). "........economy...........not much room for profit.........." Finally I cut him off by saying "Look, I'm ready to do this right now, I've got my credit card, so you can either take it or leave it." Ahhh, magic; those words were. He hunched his shoulders and said ok and that was that. I left happy and will be happier still in two weeks when I get my ring and far happier more of course in six weeks when I give it to Sara.
But do yourself a favor and dip your toes in the pool of pure market capitalism that exists on 47th St sometime.
1. Not pictured.
2. How about we do an exercise? All of this will be rough, but google-able facts.
One carat of diamonds is about $1,000 (usually more but let's be conservative with the first step). A one carat solitaire diamond is large but not huge, so that if you think of a standard engagement ring you're talking about roughly one carat. Sometimes the solitaire will be smaller but often enough there are littler stones on the band as well. So basically our image of one diamond ring represents $1,000 in diamonds (no I'm not even going to count the value of the gold, platinum, etc). Now, every 30 feet of sidewalk will have up to 10 individual booths, and each of these individual booths will be stocked with maybe 500 rings, plus perhaps 500 rings' worth of loose diamonds. Note this is not even considering the lavish displays at the window; that will serve as a hedge against some empty booths. So we have 1,000 rings per booth times 10 booths yields 10,000 rings per 30 feet of sidewalk. That's $10million per 30 feet of sidewalk. The block of 47th St between Fifth and Sixth Avenues is about 850 feet long, after removing feet from each end to compensate for potentially non-diamond industries. Multiply that by two to account for both sides of the street, so 1,700 feet. Clearly we must reduce that number by a large amount because--while the stores are often stacked on top of each other--there are some small gaps between many stores; I think 1,200 is a fair number for actual sidewalk distance covering diamond stores. 1,200 divided by our test case of 30 feet is 40, times $10million is $400million. Well, that's a lot less than a billion, Josh. Yes, you're right, but we took extremely conservative estimations at every step, and we only considered the first floor and neglected any backroom storage. And shit, there is easily $100million just in those windows. Anyhow, a staggering amount of real value in a small space.
3. When I was very young I used to be afraid of mall bathrooms. Not actually the bathrooms but where they were located, way at the end of those long plain hallways. There was something unsavory about how isolated they felt from the splendors of the mall shops.
4. Sorry if that's exactly the kind of simplistic logic that causes Wal-Mart to be the biggest but least employee-friendly company in the world. I am what I am.
5. Clearly, sarcasm. Maybe also irony. Sorry.
6. Don't laugh, 20 seconds is a long time in haggling.
7. He's foreign. Maybe Yugoslav or one of the former Soviet Republics. Not visibly Jewish.
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