Educate Yourself
“Hard times arouse an instinctive desire for authenticity.”
- Coco Chanel
Jewelry Quality Assurance
The problem with mass-produced jewelry lies in general knowledge about what fine jewelry really is and the willingness (or lack thereof) of many retail jewelers to educate their clients on what constitutes fine jewelry. Jewelry is more readily available to more consumers now than it has ever been in history, and yet so little of it is of good quality. How could a prospective customer, without proper knowledge of what constitutes a piece of fine jewelry, not trust the person behind the counter to provide them with a quality piece when they asked for it? How would they ever be able to pick out a diamond in the rough, so to speak?
Jewelry Education is Not Universal
In fact, the problem is extensive enough that many jewelers and jewelry retailers don’t know enough to be able to pick out fine jewelry from lower quality and mass-produced pieces — such is the extent to which mass-production has taken over the jewelry industry. Due to the low availability of such fine pieces, most jewelers and retailers don’t work with such pieces on a regular basis. This means that they wouldn’t be able to properly assess a fine piece of jewelry as it’s such a different quality level than with which they’re accustomed. Similarly, a fine jeweler that commonly works with only the very best jewelry will have a difficult time appraising mass-produced work accurately — they just literally don’t have the hands-on experience in order to properly do it.
It’s easy to walk into a jewelry store with a piece picked out and a price point decided upon, but when you walk into a store to make a purchase, it’s important to understand what factors or qualities were compromised on in order to achieve that price point. Perhaps the stone quality is lower, but it’s a very fine mounting – are you okay with that compromise? Do you know what you’ve actually purchased when you walk out of that jewelry store?
To read more about what affects the quality of a piece of jewelry, read part four of our series here, read the first part here, or the second part here. To learn more about the quality of your jewelry, contact Haydon & Company by calling 919-781-1293 or filling out our form.