We often hear from our happy customers before they trust and order from us that "I've never seen a cubic zirconia before". In almost every case, that's simply not true even though they (and probably you) did not and do not realize that they (you) have seen cubic zirconia.
Did you realize MOST of what you're shown locked in jewelry cases at the most well-known diamond retail establishments are actually set with CZ and not diamond?
It reduces the jewelry store's carrying cost, liability for theft, and people can't tell the difference anyway. Yet these same salespeople are trained to say "diamonds are valuable, cubic zirconia are worthless"...while showing pieces of jewelry their customers are meant to THINK of as diamond but are actually CZ.
Go ahead and visit your local big-box diamond jeweler and let them show you a piece from the jewelry case. When you have an engagement ring or earrings set in your hands, ask them if it’s actually made out of diamonds and set with a diamond centerstone.
Watch how they squirm not wanting to admit that what you’re holding is in fact cubic zirconia.
Catch it on video and we’ll all have a laugh!
Read more about diamond vs cubic zirconia here.
Check our full cubic zirconia jewelry product catalog.
4 thoughts on “That 'diamond' jewelry in the case at your local jeweler is...actually cubic zirconia”
MichaelMug
I am sorry, it not absolutely that is necessary for me. There are other variants?
Esther Moe
Hi,
I’m dropping you a line to see if you’re accepting new guest bloggers?
The post will be 100% original, written just for your blog, and will not be posted elsewhere.
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Esther Moe / EDITOR-IN CHIEF / editor@comradelinks.com
Danny Welsh
Hi Shari, it happens at retailers, especially the franchise ones that have locations in multiple large metro areas. Old school jewelers that carry their own stock of inventory diamonds at one or two shops don’t try to pull this smoke and mirrors BS in my experience.
Shari Davenport
So, how is it that the tag on the ring, which I have always been able to read, lists characteristics of the individual diamonds in the piece, or at least the center stone, such as carat weight in points, color and clarity, and I have never been refused the opportunity to loupe the stone or stones?
I carry my own loupe in my pocket, so they can’t hem and haw their way around one not being available, or being “broken” or what have you. I usually wait a while into the transaction, which is generally not leading up to a sale anyway, before I pull that out, because it’s always a dead giveaway that I’m no dummy in jewelry, and not just somebody who read a couple of Wikipedia articles about jewelry, diamonds, or gemstones.
My grandfather was a great lapidary jeweler ~ private, not retail ~ and did some wonderful custom work, including some custom diamond work for the likes of Harry Winston. I learned a great deal from him, and since his passing, I have done a lot of my own studying and research. My best friend is the granddaughter of the jeweler who first opened the only jewelry store in our small town, and she is now the assistant manager who is actually running the business since her father retired from it two years ago. We have worked together on many projects for myself, family members locally and out of state, and coworkers. I have a couple of friends who moved out of state, and have sent work here to be done. We have done remount recreations using old mounted and unmouted stones, and designed mountings we couldn’t find elsewhere. So, I’m pretty good with the whole field really. I know what’s what, and have yet to come across CZs in place if diamonds, except in salesmen’s sample cases.
Is this something that happens in the larger metro areas, perhaps? Or, perhaps for security reasons you really can’t say? Just curious mostly. I haven’t seen it yet that I have been aware of.