Shopping in St Thomas

[SKP57]

Doe anyone know of a good but reasonable jewelry store in St Thomas?

[cb at sea]

There are a ton of jewelry stores in St. Thomas. Of course, Diamonds International is the one touted by the cruiselines!

[jillybabes]

Cardow, Ballerina & Little Switzerland come to mind...There are many, many jewelry stores up and down the main street in town...

If you go are docked at Havensight, the area there has many of the same stores that are in town...Have fun and remember Deal with the Salesperson;) ...Later, Jill:cool:

[sunsurf]

Cardow is a good one...depending on what you're looking for. My fiance purchased 2 diamond/sapphire rings at Cardow for a great price. Even though they provide you with their official appraisal, I had the rings appraised here and found them to be worth 3x the amount. St. Thomas is a mecca for shops! I hope you enjoy!

 

p.s you may want to check out the ports of call board on St. Thomas as well. I'm sure you will get a variety of answers from fellow CC members wanting to help.

[gizmo]

All the stores with "international" in the name are usually pushed by the cruise line. The stores the cruise line pushes PAYS the cruise line to do this.

 

I know of 2 people who have been burned by DI and have read a ton of complaints about this store. I don't even bother to look in any of the "I" stores. My advise would be to skip the"I" stores.

 

There are many jewlery stores to choose from. I have purchased from Cardow, Ballerina and a number of others with no problems or regrets.

[Krazy Kruizers]

I have also heard of people getting burned by various jewelry stores in St Thomas.

 

JMO - you would do better to watch for sales at home.

[ellbon]

I brought in St thomas and i love my ring. also my jeweler here did too. just take your time.

[zqvol]

I have also heard of people getting burned by various jewelry stores in St Thomas.

 

JMO - you would do better to watch for sales at home.

 

You cannot come close to St. Thomas or St. Martin jewelry prices at home. The key is to know your stuff and to shop. There may be some fly by night outfits in St. Thomas but these people rely on the tourist trade and are not going to do anything to jeopardize that, because even the ones that don't pay the ships for advertising can still get a bad reputation that the cruises will let you know about.

[bobsy]

Been their several times I always buy jewerly at Cardow. Great deals.

[shoppingfool]

Having lived in St. Thomas for over 20 years I can attest that there are very good jewelry stores here. Know what you are looking for--do your homework. If you shop at the Havensight stores, their merchants association guarantees sales for all of their members which have signs on their doors.

[edsatty]

Whatever you do, DO NOT buy from Diamonds International. I had an absolutely horrible experience with them and almost had to sue them to get my money back on a defective Tanzanite ring I bought from them on a cruise stop.

[jmo1]

I highly recommend Cardow. They are reputable, professional, they don't pressure, and they deal on prices. I have bought five or six items from them over last ten or so years, some of the items in the low hundreds of dollars value, and some in the thousands. Every jewelry item we have bought came with an appraisal that was always at least 20-percent more than what we paid, and sometimes almost twice as much. The items we have bought price for more than twice as much here in the states for a similar item of same quality.

I bought my DW the ring below two-years ago for our 25th anniversary for about 20-percent under their asking price.

http://www.cardow.com/catalog/product.jsp?productId=2058&categoryId=449&parentCategoryId=84

Last year, I bought her this bracelet plus a 2-tcw diamond pendant necklace that I cannot find on the website for about half of their original asking prices.

http://www.cardow.com/catalog/product.jsp?productId=3831&categoryId=116&parentCategoryId=86

 

Can you tell that she like diamonds?

 

Cardow has three stores in Havensight Mall, and a store downtown. All the stores are about the same.

[scubadiver888]

Before you go shopping in the Caribbean you want to be informed. The more expensive the jewelry you are planning on purchasing the more time you should spend researching it.

 

First, you can learn a lot about the Four Cs from the Internet. The biggest problem you might have purchasing jewelry in the Caribbean is not knowing what you are looking for.

 

 

I've seen GIA certified diamonds. They looked pretty good. I thought I could tell the difference between a good diamond and a bad diamond. I read a lot of information off the Internet and decided I knew what my minimum standard was. Based on everything I read, I thought I wanted a VS1 diamond (there are other details but I won't get into that). Recently, I found out a friend of my mother-in-law, Perry, is a Belgium trained jeweler with 44 years experience. I dropped by his shop to see if he could do better than what I'd been finding. He, fortunately, took the time to educate me. Knowing the Four Cs is important. Knowing how to read the dimensions is important. Knowing everything I told him I knew was important. I had visited probably 20 shops in my local area, including places like Tiffany & Company. I didn't know enough.

 

Perry told me that GIA certification doesn't mean much to him. He brought out some diamonds friends had bought while traveling in the Caribbean and one someone bought at an estate auction. He had me look at the certificate. He had me look at the diamond. He had me look at the diamond with a loupe. It looked pretty good. He then pulled out one of his diamonds. It was not GIA certified. A Belgium company certified it to be one clarity below the first diamond. He had me look at the two diamonds together. The Belgium diamond was MUCH nicer looking. He explained a LOT of things to me that I hadn't thought about. Now that I know what to look for I realize how 90% of the diamonds I've been looking at (Caribbean and here at home) are in a different class. I now understand why some diamonds are much cheaper. In some cases I figured it out on my own but the majority of diamonds are bad for reasons I hadn't even thought of.

 

Now ignorance is bliss. Maybe you don't want to know as much as I know about diamonds. But then, if you are buying a diamond worth $20,000 you probably do. The first diamond I bought had a strong blue fluoresence. It made the diamond look oily and soapy. My wife spent years trying to keep that diamond clean and never could.

 

 

Bottom line, talk to jewelers. Find one who is willing to explain, and PROVE, why what they are saying is correct. Most the jewelers will just want to sell you what they have in stock. If everything they have in stock has some flaw (they all have strong blue fluoresence) they are not going to talk to you about it. I read a few stories about people who bought in the Caribbean, brought it back and had numerous jewelers appraise it for a lot less. My first thought was, the jeweler is probably undervaluing it because they are bitter you didn't buy from them. Now I'm wondering if that is true or not. Perry is a friend of the family. You might not be so lucky. But then again, maybe you'll make a new friend. :)

 

The hardest part is that diamond merchants tend to be very close lipped. When I was buying real estate I would go from sales office to sales office. Most the sales staff, sooner or later, would tell me something negative about the other sales site. After talking to a dozen different home builders I got a feel for what to look for. I realized that the things I could live with and the things I could not. My current home is not perfect but I am happy with what I got for the price. When I talk to diamond merchants, they admit what I already know and only after I demonstrate I know it. Not one of them fell for, I talk about X, Y and Z. I act like I know it all. I trick them into talking about Q because they, wrongly, assume if I know X, Y and Z I must know Q. Maybe your luck with vary.

 

If you just want the basics:

 

1) learn the Four Cs.

2) don't get anything with a strong blue fluoresence. No fluoresence is best.

3) look at the diamond with a loupe. don't trust the certification. if you look at it and it looks good to you then who cares what the cert says.

4) beware of merchants who will give you a 5x loupe. Flaws will be harder to spot. everyone should be using a 10x loupe. I bought my own.

 

Good luck,

Darrell

 

P.S. anyone want a REALLY good jeweler in the Toronto, ON, Canada area give me a call and I'll introduce you to Perry.

[newfiegirl4]

Hi there,thats a lot of info there.thanks.we will be in St Thomas at the end of apr on a cruise.would love to buy some jewlery!!don't want to spend a fortune.there's a family of 4 going so not a lot of cash to spend!I would love a tennis bracelet but they look pretty expensive.I live in Canada as well,but perry is to far away for me,i'm in NL.any more info you can let me know.

thanks

Cathy

[scubadiver888]

Hi there,thats a lot of info there.thanks.we will be in St Thomas at the end of apr on a cruise.would love to buy some jewlery!!don't want to spend a fortune.there's a family of 4 going so not a lot of cash to spend!I would love a tennis bracelet but they look pretty expensive.I live in Canada as well,but perry is to far away for me,i'm in NL.any more info you can let me know.

thanks

Cathy

I'm happy to reiterate what I've learned. Writing it out helps me to get in clear in my mind. I've been pouring over the Internet and visiting local jewelry stores for the past couple of weeks.

 

The one thing I've found in life is you sometimes have those moments when you know you are missing something but you just don't know what it is. EVERY time I've ignored that feeling I later learn the hard way what it was I was missing, e.g. fluoresence.

 

The weirdest thing is after a lot of Internet research I read a number of messages on boards like this about how someone bought a ring in the Caribbean, brought it back home, had numerous stores appraise it for a LOT less than it was worth. The Caribbean stores will counter with, "all those jewelers will give a back appraisal because they want you to feel bad for not doing business with them. This made sense. None of the people posting these messages or the jewelers online would explain why the diamond was not good.

 

I was convinced that the local jewelers just had 'sour grapes' and there was nothing wrong with the diamond. It wasn't until Perry showed me how two diamonds could have similar flaws (I looked at both with a loupe) but one diamond still looked better to the naked eye. It was almost as if the bad diamond was dull looking compared to the other diamond. There was nothing visible at 10x magnification but there was something that made it sparkle less... and the bad diamond was rated as an excellent cut by GIA, so it couldn't have been the cut.

 

One other thing, someone stated that these stores depend on the tourist trade so they will not do anything to jeopardize that. I'd disagree with that. Some people believe there is always someone they can take advantage of. There is a home builder in my area. Hundreds of people know dealing with him is a no win situation. He has been in business for decades and will continue to be in business. Until I purchased a home from him, I had no idea who he was. Once I purchased a home from him I made sure everyone I knew found out about he. In a city of millions, I know less than 0.1% of the people here. I'm sure thousands of people knew not to deal with this guy before I bought my first home; I never met any of them.

 

I'm sure for all the thousands of people who know the bad jewelers in St. Thomas, there are millions who don't know. If only 1% of them buy something the bad jeweler will stay in business.

[Ms411]

I was helping someone put together a PowerPoint presentation on diamonds, and one of the books she had was one of the most informative that I've seen. I knew a little bit (the 4Cs) before I started the PowerPoint, and this book really taught me a lot:

 

"How to Look at Diamonds & Avoid Ripoffs - Diamond Handbook" by Renee Newman, GG

 

The author has a website under her name.

[Hal from Ohio]

I was in the jewelry business several years ago. My experiences have been very favorable at Dynasty Dazzlers in Havensight Mall next to the pier. Located near the information booth. With some negotiation, you can typically purchase diamond jewlery at about 40% off their ticketed price. Ask for a wonderful lady by the name of Emily. We look forward to doing business with her again in a few days.

[irishsailor]

My wife got a beautiful Austrailian opal ring with .46 diamonds on it at Trident Jewlers. Some friends of ours went there and we told them there names and they remembered them just like it was yesterday. They even had my one friends phone number. She really loves her ring and would have been upset if we wouldn't have got it. They tried to add some other stuff, but you just have to say No. It was fun, and drinks on them.... Trident Jewlers.

[scubadiver888]

My wife got a beautiful Austrailian opal ring with .46 diamonds on it at Trident Jewlers. Some friends of ours went there and we told them there names and they remembered them just like it was yesterday. They even had my one friends phone number. She really loves her ring and would have been upset if we wouldn't have got it. They tried to add some other stuff, but you just have to say No. It was fun, and drinks on them.... Trident Jewlers.

We went to Diamonds International when we were in Aruba and started to seriously consider buying diamonds in the Caribbean. My wife is big on the research so she did a lot of searching to see who has good things being said about them. She found Shiva's in Aruba got nothing but good reviews. I recently found that Shiva's and Trident are associated. So it does not surprise me that you have good things to say about Trident. :)

[luv2shop2008]

Cardow Does have a large Variety But they DO NOT stand behind their Guarantee.

We had done many purchases over the years in CARDOW in St Thomas.

This last time in March My wife purchased a Gold neckace.

Once we were home we noticed a Link was Badly damaged.

We called they gave us a return authorization number then we sent it back .

We recieved a Call that even when we sent it back within the 30 day period they could not refund us.

They reported it was tear a wear. !

HELLOOO!

New Knecklace Less than one month used once, Damaged link , NORMAL TEAR AND WEAR?????

I do not think So!

We spoke with the manager and same response they are not refunding.

 

I had never dealt with them on a return but this was the firs time and oviously not a good experience.

 

I would not Spend one penny there ever again.

 

Little switzerland had taken care of a Rolex watch we had purchased Many years ago they were very curteous and willing to work with the customer.

CARDOW IS A BUST!

Thanks

Ed

[MDSue]

I have read a few bad reviews regarding Diamonds and Tanzanite International, but I have to say that I have bought 3 beautiful pieces from them at 3 different ports, the first being St. Thomas. Each piece was in the $400. -$500. range. After comparison shopping with what I could buy locally [in the US], I got a much better deal with them. The quality of my pieces are very good for the price I paid. I cannot pretend to know enough about purchasing expensive diamonds or tanzanite and therefore would not risk such a purchase, but I love the pieces I have bought and they were a great value. I always shop around and visit many jewelry shops so I have an idea of what the prices are and then pick my favorite piece in my price range. I wouldn't rule out buying from another store, but always found pieces I like the best at these stores. I think it's a good idea to have some basic knowledge of what you will be shopping for so you can decide for yourself if you are getting a good deal or not. I think there can be shady salespeople just about anywhere.