CubicZirconia.com- The Clear Choice — lessons for a better married life

Are Diamond Cartels Losing Their Vice Grip on the Industry? 0

Is a diamond really a girl’s best friend? Well, that’s definitely a matter for debate, especially in an era where most females of marriageable age prefer to be called women. We can tell you one thing for sure. Diamond cartels are nobody’s best friend. As if we didn’t have enough reasons to loathe this monument to capitalism at its most base level (and by “base” I definitely mean “crass”), we are now seeing more evidence that diamond cartels have artificially inflated price of these not-so-rare-after-all gems.

CNBC recently reported that, in fact, the market is seeing a downward trend in the price of diamonds over the past few years. The marketplace is changing rapidly, and the effect is a much lower price for diamonds, the world over. In fact, Martin Rapaport, Chairman of Rapaport Group, calls the diamond industry a “volatile trade.” Diamonds, it seems, are hardly an investor’s best friend these days. Further, financial analysts are beginning to speculate that diamond industry trends may be signs of pervasive deflation from a macroeconomic perspective.

Between April 2014 and April 2015, diamond prices have dropped by 15 percent. De Beers, infamously known for spearheading an ad campaign in the 1940’s that made the diamonds an iconic, must-have stone for engagements and weddings, has made it more difficult to finance their purchase. The effect is that fewer people can afford diamonds at their previous inflationary rate. Demand is decreasing, and along with it, diamond prices.

Another factor contributing to the decline of the diamond as the darling of the jewelry industry is a glut that has been created by major fluctuations in Asian markets. A rise of the middle class in countries like China and India led to higher demand in those parts of the world. Retailers responded by stocking diamonds based on projected growth that never came to fruition. After the initial rush of popularity, the market slowed down, and the industry was stuck with a surplus which has driven diamond prices down on a global scale.

An industry financing leader, the Antwerp Diamond Bank, stopped taking on new clients within the last year. It has become too risky to support new diamond manufacturers and craftsmen for new inventory production.

The deflationary trend of diamonds suggests that perhaps this notoriously overpriced stone may soon reach unprecedented low prices that more closely resemble a fair market value. Can you imagine purchasing a full carat diamond for under $1000.00? Dare we say $100? Some observers, including CubicZirconia.com Vice President, think that diamonds might one day fall to a much more accessible price for jewelry enthusiasts, especially young couples who are getting engaged. Mr. Cubic Zirconia says:

Consumers are starting to realize that diamond rarity an inflated lie. Eventually, in say, fifty to one hundred years, if trends continue, lab-created diamonds and diamond simulants like cubic zirconia may no longer fill a market need. Customers will be able to buy real diamonds for a hundred dollars or less. This is a more realistic price, even now, given that diamond cartel companies have manipulated the market and kept millions of diamonds in warehouses. Until then, CubicZirconia.com is here, ready to serve you with the highest quality, 5A, man-made diamond alternatives sold at an affordable price-- stones set in high-quality jewelry that no one, not even jewelers with decades of experience, can definitively say with the unaided eye are not diamonds.

Guaranteed to put a little more sparkle in your life, CubicZirconia.com stays on top of market trends and understands their impact on your shopping experience, and your wallet. We are delighted to make your jewelry dreams come true. And hey, if that means you can save for a house, go on a honeymoon or bank the leftover cash, so much the better.

Tekla Luchenski
Staff Writer

An Open Letter to CubicZirconia.com from Your Friendly Local Retail Jewelry Stores 0

                                        B. Diamond IV
                                          Staff Attorney

1/30/16

VIA CERTIFIED MAIL

CubicZirconia.com
c/o Danny Welsh
Bedford, KY 40006

RE: Have you considered letting us have some of that money?

I write to you in the spirit of collegiality, and with all due respect for your company in the jewelry industry, from the law offices of Dewey, Cheatem, & Howe on behalf of my clients, the Transatlantic United Retail Diamond Sellers. As the world's largest association of retail store jewelers, my client objects to your omission of such retailers from your low-price, quality jewelry sales business plan, and doubly objects to the use in your company’s man-made stone marketing of terms “diamond-quality”, “visually indistinguishable from diamond to the naked eye”, or “diamond-equivalent” (terms which have not been approved for use by the self-elected governing body of this association, of which you have refused to become a member despite our repeated invitations).

My client hereby orders you to cease and desist! Or just cease. Or desist. We can discuss the options. See, that's a situation known as "negotiating." Something you apparently wouldn't know much about, CubicZirconia.com. Since you have not responded to our repeated previous inquiries about becoming a member of our august association, let me attempt to reason with you. Allow me first to explain the great number of ways in which my clients feel that your e-commerce business model offering diamond simulant cubic zirconia jewelry at so-called “fair” prices is not only misguided and short-sighted, having blindsided my client’s member jewelry companies, but even potentially un-American.

First of all, the prices offered on your website are a problem because they are simply too low to allow retail jewelers to resell your products and pay the considerable overhead costs of running brick-and-mortar jewelry stores, employing salespeople jewelry consultants that have families and timeshare vacations to think about, and building in-stock jewelry inventories so customers can walk in the door to browse and walk out the door with a financing agreement for jewelry they couldn’t quite afford to buy with cash in an arrangement that will earn the jewelry retailer a healthy interest over the next 12, 24, 36, 48, 60 or 72 months in addition to a the healthy profit on jewelry sold a diamond ring they’ll cherish until the time comes that we fervently wish for when they can trade in the diamond for a bigger more expensive one to start off their next marriage, doubling or tripling the store’s original profit while they think they got a deal because it’s our gimmick to “buy back” their traded diamond forever.

Secondly, the prices offered on your website are a problem also because, as you know, by including the center stone for all engagement rings offered as a single purchase at a single price listed right on your website, you have violated the 100+ year-old secret jeweler agreement adhered to since the founders of our association took the first of sacred annual blood-oaths jeweler code of ethics not to publish pricing for diamond center stones because therein lies the greatest opportunity to maximize engagement ring sale profit by marking up the price on allowing unsuspecting inexperienced first-time customers the exciting opportunity to negotiate their own center stone price to be the best they can. I'm telling you, people love negotiating. Consumers hate having a clear, fixed price that everyone understands and you get everything you need and want to buy all for that one price. The retail jewelry store with fixed ring mounting prices and diamond prices revealed only during a customer’s intimidation by indoctrination by personal conversation with the store’s friendly salespeople jewelry consultants as a model lets customers feel as if they got a deal, while not really getting a deal. Everyone wins. Plus, to wit, everyone knows that haggling over prices is deeply ingrained in American culture so what you’re doing is un-American.

Thirdly, the prices offered on your website are a problem also because the prices should not change so frequently. We said “fixed prices” that included the center stone cost for an engagement ring built right into the listed price were bad, and that is very bad. However, I must now call your attention to a business practice that is even worse in our educated and experienced opinion wisdom from having done this jewelry business many decades and even a century before there was an “internet” for you to disrupt the retail jewelry store business model offer your jewelry with a 60 day money-back guarantee worldwide to customers browsing on their computer or other device, and fulfill orders via made-to-order manufacturing and insured shipping carriers. My clients are of course referring to your misguided policy of decreasing the price for products you sell when your cost to purchase the gold, silver, palladium, or platinum precious metals used to manufacture the product(s) decreases.

Note: This practice is noted in Exhibit 43 here http://www.cubiczirconia.com/pages/faq-custom-designed-cz-jewelry#q5 (Q: What variables make up your price for a custom cubic zirconia jewelry piece?), and Exhibit 44 here http://www.cubiczirconia.com/pages/faq-custom-designed-cz-jewelry#q15 (Q: How long is the custom CZ jewelry price quote you’ll give me good for?).

If the cost of gold goes down after you set your gold jewelry sales price, in the jewelry business that’s supposed to just be extra profit for you! Hello, the rich get richer, and we in the jewelry industry have manipulated paid close attention to gold and other precious metal prices for centuries, and we deserve to keep that money! You’re leaving money on the table by educating customers about fluctuating metal markets costs, and making a huge mistake by discounting your customers’ jewelry prices to reflect your wholesale hard costs savings to manufacture the jewelry in their order. My client is deeply concerned that this practice is just not smart for the long-term viability of your business ,and besides none of its member retail jewelry companies wish to invest the money needed to create an e-commerce website or lose money by being forced to create digital-price in-store display cases capable of competing with such an absurd service anyway.

Fourthly, the prices offered on your website are a problem also because the prices are on a website, and the retail jewelry store members of my client’s association do not have that e-commerce capability with their brochure-style website because they just started on the internet a little later than in 1999 when your company’s first website went online my client feels you should reconsider having a “website” for your jewelry business at all. After all, for over 100 years, jewelry retailers among my client’s members have been selling rings, pendants, earrings, bracelets and more without any need for that newfangled frivolity. Truly, we feel a responsibility as your jewelry industry brethren to share this obviously unknown business intelligence with you: our internal Academy for Diamond Studies (ADS) research shows that wholly 83.6 percent of jewelry shoppers in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Europe, and Australia thoroughly love going to the local jewelry store, while 16.4 percent of these shoppers state in yes or no survey questioning that they love it so much that he/she would “live there if I could”. [Note: Respondents to ADS survey 8 years of age and under, jewelry store described as "Disney World" in a common metaphor we use in our marketing, said fact clearly disclosed in the fine print of Appendix 8c.] Surely you can understand that your CubicZirconia.com website, while it is functional and even kind of nice, simply cannot compare to the shopping experience of local jewelry stores where my client’s retail jeweler members provide an expensive-to-upkeep a wonderful atmosphere with gleaming gold-chased glass display cases, non-offensive soft Muzak, marble floors covered with elegant carpets, stylish wall coloring and functional décor accouterments. Seriously, online on a “website” how can you give your customers free cold water in paper cups or espresso available for 25 cents per Fabergé replica ceramic mug (drink as much as you like!)? You simply can’t.

Fifthly, my client’s member jewelry stores do in fact use your company’s cubic zirconia stones instead of actual diamonds as a cheaper alternative stone to set in store-displayed rings and other jewelry pieces (for insurance purposes). However, my client and its member retail jewelers feel it is slanderous in the extreme for your company to publicly disclose this fact to potential diamond jewelry buyers, when we don’t and have worked very hard never for them to know. After all, the super-friendly salespeople jewelry consultants at these stores have undergone extensive training to explain that cubic zirconia are in fact worthless, and these stores only use the cubic zirconia “diamond” rings and other jewelry pieces in the display cases as props to show customers before purchase. When they purchase the ring or other jewelry piece based on the model and the salesperson’s jewelry consultant’s expert guidance and knowledge about diamonds, of course before they leave the store our client’s member jewelry retailers would insist on the need to “give the jewelry a final polish before you take it home”. As you know, that’s when the salespeople jewelry consultant will send the piece in the back for a technician to un-set your cubic zirconia stones and switch to the real diamond the customer thought they already had bought now that money has changed hands. Again, we feel that you must stop educating disclosing these jewelry trade secrets to customers, who my clients have put so much time, money and effort into persuading that they don’t want ‘fake’ cubic zirconia and do want ‘real’ diamonds.

My clients know you see yourself as a disruptor, CubicZirconia.com, but I don't think you understand how many everyday people whose apple-carts you are upending. Jewelry stores are financial ecosystems in their own right, stimulating economic ­activity in a range of related sectors both in their local areas and throughout the region where they’re located. The black-velvet-padding industry depends on retail jewelers, as do the interior-glass-washing service providers, and for that matter the low-budget elder-statesman-voiceover radio-commercial business is absolutely co-dependent upon a thriving retail jewelry store landscape. Think about how you're missing out on that one by not working through retail stores like my client’s members to sell your jewelry. [Script: An obviously silver-haired older guy with a voice full of gravitas says, "Now you have a friend in the cubic zirconia business. Come on down to the store! Or go online to CubicZirconia.com"]. Seriously, talk about advertising that ROCKS!

Now, you may enjoy selling your cubic zirconia jewelry as a low-cost alternative “visually indistinguishable from diamond to the naked eye”-- with no middlemen and no haggling, offering dynamic prices that change as your hard fulfillment costs to ensure you keep only the same “fair” profit on each sale of each piece of jewelry in your catalog -- and keeping all the money. But I ask on behalf of my clients, have you considered letting us have some of that money? It is our position that we would like some of the money.

In return, we offer our beautiful buildings with glass display cases, highly trained sales staff that are already experienced in selling your cubic zirconia jewelry product (while calling the pieces in the display cases “diamond” jewelry of course…wink, wink :) ), and let’s not forget the luxurious ambience and free coffee urns super-affordable espresso machines so your customers can sip while they shop.

I'm telling you, CubicZirconia.com, your customers need us. What happens when they're wearing their new engagement ring and the center stone falls out? Okay, yes, you'll email them a lifetime warranty request form to send back along with their engagement ring to have the free replacement CZ stone set for like 25 bucks and mailed back to them. But I digress.

I’m telling you CubicZirconia.com, we need you, the timing is perfect for you to consider a change in how you do business. Our relationship with the diamond cartel the diamond mining companies is complicated. It has been ever since the public found out about “blood diamonds” began demanding to know where the diamond stones we sell in our jewelry came from and how they were mined and we didn’t know and couldn’t have cared because of how much profit we were making our answers weren’t good enough to satisfy them. That humbling realization prompted us to create a robust ethics certification process with Diamonds University Professional Education. Salespeople Jewelry consultants certified under this course are courteous, professional, trained to say “our diamond stones are from Belgium and Canada” educate customers about my client’s member jewelry stores’ responsible diamond sourcing practices buying from sellers in non-conflict countries, and plus each is required by law to disclose how many felonies they've committed. Now, my client’s member jewelry retailers have taken charge of the problem and as an entire industry organized itself based on the notion that the miners and sellers must be trusted to do the right thing, every time, so long as they tell us they did and put it in writing where the diamonds we sell actually originated!

However, it appears that despite DUPE’s efforts, customers aren’t buying it. Increasing numbers of what were once our customers are now buying from your company and a handful other diamond simulant jewelry makers.

Honestly, we really do need you each other, CubicZirconia.com

We just need you to increase the prices on your website.

A lot. Maybe double, maybe triple.

The accountants will have to crunch the numbers and think of how to make it work along those lines, so the wholesale prices you give us are closer to what your retail prices on the website are now, and we can keep the difference as our own profit.

Let’s talk.


B. Diamond IV
Staff Attorney
Dewey, Cheatem, & Howe

Representing Transatlantic United Retail Diamond Sellers

Proposal Pics: When 38 People Realized They Were "The One" 0

Marriage Advice for Young Couples 0

I just came across this excellent article, 36 Things I know After 36 Years of Marriage, from Winifred M. Reilly, a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and author of the relationship advice blog Speaking of Marriage. I think it’s pretty excellent!

I’ll post a few highlights here for sure, but I encourage our customers to read the full story at the link posted above, whether you’re just planning on getting married in the coming year or more and coming to CubicZirconia.com for your engagement ring, or you’ve been married for as long or longer than we’ve been online (1999!). Either way, I guarantee you’ll learn (or be reminded of) a thing or three that will help make your relationship have more fun, appreciation, respect, and…sizzle.

1. “What is marriage? Richer, poorer, good times and bad. Each year with its surprises and challenges, its hard fought lessons, its moments of sweetness.”

It’s important to remember the tough times can be weathered, and the sweet moments are never over if you’re with the love of your life. Fight through the one, together…and take time to enjoy the other, as if you don’t the moments that take your breath away are apt to become further and further apart.

2. “Most marital problems are fixable. Really. Even the tough ones.”

Conversation solves more problems than just about anything!

3. “Every one of us is, in our own way, difficult to live with. Beginning to work on even one of your own problem behaviors will make a big difference in the quality of your marriage. Added bonus: your spouse will greatly appreciate it!”

I’m a smoker. It’s a problem in my relationship, no doubt. It’s unhealthy, hurts my body, costs money better spent and invested elsewhere, and many people consider it a nasty habit. Plus, I’ve stopped counting the number of full-mouthed kisses I’ve lost out on from the woman of my dreams because of the smell and taste of tobacco smoke. *sigh* Is this the year I finally manage to kick the butt habit once and for all?

4. “Marriage is a long negotiation about how two people are going to run things. Money. Intimacy. Parenting. Chores. You can battle, or you can collaborate. Collaboration is a lot more rewarding.”

Agree 100% with this marriage advice for couples. Collaboration starts with open conversation, and letting down your guard to be vulnerable as you talk to your significant other about the things that are important to you.

5. “Complaints and criticisms aren't the same thing as requests for change.”

Like someone’s mother is probably saying right this second to a child she’s punishing on each of 6 of the 7 continents on God’s green Earth: ‘It’s not what you say, it’s how you say it!” If how you verbalize requests for change in your spouse’s behavior sound like complaints…they probably are. If you worry that you’re being too critical of someone you love, you probably are.

5. “It's easy to get into a rut when you're with the same person, year after year. Sex. Vacations. Dinner. How you spend Saturday night. Change things. Add some spice.”

Routine is the enemy of spontaneity, and spontaneity is the spice of life. Do you see what I just did there? I combined two different Chinese food fortune cookies, and made a true statement. You try it! Seriously, when was the last time you and your lover had Chinese food in bed? I rest my case.

6. “One of you has to go first. Apologize first. Be vulnerable first. Yield first. Forgive first. Why not let that person be you?”

This is something I’ve been working hard on in my relationship for some time. With my lady, I’ve found that apologizing first after both of us were at fault makes her feel heard and understood even when I hear what she’s said but might not understand exactly what I did wrong. It doesn’t matter; you don’t always need to know exactly what went wrong, to know that you’d like things to be smoother because something you did or said caused problems.

Again, I’ve only shared 6 of her 36 tips and maxims here for marriage advice for young couples (and old), so I encourage you to read the full article at the Huffington Post here.

What would you add to her list?

Mr. Cubic Zirconia
CubicZirconia.com

Creative financing for engagement ring and beyond... 0

It's not being cheap - it's being practical (a story) 0

"I am popping the question but I am NOT giving her a diamond engagement ring."

This was what was going on in my head as I was getting ready for the big date that night.

I was pretty sure she was going to say yes.

In fact, we’ve talked about getting married so many times, we both felt the entire thing was just going to be a formality. After all, we’ve been living together for almost 4 years now.

But somehow, I still felt a mixture of nervousness, excitement and anxiety building up inside me at the thought of finally making the “formality” a reality.

I looked once again at the cubic zirconia engagement ring I was planning on giving her tonight. 

Looking at the size, color and exquisite detail of the CZ stone, I knew if it were a real diamond, I would never have afforded it even if I worked 5 straight years with no days off.

I knew too that as soon as she sees it, she’d most probably know it isn’t a genuine diamond. She knows I won’t be able to afford a real diamond engagement ring looking exactly like this.

We both knew each other so well.

That’s why I’m bringing my other surprise with me right inside my breast pocket.

The deed of sale on a beautiful property I just put a downpayment on.

I’m sure, on a scale of one to ten, her level of excitement at me popping the question would probably be on the high five or low six – as I said, getting married for the both of us would just be more of a formality.

But I’m pretty sure she’ll be blown away by the fact that I may have scrimped on the ring, but I made sure I put my money on the right investment.

After all, she appreciates wise and mature decisions.

Why would I buy a real diamond and suffer getting though the payments for the next 3 to 5 years while, at the same time, trying to come up with the rent, the car payments, utility bills and making sure the fridge and pantry are stocked…

…when I can just go for the CZ ring right now, invest my money on a house we’re both going to live in along with the family we’ll surely want to build?

It’s not being cheap – it’s being practical.

Good thing, I’m one of the lucky guys who has found a woman who values prudence over anything that glitters and sparkles.

Anyway, no one at the restaurant would probably come up to us and say, “Hey, is that a real diamond?” while I was proposing, right?

Most of them will probably think, “Did you see the size of that diamond?” or “Look at that gorgeous ring!” or something to that effect.

Maybe, some will speculate and say, “Nah, that’s a fake.” But who cares. They won’t come up to us and say that out loud.

After all, even if that happened, I can whip out the papers for the house and say, “But this house I just bought for her isn’t fake.” And the discussion ends right there.

What really matters is what the lady right across from me will think.

I’m sure she’ll see through the cubic zirconia ring and right through my true intentions – to spend my life with her with a promise that I will always be someone she can depend on to make the wise decisions.

- The preceding account was written by a CubicZirconia.com freelancer employed by the company to assist with graphic design, website design, and product photography.