Friends don’t let friends get ripped off. You can save your friends (or yourself) literally thousands of dollars in buying a diamond engagement ring, just by forwarding this article.

If anyone shops the mall brick and mortar stores, even though these stores are lauded by TV and YouTube commercials, they’re going to overpay for their diamond ring. Even worse, they’re going to likely get a poor quality diamond ring.

I prove it in article after article on this site.

Examples of Home Run Diamond Ring Deals I Found for Readers.

When you know how to search like I do, you can find better diamonds for less money.

Jared was offering a $16,000 diamond ring. Blogger’s technique found a certified, better one for $9,500.

Click here to see the personalized search settings.

Kay had a “sale” on a $12,750 pear-shaped diamond ring marked down from $17,000. Blogger showed readers how to get a certified, better one for $7,365.

Click to get the personalized search settings.

Helzberg offered a “sale”diamond engagement ring for $3,299. Blogger discovered how to get a certified, better one for $2,040.

Click to get the personalized search filter settings.

Why? How? Let me summarize here:

Why the most famous diamond retailers overcharge: They keep enormous inventory.

Problem for brick and mortar diamond retailers: Paying for inventory

A mall jewelry store, or any brick and mortar jewelry store, (or even an online store which has rings ready to ship right now) has a huge problem. Inventory. They choose to have rings ready to ship. When you order from Costco, for example, or Zales, for example, then most of the time, you’re ordering a ring which is already built. It’s already in inventory. It’s sitting on shelf. It can ship out almost immediately. Or if it’s in the store, you can take it home immediately.

That’s a huge cost. Not just in paying for it. But in shipping it to the warehouse or showroom. In storing it. Protecting it. Insuring it. Experts estimate that to have even 200 diamond rings in inventory costs well over $1 Million.

That must be why the prices are so high at such stores, and why the value / quality of the diamonds is so low.

Most diamonds I look at from brick and mortar stores with online listings? They’re of Clarity I1, I2, even I3.) That’s awful clarity. No one would buy an I2 or I3 diamond if they understood what it meant. This chart makes it clear:

All of this entire article is my opinion (and I think all the evidence I show in article after article on this site makes my opinion very plausible):

Diamond retailers that keep such a large inventory are squeezed for cash, is my guess. So they jack up prices and don’t truly educate you on how to shop for a diamond. Or how to judge a diamond. In fact they rely on confusing you, or letting you confuse yourself. And they rely on letting you just buy a diamond without knowing how to price compare for quality.

(Because when you do arm yourself with knowledge from my site, in price compare after price compare, you won’t even consider buying diamonds from some of the stores who are on the losing end of the comparisons.)

How do online-only diamond retailers such as James Allen or Blue Nile give you such great prices and great quality? By listing diamonds, not storing them.

“But wait,” you may say: “Most online-only diamond retailers have thousands and thousands of diamonds to choose from.”

Yes, exactly. But they don’t keep most of those in inventory. They list them. They list them from diamond wholesalers.

An online-only diamond ring retailer doesn’t, in many case, actually buy a diamond (in order to instantly sell it to you) until after you order a ring on their site. They list loose diamonds which are owned and warehoused by diamond wholesalers. When you choose a diamond (and a ring to mount it on), and pay for it with your credit card, the online-only diamond retailer instantly purchases the diamond from the wholesaler and instantly sells it to you.

That’s how a Blue Nile or other such online diamond retailer can offer such low prices. And such quantity of choice. And such quality of choice. And such transparency in quality. You get all the specs, easily visible, for any diamond you’re interested in.

You also get diamonds with diamond certificates / grading reports from 3rd-party, unbiased grading labs such as IGI, GIA, or AGS. Most ready-to-ship diamond rings from brick-and-mortar type retailers do not come with diamond certificates / grading reports. That’s a bright shining red flag of a deal breaker for anything except very inexpensive diamond jewelry that you’d buy for your child or for a niece or nephew.

When I compare Brick and Mortar diamond retailer prices to online-only or online-mostly diamond jewelry retailers, it’s like shooting fish in a bucket. So easy for me, since I understand how to use the search filters, to find huge price differences. And so easy for me to find far better quality.

You do have to know how to use the search filters at an online-only diamond retailer. But once you take the time to learn that, you can save thousands of dollars. You can even save tens of thousands.

I’m going to list some home runs I hit for diamond buyers below.

If you, or someone you know, is about to tie the knot, then send them this link. (Yes, send it in an email to yourself. Then you’ll be sure not to forget.)

Better yet, subscribe to the email list. Then you can ask me to price check any diamond ring you’re considering. And I can almost certainly find a better one for far less.

Save your soon-to-be engaged friends from getting ripped off. It’s easy:

Who do you know that may get engaged soon? Don’t let them get ripped off on a diamond engagement ring. Forward this article now.