How to Buy Diamond Stud Earrings (VIDEO)

In this video, Ronnie Mervis of Mervis Diamonds provides tips on how to buy diamond jewelry.

Ronnie Mervis is co-owner of Mervis Diamond Importers - the leading diamond dealer in the Washington area for the past 30 years. Voted the "Best Place to Buy a Diamond” in the Washingtonpost.com Readers' Choice BEST BETS contest and selected in 2006 for having the best wedding rings in W*USA9’s A-List Top 100 of Washington, DC’s Best Local Businesses, Mervis Diamond Importers is known for supplying their outstanding diamonds to tens of thousands of happy clients each year. With a direct link to the diamond-producing centers of South Africa, Mervis offers wholesale pricing, guaranteeing their customers great value while their commitment to customer service ensures an enjoyable buying experience. Mervis Diamond Importers offers three marvelous showrooms in Tysons Corner, Virginia, downtown Washington, DC and Chevy Chase, Maryland. Coming soon will be a fourth showroom located in Rockville, Maryland. Ronnie handles the company's marketing and public relations on a very active and personal basis. His familiar accent is heard daily on over thirty radio stations, stretching from Baltimore to Richmond.

Video Transcript

Ronnie Mervis: From Mervis Diamond Importers, this is Ronnie Mervis and I would like to talk to you about Diamond Stud Earrings, the most versatile item of a woman's jewelry wardrobe you can possibly imagine. They look just as great with denim jeans, as they do with a little cocktail dress, or with an awful formal.

What should you look for in selecting a pair of diamond stud earrings. I can ask that in one word and the word is, flash. And flash is a function of the way the diamonds are cut. It's all about the way light enters a diamond, refracts around internally in the diamond and comes back to your eye. So, that's what you look for. After flash, of course, the size is important and the color is important. And you wan the highest possible color which is a closest to white without any element of the yellow coming in. And something that you should remember in terms of terminology is that when we talk about carat weight of the diamonds, we are talking about total carat weight. So 1 carat pair of earrings really means a pair containing two half carats, they are half in each ear. The least important factor and one that you really don't need to focus on for diamond stud earrings, but where a lot of people make mistakes, and that is clarity. The internal clarity, the absence or the presence of tiny little natural inclusions or marks of nature are really pretty irrelevant when it comes to diamond stud earrings. Most important of all, it's got to come in at a budgetary figure, which is convenient for you. So, select a pair which is right for the occasion, in terms of the money that's available right now or in terms of which would be available for you with easy financing in a years of time, 2 or 5 or 10 whenever it is. If you get tired of these earrings and you would like to get bigger, better and brighter, then you can always bring them back. Any reputable organization, like ours, and there are many others, will be glad to take back your diamond stud earrings at full value for any exchange. An important feature of a pair of diamond stud earrings is the fact that, they have got to be perfectly matched. They got to be matched against each other, not only for the four C's, the cut, the color, the clarity and the carat weight. But they have to matched against each other for millimeter dimension. And often there is something that goes wrong and the two studs don't just look the same. The reason why an organization like ours can get the match right, is because we make a huge quantities of diamond stud earrings and we select our stones and match them up out of a huge pile of diamonds. Other questions that you may want to ask yourself, but they are not really very important, however, it's good to know about them, is the metal that the diamonds are going to be mounted into for the stud earrings. We use different materials. We use platinum which is the most noble of all materials. But platinum is expensive and we really use them only for the larger pairs of earrings in the higher priced items. If it's not platinum, it could be in gold, and it's your choice. You can go in yellow gold or you can go in white gold. Both are very popular. Over the yeas, yellow has predominantly being more popular than white. But right now, the fashion is changing and white seems to be eclipsing yellow. If I need to make a recommendation to you, I am going to say, go with white. Because the diamond appears to draw color from the surrounding metal and if the metal is white, the diamonds will look white and that is the objective to keep color out of your earrings. Then the diamonds within the studs can be held in different ways. The most common way is in a four-prong solitaire stud. But there are variations on that. We can also do up to three prongs. And we do what is called the martini glass setting. The diamonds could be surrounded by a circle of metal. We call that a bezel setting. There are lots of different ways. But it's not really the most important thing and if you had them mounted one way, highly unlikely, that she's going to tell you, Oh! You bought me the wrong earrings, I don't like the way they are mounted.

The question that many ladies ask is, whether a screw-type fitting at the back is better than a standard snap-on. Well, there is no right answer, but I can tell you what our preference is. We really are not big fans of the screw-on type of earring back, because just like it can screw-on, it can screw-off and there is no guarantee that it stays locked in place. Also some ladies complain, that the thread on the post, when it goes through the tiny little aperture in the ear, might cause an irritation. So, our preference is to have the opposite. It's a double notched post without any thread on it, which goes through the hole in the ear without causing any discomfort, and it's locked into place with a friction back. Now, we do have to be realistic and I must tell you that even though it's quite safe, accidents occur and that is why, it's important that you get a certificate of insurance and that you insure them properly through your reputable broker, or through a reputable insurance company, so that if anything ever happens, that you are properly covered, that your purchase is properly documented and that you have a basis for a claim against your insurance company, they will step up to the plate and replace it. The last question which sometimes flummoxes the guys is, how much should I spend? And the answer to that is very simple and that is, don't make that decision. Just come in open-minded and say, please show me a large selection, and we will find a pair that is absolutely right for you. With that Good luck. You can never go wrong with a pair of diamond stud earrings and it is the one item that will be worn all the time. She will enjoy them and you will enjoy them and I hope you will enjoy giving them, as much as, she will enjoy wearing them. Thank you.



--- How to Buy Diamond Stud Earrings (VIDEO)