Afshin’s Guide to Negotiating on Your Engagement Ring

So, you’re in the middle of your quest for the perfect engagement ring? But the price is slightly over your budget? Negotiating with your jeweler for a better price is an easy solution to this problem. But is this standard practice? Will the jeweler be offended? And how do you even go about it? And will negotiating even work?

This article was written by Afshin Shaddaie, and I’ve been selling jewelry, especially rare and vintage jewelry, for decades. In this article, I’ll reveal all the insider secrets on negotiating for a better price on your jewelry.

Is it Acceptable to Negotiate on an Engagement Ring or Jewelry?

Yes. It is fully acceptable to negotiate the price of any piece of jewelry from a jeweler or jewelry boutique. Jewelers expect a small negotiation and they will almost always work with you. Negotiating for a better price for your jewelry is not even considered rude or inappropriate.

That being said, it’s important to note that commercial jewelry chain stores (and fancy brand-name jewelry stores) will almost never be open to negotiations at all. They have fixed, heavily inflated price and usually have no intention of going down even a little.

On the other hand, smaller boutiques and online websites are almost always open to haggling, and assuming they have good customer service, they’ll always be warm-spirited about it.

Our boutique, Estate Diamond Jewelry, for example, has been in the vintage ring business for over 40 years, and we still work with each customer to find a better price. Negotiations are a part of our daily work. Our prices are already competitive, so we don’t have much room to work with, but we always try our best to come to a price that will work for both of us.

The critical key for customers to learn is how to negotiate and what not to say or do.

Afshin’s Insider Secrets to Negotiating Jewelry Prices

Here are my top tips and tricks to help you negotiate successfully when buying an engagement ring (or any jewelry).

1. Find a Promo Code

Finding a promocode is one of easiest and most effective technique for scoring a better price. And here’s the better news, you can also look for promocodes that are already expired. Expired promo codes will also be really helpful.

Finding the promo codes should be easy. Jewelry stores (especially online jewelry stores) always run discounts and promotions. These promotions will usually range from 5% to 10%.

Search their website, social media platforms, and email lists for their latest promo code. Even if the code has expired, you can usually ask the jewelers if they will extend it.

Chances are, if you ask nicely, the jewelry store will usually agree to apply the discount. They agreed to go that low once, and they’ll likely be happy to go that low again.

2. Determine a Good Price to Start Negotiations

Let’s say you can’t find any promo codes, or the promo codes are for a 5% discount or less. In that case, you will probably want to try negotiating the price without mentioning the promo code.

Once you settled on a ring that you love, you will need to determine how much you can reasonably counteroffer.

One of the biggest mistakes when negotiating for jewelry is starting the bid at the wrong amount.

If, for example, a diamond ring is listed online for $5,000 and you call them up and counter-offer to buy it for $1,500, they will reject your offer and be reluctant to continue the conversation. The jeweler will dismiss you as not serious, and rightfully so, and you will miss your chance at getting a good discount.

The trick is to pick a starting number that is somewhere around 20% off their listed price. Using the above example, I recommend putting a starting negotiation offer of $4,000 for a $5,000 ring. By the time you and the jeweler finish counter-offering each other, you can hope to land yourself a sweet 8% to 10% discount, which is considered a great discount for quality jewelry.

3. Never Get Confrontational When Bargaining

One of the biggest negotiating mistakes that I see customers make is thinking that “being extra tough” will get them a better deal.

As someone who has been in this business for decades, I can assure you that confrontational bargainers never get the best prices. In fact, they consistently get worse deals than the easy-going negotiators.

If you “aggressively threaten to walk away” unless you get your heavily discounted price, the jeweler will usually drop the deal on the spot. And if you’re rude, angry, or aggressive about it, he may even nudge you towards the door (with help from the security guard).

In short, when the negotiations get even slightly hostile or threatening, the jeweler will emotionally shut down. He’ll either give a tiny discount and call it a day or hold onto the jewelry item and wait for a better customer.

4. Don’t Fall for the First “Discount”

Say you enter a store and narrow down your choices to two rings. You love them both, and you ask about the price. The seller says that the price is generally this, but they will “give you a discount” and sell you the ring at a lower price. You think you’ve just got a discount, but the truth is, you have no idea if the price they offered is the lowest they can go.

So, don’t say “yes” immediately to this “lowered” price, I would recommend gently negotiating a little further and see if you can get an even better deal. So long as you are respectful and courteous, the jewelry store will want to make you happy.

Even if they say, “But I already gave you a better price,” just politely ask if they can make it a little better. The best way to do this is with humor. Keep the banter light and playful, and the jeweler will probably just stretch the price a little more.

Important Note: If a gentle nudging doesn’t get you a better price, you’ve probably hit their lowest price. If you keep pushing, you’ll ruin the original deal.

5. Never Volunteer to Disclose Your Budget

If you visit a jewelry store in person, don’t give away the exact price you’re willing to pay when you walk in. Give the jeweler an overall ballpark figure and ask for a few options within that general price bracket.

Sometimes, the jeweler may eventually ask you for your exact budget, and if they do, you have no choice but to be upfront.

Even if the jeweler discovers your exact budget and you end up falling in love with a much more affordable ring, you can still ask for a better price. If you make your request kindly, the jeweler will likely still give you a discount.

On this note, remember that giving a misleading or incorrect budget amount will waste everyone’s time and always backfires when the jeweler realizes they’ve been misled.

6. Work with Your Partner

If you’re buying a ring together, which many couples do today, ensure that you’re on the same page.

Agree on a budget, decide whether you’re willing to stretch it and in which circumstances, and agree on the purpose of your visit (is it to make a final decision today, or are you going to think about it and come back later).

Once you find a ring you’re set on, it’s a good idea for one of you to keep the excitement contained and not give away what you’re thinking to the seller. If the jeweler sees that you’re not both “absolutely” sold on a particular ring at the current price, they may be more determined to give their best discount.

In short, one of you should play “good cop” and the other “bad cop.” Of course, the “bad cop” can’t be nasty or rude, or the entire deal will fall apart. And you both will risk losing the opportunity to buy the jewelry piece.

That being said, most jewelers will not be fooled, and the previous techniques are the best options to getting a better deal.

7. Give Yourself an Educational Edge

Another great way to impress the jeweler and leverage yourself toward an easier negotiation is to study everything that there is to know about diamonds and engagement rings, especially within the niche that you’re searching for.

If you’re interested in vintage rings, for example, I recommend spending a lot of time on a vintage jewelry blog (like our vintage blog) and becoming an expert on the topic.

The jeweler will usually be impressed by your knowledge and keen to negotiate favorably with you.

Of course, don’t leverage your knowledge to try to “lecture” or “educate” the jeweler. That will not work out well when trying to coax a discount out of him. This unfortunately, needs to be said.

Here are a few jewelry articles I would recommend for all beginners:

• Guides to Diamond Color, Clarity, Shape, and Carat Size
• How Big Will a Diamond Look on My Hand?
• Carat Weight vs Total Carat Weight

8. Never Criticize the Jewelry Item

Conventional bargaining wisdom would tell you that the more you criticize the ring, the better discount you’ll get.

Trust me. This is 100% wrong.

Jewelers are proud and vain (and yes, I know I’m also a jeweler). If you insult a jewelry item that they handcrafted, curated, or collected, they will likely get very defensive quickly.

If someone, for example, ridiculed one of the rare vintage rings from my collection, I would try my best to be polite, but I would probably be hurt. I’ve spent decades curating our collection, and I take tremendous pride in how impressive each ring is.

In short, criticizing the jewelry item in order to justify why you want a discount is not a good strategy.

But, on the flip side, if the jeweler sees that the customer has fallen in love with one of their pieces, they’ll almost always bend over backward to help the customer walk away with their “dream piece.”

Jewelers (and jewelry collectors) are artists. They’d usually rather sell their jewelry to a customer who appreciates their art rather than to a customer who couldn’t care less.

Not always. But usually.

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