Question about buying diamond jewelry in Vietnam

daftshadow wrote:

My story I've been in a relationship with my vietnamese girlfriend for over a year now. I've never bought her any jewelry as these material things do not really concern her. But i feel she deserves a special gift and I have been thinking about getting her a diamond jewelry. nothing too fancy or expensive, just something nice and thoughtful.

I haven't been to a jewelry store yet, just browsing online at stores like PNJ. the one thing that has me confused, i see the usual diamond information such as grade, color, and clarity but for carat what does it mean by "ly"?

Bolded part: ahahahaha. And furthermore, 


My advice: Stick to gold, Vietnamese women love gold, and buy it from smaller local gold shops. Never buy jewellery from any branded shop in a mall, you'll pay an outrageous markup, you'll never get even close to what you paid for it if you ever need to sell.

Gold is extremely liquid here and the buy/sell prices in local shops are usually within 1-2%ish of the day's spot price, waaaaaaaaaaaaay better value than Western jewellery dealers. Seriously, waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay.

It's normally measured in units of chi (with another dot under the i, can't write it on this keyboard) which is 3.749 grams. Most VN jewellery is 24k but 22,20 and 18k purities are available, which I prefer as they're harder-wearing.

Diamonds are as common as muck, DeBeers just has a monoploly, and they are much harder to sell, should you ever need to. Don't be a sucker.

'Ly' means 'cup' but I don't know if it's an exact 0.2g match for carat

edit: I just checked PNJ's website and their prices are absolutely batshit. No wonder you never see any Vietnamese customers in their fancy, usually deserted mall shops, just the occasional gullible tourist. Type 'gold shop' into Google Maps and go from there...

Diamond is not the jewelry of choice here even if it comes in a robin egg blue box with white bow and a GIA certification showing it's only slightly lower than the top rank in 4Cs.

'Ly' is not 'cup' in diamond, but short for millimeter.  While diamonds from most of the world are measured in weight, they're measured by dimensions here. 

Therefore, a good engagement ring in the US may weight 1 carat and worth 25k - 30k, here it would fetch about 300M ($13k) because it counts as 6.5 ly.  The lower price doesn't mean you should jump in unless you want to spend good money in mediocre stones. 

For instance, the lowest quality stone in Tiffany is in I colour and SI1 clarity (most engagement rings are E colour and VVSI clarity).  Here, I colour is the norm and clarity isn't worth mentioning.

I've been to PNJ twice.  The most recent time was last October.  They said my 27-year-old engagement ring was way over valued in GIA certification but they wouldn't tell me how much they  thought it was worth.  They refused to verify the colour and clarity, and said they wouldn't accept the stone as 1.1 carat weight because they did not recognise carat as unit of measurement.  Oh, and as they did not have anything comparable to my ring's colour and clarity, they said.  "We would have to place a special order, but we would need a minimum of 30% deposit from you."  "How long is the wait?"  "It's hard to tell."

(I wasn't buying anything, just poked around and be curious.)

There you go.  Give your gf a diamond ring and she probably wouldn't know whether to thank you or to ask you for the receipt so she could exchange it for something else.

I think she will like your gift very much. All girls love jewelry especially with precious stones.

AlisonNorth80 wrote:

I think she will like your gift very much. All girls love jewelry especially with precious stones.

Y'all ain't from around here, are ya?  And yes, I know it's proper to address a single person as y'all.  If there's more then one it's all y'all.

Seriosuly I think you are off base when talking about Vietnamese women living in Vietnam.

Ciambella wrote:

'Ly' is not 'cup' in diamond, but short for millimeter.  While diamonds from most of the world are measured in weight, they're measured by dimensions here. 

Therefore, a good engagement ring in the US may weight 1 carat and worth 25k - 30k, here it would fetch about 300M ($13k) because it counts as 6.5 ly.  The lower price doesn't mean you should jump in unless you want to spend good money in mediocre stones.

So, just guessing, if they price by exterior visible dimensions I would suspect a lot of the lack of brilliance on stones here would be from very shallow cut stones.  Shallow would meet larger overall dimensions as measured here but carat weight would be lacking compared to properly cut stones.  It would "look big" but that's about all.  Shallow cuts are not brilliant but can be cut from stones that wouldn't meet normal criteria.  Of course there is a market for every stone.  The angles don't reflect the light properly since it is basically a prism.

SteinNebraska wrote:

Shallow cuts are not brilliant but can be cut from stones that wouldn't meet normal criteria.  Of course there is a market for every stone.  The angles don't reflect the light properly since it is basically a prism.

Precisely.  That's why the diamond rings I saw in PNJ were all in an ostentatious setting, with the stones sat up high on the prongs, surrounded by diamond chips, and the bands had multi faceted prism cut all around -- together they made the ring look flashy but without substance.  A solitaire diamond ring is the symbol of elegance in the West, here it has to become bling before it receives any attention.

Another thing:  the band is always gold.  While platinum (much more expensive than gold) is the choice in the West because it allows the ring to shine naturally, in Vietnam where gold rules, platinum is looked down upon.

Ciambella wrote:

Diamond is not the jewelry of choice here even if it comes in a robin egg blue box with white bow and a GIA certification showing it's only slightly lower than the top rank in 4Cs.

'Ly' is not 'cup' in diamond, but short for millimeter.  While diamonds from most of the world are measured in weight, they're measured by dimensions here. 

Therefore, a good engagement ring in the US may weight 1 carat and worth 25k - 30k, here it would fetch about 300M ($13k) because it counts as 6.5 ly.  The lower price doesn't mean you should jump in unless you want to spend good money in mediocre stones. 

For instance, the lowest quality stone in Tiffany is in I colour and SI1 clarity (most engagement rings are E colour and VVSI clarity).  Here, I colour is the norm and clarity isn't worth mentioning.

I've been to PNJ twice.  The most recent time was last October.  They said my 27-year-old engagement ring was way over valued in GIA certification but they wouldn't tell me how much they  thought it was worth.  They refused to verify the colour and clarity, and said they wouldn't accept the stone as 1.1 carat weight because they did not recognise carat as unit of measurement.  Oh, and as they did not have anything comparable to my ring's colour and clarity, they said.  "We would have to place a special order, but we would need a minimum of 30% deposit from you."  "How long is the wait?"  "It's hard to tell."

(I wasn't buying anything, just poked around and be curious.)

There you go.  Give your gf a diamond ring and she probably wouldn't know whether to thank you or to ask you for the receipt so she could exchange it for something else.

Bright Yellow gold rules here, small, delicate & quality of workmanship & setting means nothing here! its how big & gaudy it is, how much it weighs & how much it cost & can be re sold for if times get hard or circumstances change. Not for all but for most I think.

Look into gold bracelets. I believe they love the gold bracelets in VN.

goodolboy wrote:

Bright Yellow gold rules here, small, delicate & quality of workmanship & setting means nothing here! its how big & gaudy it is, how much it weighs & how much it cost & can be re sold for if times get hard or circumstances change. Not for all but for most I think.

I don't know all about it, but I read a piece about diamonds, and apparently they got as valuable as they are today because of very good marketing and a monopoly that successfully restricts production/mining. Some even call it a scam because of that. Gold is arguably a smarter gift/investment, even though it can fluctuate a lot.

Ciambella wrote:

A solitaire diamond ring is the symbol of elegance in the West, here it has to become bling before it receives any attention.

A picture is worth a thousand words, this photo is taken from the website of a jewelry shop in Vung Tau:

I would just advise you not to get carried away, I think it should be something gentle and feminine. Your gift to her will be very dear, as a sign of attention and that you thought about her and spent time on it. There are many [link moderated] where you can view the options and compare them. In addition, you will spend less time on it than if you went to jewelry stores in your city. I wish you good luck, I hope you find something perfect for her.

daftshadow wrote:

... in a relationship... diamond

Nopes.
You cannot start with first jewelry being diamonds.
C'mon man    give yourself some future runway!
Build those present-giving expectations gradually.

Pearls.
Seems to me that pearls are pretty big here, and very affordable.
But don't get the cheapest. Try a specialist like in Vincom mall to get quality.
They come in subtle color variations.
Not knowing her, but I would suggest a pendant necklace and earrings. You could toss in a bracelet or ring, or save that idea for later ("adding to the set") for when you are stumped for what to buy on her birthday.
Pro-tip is to make sure the colors match exactly, another reason to go to a good store.
That's a classy first-jewelry gift for the girlfriend.

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Next Level, since it is the holidays and everything:
A next level idea is: take her down to Phu Quoc and go to a big pearl store.
(Phu Quoc = "The Pearl Island of Vietnam")
We went to Ngoc Hien, it's a pearl department store, plus some interesting shipwreck stuff.
You should be able to get out of there for a couple or three $hundred.
Save the diamond for the engagement.