Diamonds & Engagement Rings News

San Marcos Police recovered three stolen diamond rings and anticipate the arrest of two suspects in two thefts at a pawnshop and a jewelry store since Tuesday.

On Tuesday November 20 at approximately 2:51 p.m., a man went into the National Pawn & Jewelry at 1430 I-35 South and asked to view a diamond engagement ring.

When the clerk showed the suspect the ring, he grabbed it from the clerk and ran from the store. The suspect fled in a gray vehicle bearing Washington State license plates.

A short time later, a different suspect driving the same vehicle attempted to pawn the stolen ring at another pawnshop in San Marcos. The clerks at the store had been alerted to the earlier theft and refused to buy the stolen ring.

On Wednesday, a suspect matching the description of the theft at National Pawn entered the Zales store in the Springtown Mall and inquired about several diamond rings. As the clerk showed the suspect two rings, he grabbed the rings and fled the store in a dark gray vehicle.

Following up leads developed in the investigation, San Marcos officers and detectives identified and interviewed one suspect at a local apartment complex. Information obtained led to the recovery of the three stolen rings at pawnshops in Austin and San Marcos as well as the identification of a second suspect.

The case is still under investigation and arrests are anticipated, Police Commander Terry Nichols. The suspects face charges of theft under $20,000, a state jail felony

“The holiday season is a prime time for thefts like this and we urge residents and businesses to remain vigilant,” Nichols said.

Moshe’s comment: What chutzpah, they come here to the USA blow up our buildings and still make protest.

Protests escalated outside Leviev in New York City on Tuesday as a Palestinian interest group continued its call for a boycott of Israeli diamond magnate Lev Leviev’s new Madison Avenue store.

In a loud and eye-catching protest, about 40 people, lead by the group Adalah-NY, sung and danced outside the store, chanting “you sparkle, you shine, but settlements are still a crime,” and “how fancy, how pretty, Leviev out of New York City.”

The protest included “dancing cardboard diamonds,” which told the tale of “gems of injustice.”

Protestors also handed passing pedestrians gift bags containing soil from Palestine and a thank-you note that stated: “Dear valued customer, with every purchase you make from LEVIEV New York, you help Lev Leviev to seize a handful of Palestinian land in order to build more illegal Israeli settlements.”

According to the group, Leviev is involved in the construction of five illegal settlements on Palestinian land in the West Bank.

In addition, the group claims that Leviev and New York residential real estate developer Shaya Boymelgreen are pushing lower- and middle-income residents out of New York. The group alleges that construction problems plague these developments, and that the projects utilize underpaid, non-union workers in hazardous conditions.

In a statement obtained on Wednesday by National Jeweler, Leviev and the LLG Companies called the protests “politically motivated.”

“Those who have personally attacked the group or its founder are not aware of the extensive humanitarian work of the group, including building schools, orphanages and fostering economic development in communities around the world. The LLG Companies are committed to—and have been recognized for—philanthropic work in communities in which they operate.”

Adalah-NY says it plans to hand out flyers outside of Leviev on Black Friday, widely considered to be the busiest shopping day of the year, and is planning a large protest in the coming weeks.

“We will return as often as necessary until New Yorkers understand that Leviev’s triangle trade is built on human rights abuses and the destruction of marginalized communities in New York City, the Palestinian towns of Bil’in and Jayyous, and in Angola,” said Ethan Heitner, a spokesperson for Adalah-NY.

Nov. 16 (Bloomberg) — A rare red diamond, the largest of its type ever to appear at auction, sold for a record at a Christie’s International sale in Geneva yesterday.

The fancy purplish-red diamond, weighing 2.26 carats and mounted on a ring, fetched $2.7 million including the buyer’s premium, Christie’s said. That’s $1,180,340 per carat, the highest ever for a red diamond at an auction. The record was previously held by a 0.95-carat gem called the Hancock Red, bought in 1987 for the equivalent of $926,316 per carat. Jeweler Laurence Graff was last night’s buyer, Christie’s said.

The auction took in $48.6 million in total, compared with a presale estimate of more than $47 million. Rival Sotheby’s sold a flawless white diamond the previous day for $16.2 million, the second-highest auction price for a jewel. The results underscore a bull market in art and jewelry sales that has been boosted by newly rich collectors from Russia, Asia and the Middle East.

“It’s one of the rarest stones at that size and that quality,” said Richard Tilles, a U.S.-based dealer. “Part of the reason for the record price is that the dollar is so weak.”

Last night’s sale was the first time the red diamond, which surpassed its high estimate of $1.5 million, had come on the auction market.

“There is a lot more demand than there is supply at the moment on the market, especially in the high qualities,” Eric Valdieu, the head of Christie’s jewelry department in Geneva, said before the auction.

Valdieu said the red stone, a recent discovery, may have been mined in Australia, given the depth of its color. Only a few have come on the market in the past 20 years.

Princess’s Necklace

Among the other items sold was an emerald-and-diamond necklace from the collection of Princess Katharina Henckel von Donnersmarck, the wife of Guido Henckel von Donnersmarck, a 19th- century aristocrat. The piece fetched $1.9 million, above its high estimate of $1.3 million.

A pair of diamond-and-gold ear clips made by Van Cleef & Arpels sold for $1.1 million, more than double its presale high estimate of $500,000. A Belle Epoque diamond necklace made by Lacloche Freres fetched $368,468, compared with its presale high estimate of $64,000. All prices include the buyer’s premium, or commission.

Christie’s, based in London and owned by French billionaire Francois Pinault, and New York-based Sotheby’s hold biannual jewelry auctions in Geneva.

Moshe comment: This is a article that ran on ABC TV 2001.

Welcome to Diamonds On Fifth, your personal diamond shop on New Yorkճ historic Fifth Avenue. Renowned worldwide for style, class and quality, for over a century Fifth Avenue has attracted customers from all over the globe who seek cachet merchandise, superior quality and distinctive design. Diamonds On Fifth has been created in this tradition by a highly respected and diamond manufacturing firm located at the center of New Yorkճ legendary Diamond and Jewelry District on Fifth Avenue and 47th Street to service the luxury shopper with world class diamonds. Our diamonds are cut and polished according to the highest standards in the industry and with the highest degree of craftsmanship.

Our master craftsmen custom cut and polish each diamond to bring out its unique natural beauty. Each stone is GIA or EGL certified in accordance with the highest standards in the industry. Because we manufacture these diamonds in our own shops we control the quality. We are also able to present you with one of the largest inventories in the nation, an inventory that includes rare, one of a kind gems, as well as the most popular diamonds in a wide range of styles, price ranges and sizes. In addition to offering you an exquisite array of choice this also means that we save you money Рup to 40 per cent- and we can ship immediately.

We are committed to offering you the best in quality, design, price, and especially service. Integrity and service are our by-words. So, if you are interested in selecting a diamond of distinction from incomparable inventory surf our site, learn all about us. We want you to know as much as you can. Then give us a call to speak to one of our courteous representatives who are waiting to assist you in making a choice that will bring you a lifetime of pleasure.

T he advantages of purchasing your diamond here.

1. o Buy direct from the manufacturer eliminating the extra expense of middleman mark ups. Be an intelligent shopper. Do your homework. You will find that Diamonds On Fifth can save you up to 40 percent on comparable gems.
2. o We do not ask you to take our word for the quality of our diamonds. The GIA or EGL laboratories certify all our loose stones.
3. Our diamonds are in house diamonds. If you call other on-line diamond companies and ask if someone can look at the diamond they most probably will not be able to. Why not? Because they don’t own the diamonds, they have them drop shipped from companies like ours.
4. o Selection. Our inventory includes literally thousands of gems for you to choose from, from hard to finds to all the classic shapes, colors and sizes.
5. o And when you buy on the internet you save on taxes, as much as 9 per cent.

Moshe’s comment: Does anybody care.

A lawyer for Tiffany & Co. accused eBay Inc. on Tuesday of allowing the sale of tens of thousands of pieces of counterfeit Tiffany jewelry on its Web site; an eBay lawyer responded that Tiffany wasn’t doing its share to protect customers.

The arguments in U.S. District Court in Manhattan came at the start of a trial to decide whether eBay can be blamed for the sales of silver Tiffany knockoffs on its Internet site since 2003.

James B. Swire, Tiffany’s lawyer, said eBay “simply turned a blind eye” to the sales.

Bruce Rich, eBay’s lawyer, said the site has suspended hundreds of thousands of sellers who broke its rules.

He blamed Tiffany for failing to protect its own trademarks by notifying eBay when it spots sales that seem suspicious. Rich said that when companies do so, eBay often stops the sales even before it can check whether they are legitimate.

In a 2004 lawsuit, Tiffany said it notified eBay a year earlier that thousands of pieces of fake silver jewelry were being sold as if they were genuine Tiffany products.

Swire said the company randomly bought 325 items being sold as genuine Tiffany jewelry on eBay’s Web site from among 280,000 listings related to Tiffany products. Of those, 75 percent turned out to be fake, he said.

He said there was no evidence that eBay did anything to stop the false sales after it reported its findings to the company.

Instead, he said, eBay supports sellers, offering marketing assistance that includes conducting seminars on how to grow the online jewelry business.

Rich said eBay spends more than $10 million annually to clean counterfeit merchandise from its site, which carries 6 million postings a day.

He said the company relies on the expertise of more than 14,000 copyright and trademark owners to find counterfeit merchandise.

“It cannot get it done by itself,” Rich said of eBay.

“We never see this merchandise. We don’t turn a blind eye to it,” he said. “We turn people over to law enforcement all the time.”

He said eBay’s success relies on creating a safe and friendly business.

“There are a lot of bad guys out there and eBay spends an enormous amount of money trying to keep up with it,” Rich said. 

Moshe says: Why don’t i have this kind of luck.

Who thought playing in the park would yield such a find. Eight-year-old twins Grace and Garrett Duncan were not sure what they had until a park interpreter, Rachel Engebrecht, confirmed what she thought she had spotted from the digging the twins had done that day.

The eight-year-old Houston natives were enjoying a spring break vacation visiting their maternal grandparents in Arkansas and decided to spend part of the day “digging for diamonds”. Engebrecht explained, “The family didn’t realize they had a diamond. They thought it was a piece of mica. When they learned it was a diamond, there were many ‘woo hoo’s’ and high-fives exchanged between the six family members.” The twins plan to take their 2.5-carat diamond back to Texas and show it off to their third grade classes and then it will go into a lock box for safe keeping.

The Crater of Diamonds State Park often has visitors who find diamonds but does not place a value on the diamonds that the visitors are allowed to take out of the park to keep. Since the park opened in 1972, there have been roughly 25,000 diamonds found. The largest stone ever found, a 16.37-carat white diamond named the Amarillo Starlight, by Texas visitor W.W. Johnson in 1975.

Moshe’s comment: Should i sell or stay put?

Blue Nile, Inc. (NASDAQ:NILE) is set to report earnings after the close today.  The online jewelry retailer is expected to post earnings of $0.16 EPS on $68 million revenues.  The estimates for calendar and fiscal Q4 are $0.44 EPS and just over $114 million in revenues.  If the company offers any fiscal guidance for 2008 the estimates are $1.29 EPS and $389.6 million in revenues; which represents roughly a 26% gain in EPS and a 21% revenue gain compared to consensus estimates.

Blue Nile has recovered a bit from recent lows, but shares are well off the $100+ highs of early to mid-October.  Options traders appear braced for a move of over $6.00 based upoin current pricing.  As shares are still up more than 100% from the end of 2006 and since Blue Nile is no longer in that massive uptrend, it looks like some traders have been stepping out of the way ahead of the earnings.  The mid-October short interest listed 3.364 million shares as the short interest, which is about 5.2-times average daily volume.

Moshe’s Comment:This is very important, while there are people starving out there, we get diamond cell phones.

Vertu have released a new version of their Signature phone made of white gold and black and white diamonds. Vertu already have a several diamond versions of their Signature as well as a pink diamon version. The Vertu Signature Black & White Diamonds phone features six hundred and forty four brilliant cut white diamonds and four hundred and twenty eight brilliant cut black diamonds encrusted into the case and keys of the phone.

Moshe’s comment: Good to see there are some good people out there.

A garbage truck operator is being hailed as a hero for finding $10,000 worth of diamonds that had accidentally been thrown away.

“We got a call from a customer that had some earrings in the garbage,” said front-load truck operator Ron Lund.

At Pellitteri Waste, those types of calls come in about once a month.

But these were no average earrings. They were $10,000 diamond earrings from a local jewelry store, WISC-TV reported.

“I’m thinking, ‘No way, I’ll never find them,’” said Lund. “I told them, ‘Good Luck,’” he laughed.

On his route, Lund picks up garbage from more than 130 businesses, including the jeweler.

“I was thinking, ‘Little diamonds versus 30,000 pounds of garbage,’” said Lund. “No way.”

But, those little diamonds got him looking.

“I kind of knew where the store was on the load,” said Lund. “So I drove forward to lay it out.”

And the digging began.

“I grabbed a bag and started looking in there and that’s where I found them,” said Lund. “I found one first then I thought the other’s got to be in the bag, and I found the other one.”

It took him a total of eight minutes.

“I was just surprised I found them,” said Lund. “I’m surprised anybody would find them.”

The business owner gave him an $80 reward.

Lund said that he decided to try his luck again.

“I already spent it,” he said. “I went and bought Powerball tickets. I figure I found the earrings, I’ll buy the tickets and maybe I’ll get lucky.”

Lund also admitted he once dumped all his keys into the garbage, and was lucky enough to find them, too.

I came across a interesting article on the Jewish community regarding the diamond industry. Read it and let me know what you say.