Estate Jewelry is the perfect gift for your Mom whether it’s for Mother’s Day, her birthday, or Christmas. Mother’s will always enjoy a lovely piece of jewelry. But there are some things you should know before heading out to buy that jewelry to make sure you don’t pay too much or don’t land up with a fake piece of jewelry. Estate jewelry is always an excellent choice because your Mom may have personal attachments to a certain piece or style. Follow these tips for buying jewelry for your Mother.

Check around!

Quality jewelry isn’t cheap so before you even start shopping check around with co-workers, friends, and family and see which stores or web sites they recommend for purchasing fine jewelry from. Also take note of the ones they tell you to stay away from. Other peoples experiences are a great method of finding the best jewelry store available.

Get it Written Down

If you’ve been talking with a sales rep then have them write down all the information they’ve given you including the stores policy on refunds and returns. If you are buying online then print out all the detailed information supplied on the web site including contact information, return policies, and refund policies.

Watch The Markings

Gold plated is not 14 karat gold. Some might try to lead you to believe this but its just not so. 14K jewelry is made of 14 parts of gold combined with 10 parts of a base metal. Gold plated means that the cheaper base metal has simply had a layer of 10K gold bonded to it. Eventually the gold will wear away and leave you with the ugly base metal. How long it takes to wear away will depend on how well it is plated, how often you wear it, and how your skin reacts to it.

Watches

There are two different watch styles, the battery operated and the winding style. You’ll have to decide which type is best for your Mom. You’ll also want to find out how long the warranty is and what it covers.

A personal experience with a higher end watch maker left me rather amazed. I had managed to wear the gold plating off the band which was listed in the life time warranty as covered. However upon sending it in for replacement I found out I had neglected to read the fine print that had a list of exclusions on the life time warranty.

So the moral of the story is read and read it all. Don’t have a big surprise later on. That replacement band cost me half the value of the original purchase price. Ouch!

Understand Gems

You need to understand the different between a natural gem that comes from mother earth and a synthetic or laboratory created gem that is man made. To look at them side by side you cannot visually see any differences. But the biggest difference is in the price. Natural gems cost a great deal more. So if you really want a natural gemstone then you’ll have to pay more. When buying a natural gem make sure that you understand what you are getting. Natural gems can have treatments that enhance their beauty. Enhanced natural gems are not worth the same money as a natural natural gem and they may also require special treatment so that they don’t become damaged or loose their luster.

Pearls

You can buy beautiful real pearls and imitation pearls. Real pearls come from oysters or mollusks where imitation pearls are man made. Cultured pearls come from oysters or mollusks but man intervenes by adding an irritant to cause a pearl to grow within the shell. Pearls that are natural and not cultured are rare and very expensive and there really isn’t any difference except for mans little bit of intervention.

Diamonds

Diamonds are forever is deep in meaning. One being that a diamond will quite literally last forever. You need to consider cut, color, clarity, and weight when choosing a diamond. Each of these factors will affect the price of the diamond. Color can be graded on a scale but the scales are not consistent as there is no industry standard scale so make sure you understand the scale for the specific diamond you are looking at.

Chains

A chain is always a wonderful choice for a jewelry gift for your mother. Either gold or silver are excellent choices. Chains are available in many lengths so you can choose a length that is appropriate for your Mom. You can also boy many different styles from the very dainty to bold and noticeable. Add a pendant if you like.

Follow these tips for buying jewelry for your Mother and you’ll have purchased the perfect gift. So whether you purchase a new jewelry piece or a beautiful estate jewelry piece it will be treasured by your Mom for years to come.