Joined: Mon Oct 17, 2005 2:39 pm Posts: 3528 Location: San Francisco Bay Area, CA
Yup... Pala's price per carat on the 1.12 carat Hauyne is within 10% of their price per carat on the 3.50 "Windex" tourmaline from the 1st page of "New in Stock".
Joined: Thu May 29, 2008 8:32 am Posts: 1730 Location: Suwanee, GA US
You guys are looking at this with the eyes of someone in the field. For the uneducated consumer* paraiba is a hot buzz word. You get folks not wanting to look at better stones because they only know the buzz words. And, worse, when you try to sell them something better, they are suspicious. Just the way we work.
* - and the 'educate' argument does not work, there are always more of them when you are done, and like fools, fool proof just breeds more clever fools.
And I have lots of experience in this in Information Technology. In fact, the standard joke is if we could get the mailroom to stop delivering InfoWeek and PC World, our job would be easier (we survived 'paradigm', you can survive 'paraiba'. )
And note... in IT, it is the fool in IT that thinks we should make all our users into experts, we hired them to be experts in their field, not ours. It is hard to get them to recognize expertize and appreciate it. And with all the bad players in the business (jewelry), how can you inform and establish the necessary trust to 'educate' the consumer. It sucks, but we have to figure out how to live with it. Sometimes, if you can't beat them, join them. I guess that is where Pala is at. And you know their reputation.
Joined: Mon Oct 17, 2005 2:39 pm Posts: 3528 Location: San Francisco Bay Area, CA
gsellis, that argument would make sense except that Pala sells only to the trade. It's one thing to talk about uneducated consumers, but uneducated jewelers with resale licenses?
Joined: Thu May 29, 2008 8:32 am Posts: 1730 Location: Suwanee, GA US
gem-n00b wrote:
gsellis, that argument would make sense except that Pala sells only to the trade. It's one thing to talk about uneducated consumers, but uneducated jewelers with resale licenses?
You think every jeweler really knows as much as you do (I can assure you on this one... you are actively here and they are just cruising along). They are stuck on the keywords. It falls to my InfoWeek point. Just like I have seen Green Amethyst for sale in a couple of jewelry stores. They have read it and not kept up. They just sell the stuff and farm custom work out. I am sure if we had some of the salesmen for major wholesalers on the board, they could tell stores. And I cannot think of an industry that that does not happen in. They Sell stuff, they don't need to know what it is...
Joined: Mon Oct 17, 2005 2:39 pm Posts: 3528 Location: San Francisco Bay Area, CA
I'm with you in spirit, but I don't think Pala is selling to Zales and Kay Jewelers. Their stuff is high-end enough and almost never calibrated sizes. I can't help but believe that this stuff is going to people making custom pieces. I'd hope that most of the people doing that sort of work have at least half a clue. Then again, you'll never go broke betting on stupidity or ignorance.
Joined: Wed Nov 23, 2005 12:47 pm Posts: 2505 Location: Eastern Europe
Pala Intl. may be selling to whom they are, but the site is public goods - and a good bundle at that.
I have seen the descriptions of Hauyne a couple of weeks back and recall a little grin: after all, the color is what matters, is it not... [even on straw, as long as it is the right kind of straw ]
_________________ Vorba multa - saracia omului.[RO]
Joined: Thu May 29, 2008 8:32 am Posts: 1730 Location: Suwanee, GA US
valeria102 wrote:
I have seen the descriptions of Hauyne a couple of weeks back and recall a little grin: after all, the color is what matters, is it not... [even on straw, as long as it is the right kind of straw ]
Now THAT is ridiculous. $400 for a dyed raffia knot because it says Chanel?
Joined: Sun Oct 16, 2005 12:22 pm Posts: 21602 Location: San Francisco
I think it's safe to point out that we're ALL out of touch with the LUXURY market. Paris Hilton, Kate Moss and Victoria Beckman are not members of our forum.
I work in downtown San Francisco within a stone's throw of Hermes, Prada, Chanel, Louis Vuitton etc. A Kelly style wallet at Hermes starts at $2250 and a matching handbag's base price is $7000. Although these items are not desirable to everyone, they do have value and they deserve some respect. Folks buy things that they feel are beautiful and make them feel special and proud.
Same reason most people buy jewelry.
Joined: Mon Oct 17, 2005 2:39 pm Posts: 3528 Location: San Francisco Bay Area, CA
Barbra Voltaire wrote:
Although these items are not desirable to everyone, they do have value and they deserve some respect. Folks buy things that they feel are beautiful and make them feel special and proud. Same reason most people buy jewelry.
Well, a good deal of the "status symbol" style purchases are only made because they hope OTHER people will accord the items respect. Plenty of people will buy stuff not because it's beautiful, but because OTHER PEOPLE have decided that it's "the thing to have". This is also true of jewelry, of course. I will certainly not dispute someone's right to spend $7,000 of their money on a purse, but I do not feel obligated at all to respect either them or the product on account of it.
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