"Bargain" Hunting

I've just returned from a lovely week in Saint Martin / Sint Maarten. If you don't know anything about the island, here's a little blurb I wrote about its history several years ago for the Scottish magazine Caledonia:

A legend about the division of the island of Saint Martin/Sint Maarten between the French and the Dutch in 1648 attributes the French ownership of slightly more than half the island to the French fondness for wine over Dutch gin. From Oysterpond on the East coast, each group appointed a man to walk west—the Frenchman along the northern border, the Dutchman along the southern—and where the two met a division was drawn down the middle of the tiny island. Because the Dutchman was disabled by the gin he consumed, the story goes, the French ended up with twenty of the thirty-seven square miles that comprise the smallest land mass ever ruled peacefully by two nations. The truth, however, is somewhat less quixotic: in 1648, the French had a large navy just off shore. And, despite the peaceful relations between the two ruling powers, the border changed more than a dozen times before it was finalized in 1815 at the Treaty of Paris.

The two sides of the island have very different personalities. Even in this, the off-season, while every store on the French side has a "Soldes" (Sale) sign in the window, the stores are not crowded and the customers are particular about what they buy. On the Dutch side, however, the streets are crowded with tourists (many of whom come off the cruise ships that dock in Philipsburg and promote the shopping there) searching for a bargain--particularly a jewelry bargain.

But what kind of bargains are tourists apt to find? A lovely woman at one of the Goldfinger stores, where they have quite possibly the largest collection of high end watches (Rolex, Omega, Tag Heuer, Ebel, etc.) I've ever seen, told us that their prices are about 10% lower than retail in the U.S. They also offer incentives that expand the savings to 15-20%. Which means, if you live in an area with a high sales tax, that in the end you are saving about 25%. That's pretty good, especially on watches that in the U.S. retail for $1500+, but remember that it's 25% off U.S. suggested retail pricing. In the U.S., the same bargain hunters who crowd the streets of Philipsburg in Dutch St. Maarten can find watches significantly below suggested retail pricing if they're careful shoppers.

We spent one afternoon in Philipsburg looking for a money clip for my husband because we had won a $50 gift certificate that was good at one of a number of stores there. Store after store had the same kind of what I think of as "mall jewelry". There were huge numbers of stores selling tanzanites and diamonds. In fact, probably half the stores had "Tanzanite" and/or "Diamond" in their names. And even in the non-stone jewelry, nothing was what I would consider "inexpensive" or a "bargain". But people were snapping it up like crazy.

One of the stores, I cannot remember which one, advertises that they let you take your stones home and have them appraised, then pay the appraised value if you'd rather do that than pay the price they are asking. The cynic in me wonders whether they just do that to reassure customers, figuring that none of them are apt to actually take them up on the offer. Another store that we went into looking for a money clip had a "bargain section" upstairs...everything under $300! We didn't check out the prices, but I saw the jewelry and all I can say is that it would have to be way under $300 to be even vaguely tempting.

The one really interesting thing that you do see there that you don't see many other places is a combination of stainless steel and 18k gold. Many years ago, I bought a very neat artisan piece that was made of brushed stainless steel sections riveted together with 18k gold "screws". And the one really nice money clip we saw (at Goldfinger in Marigot) was stainless with two stripes of 18k gold. But it was $150, and it seemed a little ridiculous to get a money clip that would be worth more than its contents.

So if you're thinking of buying jewelry on vacation, do yourself a favor: Before you go, research the deals you can get at home. Find things you like, and check the prices you can get on them before you leave. An old, old ad I grew up with for a men's clothing store went "At Syms, an educated consumer is our best customer" and that's always struck me as something all consumers should take to heart. Educate yourself and you won't be susceptible to the "shell game" of island pricing.

Comments

[Ann]

Well, I don't know where you grew up, but Syms is still around and a boone as far as I am concerned. I grew up in NYC and shopped there all the time until I moved here to Baltimore twelve years ago. But, lo and behold, Syms opened up here about two years ago. It's a small one, but an educated consumer can do just fine. I was in there about a week ago where I got a very comfy pair of New Balance cross trainers for about $40.

My concern is being a more educated consumer in purchasing sterling findings, etc. I find that some of the earring findings, french hooks, whatever...are clearly of a lesser quality than others. I realize it is a buyer beware situation, but does anyone know of someone who is honest and reputable and sells a consistently good product? I am willing to pay for a good product -it isn't like I got a bargain on the lesser quality items.

I suppose much of this problem comes from being self taught and not being involved in a beading community here in Baltimore. I am trying to locate some classes to get involved in.

This actually brings me to another problem I could use some advice on. On another forum, I wrote to a jewelry designer telling her I admired her work. I also told her I thought that she'd thought up a great name for herself and that I wished I'd thought of it for myself(it would work for my name as well as it worked for hers), BUT that I was using my name for 5 or 6 years and liked my name and had no intention of changing it. I then went on to compliment her on the small sterling tags she had on each of her pieces. I explained that I had been trying to do the same thing on my pieces, but had not been able to figure out how to do so affordably. I asked her what her process for doing it was. Was this an absolute etiquette DONT? I didn't think it was - I explained that she seemed to have solved the problem I was struggling with. Did I do the wrong thing? I wasn't copying a design and I wasn't going to copy a logo - I just wanted to know if she stamped the tags herself or if she'd had a stamp made and where she'd gotten her tags. I wrote this to her about four days ago and have not gotten a reply, which is why I am so worried that I have offended her. Did I do the wrong thing? I guess I don't know what proper etiquette on these things is. So if someone could tell me what not to say - I would really appreciate it.
Ann
Three Strange Angels

[Laura Kramarsky]

Ann -

This is just my opinion, so take it for what it's worth. If the person is on a forum, chances are they are there because they get information and give information. If you were on their website and wrote to them as a stranger, I would say that it was a bad idea, but since you were both on the same forum, I'd say it's possible she either hasn't read your message or hasn't been able to find it again (if it's the about.com forum, I know I have not answered some posts there myself because I cannot figure out how to get back to them.)

Are you talking about paper tags, or the little silver ones? With paper tags, I know a lot of people print them up on their computers. Saves having the stamp made and you can adjust the size of your image if you want a really small one for one piece and a larger one for others. I got the stamp for my little sterling ones from Harper Manufacturing. Mine's VERY basic because I wanted the smallest possible tag. The more detail, the bigger the tag, the bigger the cost, etc.

For findings--wow, there are so many places! I think it would be a great idea for a post to have favorite wholesale/retail links. I get fancy earring findings from the discount part of Rishashay.com. Simple ones I get when I need to fill out an order from a company, so I get them from lots of places. Halstead comes to mind immediately, probably because they have a minimum so I end up buying stuff to flesh out my order!

Oh, and I grew up in NY, too. I just haven't seen a Syms ad in a while!

--Laura