In less than a month, my wife is turning one of those "round number" birthdays and I don't really know what I should get her, but I do have an idea that perhaps it is time that after almost 6 years, I complete the set of rings - where there is an engagement ring, weeding band (the small one pictured) and a similar one to commemorate the birth of our daughter. Yes - I should have done this a long time ago, but due to our daughter, I didn't have any spare money for such a useless artefact.
I don't have much more now, but if I don't do it soon, I never will.
Unfortunately, I cocked-up buying her engagement ring, which I designed and had made custom for her, because I chose to do it in platinum - which adds a fair amount to the price. Back then however, I was young, dumb and full of income, as there were far fewer financial obligations and I made the decision that since she doesn't wear gold jewellery, she would have better. My ring (the larger one pictured) is palladium, because when it comes to myself - I don't care.
In my city however, there aren't that many places that make rings and even fewer that will do it in platinum, as it is apparently harder to work with in comparison to gold, which adds price as for a decent result, it requires an experienced jeweller. Not only that, unlike gold, it can't be melted down and reused, so leftovers have to be collected and sent away for refining, adding more cost again. This means that in comparison to yellow gold, platinum is almost double the price.
Is it worth it?
That is a simple question to answer.
No. It is not.
The value of the ring is so low in stone and metal, but due to the work and the "sentiment" surrounding them, the markup is very high. However, that sentimental value is also why my wife will wear the ring and look after them and hopefully, she will have them for a long time to come and pass them to our daughter later. Again, the "street value" won't be much, but it is nice to have something that is passed down through the generations a bit.
For example, the diamond in the engagement ring has been taken out of one of my mother's rings. My sister inherited them, but was kind enough to donate one to me that I could have reset into the platinum ring. This is a tiny detail, but it makes for a story, so there is "value-added sentimentality" on top of it being an engagement ring. I think this means that with compounding, there is a sentiment multiplier effect in play, making it far more valuable again - not that anyone buying it would care though. This is the thing with sentiment, it is a supply and demand mechanism that increases price when present, or reduces when not.
So, this is the plan - and while it isn't a very good birthday present, it will also coincide "close enough" with the day I asked for her hand, which was on the 1st of May. I think this works. Of course and unfortunately, I cannot surprise her with this, as she will have to have it fitted, since there is effectively no way for me to accurately size the ring for a different part of her finger - so she already knows. But, I do think that at least this will be something she will keep long-term, unlike some of the presents that I have bought for her, which tend not to be "forever" kinds of gifts.
And, because it is one of those things, I think it isn't as bad spending some extra money on it so it matches well, and feels like quality. The engagement ring I had made was expensive AF, but the jeweller was not that great, meaning that the result wasn't as polished as I had hoped - but it took two months to order and I got it a couple days before I proposed, so there was nothing to be done. I have offered my wife to have it redone, but she is happy with it - I guess because Finns are generally not very jewellery savvy, so they end up appreciating crap - in my opinion.
Now, the only problem is to find a jeweller (and the money) to get it done and hope they can do it within the next month, otherwise it is not going to be on time and, that will mean getting something else instead, as she has to have something on the day for such an occasion, if only so when people ask, she doesn't have to get those sorry looks from her friends for having such a useless husband.
So far - none of the potential jewellers are open on Saturday.
Brilliant....
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
