Cheap jewelry isn’t necessarily bad, and if you shop smart, you will find that you spend less on the jewelry but also end up with good quality jewelry varieties.
But to be able to buy high-quality yet cheap jewelry, we recommend that you read this article.
Here, we’ll be sharing insights and tricks to help you save on jewelry by buying cheap but good jewelry options.
Useful tips for buying cheap jewelry
So, if you are looking for cheap jewelry, this article is just for you. Here, we’ll be sharing important insights into everything you need to know when buying cheap jewelry, especially because you need to be realistic – you’re buying cheap jewelry, and you shouldn’t expect the very best of gemstones and precious metals from the cheap jewelry.
That said, here are some of the things you need to know about the cheap jewelry you are looking for.
1.Understand what cheap jewelry means in terms of the quality of the pieces
If you are thinking about buying jewelry, the first thing to bear in mind is that most often, cheap jewelry is made up of some of the cheapest kinds of jewelry metals, which means that if you’ve ever wondered where the low-quality pieces of jewelry options go to, the answer is the cheap jewelry you’re looking to buy.
The low-quality pieces of jewelry cost less, and cheap jewelry with gemstones is often made of replicas or imitations that are made of very low-quality materials. So, in as much as they look great when you first buy them, these kinds of jewelry always end up disappointing you.
So, if you are still interested in buying cheap gemstone jewelry, you should be aware of the risk you are taking and the fact that the jewelry will not last as long as you hoped it would.
If you don’t want to waste your money, check the color profile of the gemstones – the cheaper varieties tend to have an inferior color quality, and they are also bumped easily. The gemstones also break apart quite easily, and you can knock them off rather easily.
2.Cheap jewelry is almost always imitation jewelry.
In other words, if you are buying cheap jewelry, you may want to beware of the risk of the jewelry being made of cheap materials that would break apart easily.
Unfortunately, this wouldn’t be obvious to the naked eye, but you can always tell when you have bought an imitation diamond piece if the jewelry is cheap.
You may be excited about the cheap jewelry and not burst your bubble, but genuine diamond jewelry is pricey.
If you are not sure about the jewelry being fake, first look up the prices of the diamond jewelry online, preferably the prices quoted by the bigger diamond jewelry brands such as Blue Nile. Like anything else, doing your due diligence is important in making sure that you are buying an authentic piece or maybe even a fake.
In other words, you shouldn’t let your excitement over low jewelry prices blind you into buying poor-quality jewelry options.
3.Most of the time, cheap jewelry will feature shaky, poor-quality prongs.
Since prongs are always the features that make up the backbone of the strongest rings, you should look at the prong settings to determine if it’s worth the high price tag.
When shopping for cheap jewelry, take time to look at the prong settings and never sacrifice on such nitty gritty.
Most of the cheapest jewelry options will feature poor quality and weak prongs, which also means that the cheap pieces would be damaged rather easily.
4.Most cheap jewelry is made of lower karat gold.
If you have been on the market shopping for cheap and relatively good-quality jewelry, you may have come across some ridiculously low-priced pieces of jewelry.
Although such pieces may not be specifically the worst in terms of the quality of the jewelry, they could be crafted out of lower karat gold and not 14 or 18k gold as the seller may have purported.
In such cases, the jewelry will be cheaper than you’d otherwise expect. Note that in the US, for example, gold jewelry sold as high-end solid gold jewelry pieces must be 10K or higher, but in some cases, there is lower karat gold, which means lower pricing.
That said, if you are interested in high-quality jewelry that will not result in any allergies, you may want to stick to the 14k and the 18k gold jewelry.
5.Cheap jewelry could be made of hazardous ingredients
If you are looking for the cheapest jewelry on the market, you should be aware of the risks associated with some of the metals incorporated, for example, lead. Lead is an unsafe metal that is associated with long-term illnesses, and you’d want to make sure that the cheap jewelry is lead-free.
Besides lead, the other materials that you should be wary of are cadmium and nickel. Nickel increases your risk of contact dermatitis, which would result in excessive itching and scarring on the skin. On the other hand, cadmium is very toxic to your kidneys, with cadmium poisoning associated with kidney failure or kidney disease.
Unfortunately, most of the cheap jewelry around will have high cadmium levels that would result in kidney failure, often in the medium-term.
It’s also worth noting that cadmium is carcinogenic, and it may result in a higher risk of cancer, among other chronic illnesses.
So, if you are thinking about buying the cheapest jewelry options, you should be aware of the hazardous materials that may be present in the jewelry.
6.Cheap jewelry could be toxic.
When looking for cheap jewelry, you also need to think about the negative implications that the jewelry may have. No cheap jewelry is ever worth your health.
So, if the jewelry manufacturer doesn’t specify that the jewelry is free of toxic materials, you should avoid such jewelry.
The other features to look out for in cheap jewelry include:
7.A thin, flimsy band
The first giveaway for cheap jewelry is how the jewelry is made. In most cases, you will be able to tell whether the jewelry you are buying is cheap or not by looking at the band.
If it’s made of a thin, flimsy band, then it is not worth your money. You can check this by gently squeezing it, just to make sure that it is not too thin or too flimsy.
The other thing you need to keep in mind is the fact that cheap jewelry often has a thin shank (the round part of the ring’s body).
This is a good tell-tale sign of a cheap ring because it would mean that the jewelers were trying to economize on the number of materials, and the shank would, therefore, be too thin and fragile. It may even break.
8.Super bright and shiny metals
This is the other sign of cheap and poor-quality jewelry that you should not bother with. If metal is too shiny or bright and it looks too good to be true, you might want to avoid it altogether.
9.The jewelry turns your skin green.
This is a common feature of cheap jewelry. Unfortunately, you won’t notice this instantly since the green discoloration on the skin would only happen after the plated layer wears out.
Conclusion
If you are planning to buy jewelry at a lower cost but you are not sure what to look out for or how to determine if the ring is worth your money, you may want to look at the features above.
Read more useful tips here or here!
Tiger is a fashion&jewelry lover. He is also a fashion jewelry manufacturer that help thousands of small business to grow and also do business with some big fashion jewelry brands. He is a truly metal expert and he will share some information you are looking for.