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oregonjoy
Joined: 14 Nov 2006
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 Posted: Sun Aug 19, 2007 11:14 pm Post subject: Advice on shopping at Hamilton Hotel |
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Hi folks,
Please forgive my ignorance or lack of trust on this, but I may buy a nice ring for my friend at a jewelry store at the Hamilton Hotel in Itaewon.
Can I trust the price the clerk, owner is quoting me? Do I need to have the ring examined by another party. Or am I being paranoid? I assume they wouldn't have business space in there if they weren't trustworthy.
It's not a huge purchase, maybe $1,000 US dollars, but I just wondered if I could get a little guidance on this. Should I buy something online? Or does someone have a strong recommendation on where to go in Seoul for a good value on a ring purchase?
Thanks for reading my boring post!
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Yaya
Joined: 25 Feb 2003
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Sun Aug 19, 2007 11:22 pm Post subject: |
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| Don't buy jewelry in Korea, more often than not, it's fake OR not as advertised (as in a lower karat count). |
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Dev
Joined: 18 Apr 2006
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| Posted: Sun Aug 19, 2007 11:23 pm Post subject: |
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Go shopping with a Korean.
I don't know if all of the sellers at the Hamilton Hotel are like this, but the woman selling dress shirts on the top floor there kept lowering the price of a shirt I really didn't want to buy. She started at 40,000 won and by the time I left has dropped it to 15,000 won.
I didn't buy the shirt and she wasn't very happy about that. But I was just killing time window shopping.
That said, generally you should expect a 20% discount on any price quoted to you in Korea. |
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Jeweltone
Joined: 29 Mar 2005
Location: Seoul, S. Korea
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| Posted: Mon Aug 20, 2007 1:04 am Post subject: |
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Jogno-3ga is the place to go jewelry shopping. It is internationally famous (I know a Pebble Beach jeweler who can verify this). They sell wholesale, so the prices are a bit lower.
Edit: typo
Last edited by Jeweltone on Tue Aug 21, 2007 3:21 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Yaya
Joined: 25 Feb 2003
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Mon Aug 20, 2007 6:43 pm Post subject: |
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| Jeweltone wrote: |
| Jogno-3ga is the place to go jewelry shopping. It is internationally famous (I know a Pebble Beach jeweler who can verify this). They sell wholesale, so the pirces are a bit lower. |
But many lie about the actual karats or other details of the jewels and other valuables they sell. They charge high prices, and you can often be insecure if you got a deal or a dud. |
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Yesterday
Joined: 15 Aug 2003
Location: Land of the Morning DongChim (Kancho)
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| Posted: Tue Aug 21, 2007 2:36 am Post subject: |
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| Yaya wrote: |
| Don't buy jewelry in Korea, more often than not, it's fake OR not as advertised (as in a lower karat count). |
Yes - DO NOT TRUST THEM....
I wanted to buy an engagement ring 5 years ago for my korean gf...
went to the "apparently" best, most prestigious jewellery shop in my district - picked out a 1.5 million won ring.... it was "apparently" all gold and had many small diamonds...
the jewellers "promised" me that the diamond ring was very good and very good diamonds....
later on after 6 months the gf had it appraised and found out that the diamonds were very, very low quality...
and the ring was only valued at about 200,000 won |
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kermo
Joined: 01 Sep 2004
Location: Eating eggs, with a comb, out of a shoe.
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| Posted: Tue Aug 21, 2007 2:47 am Post subject: |
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| Jeweltone wrote: |
| Jogno-3ga is the place to go jewelry shopping. It is internationally famous (I know a Pebble Beach jeweler who can verify this). They sell wholesale, so the pirces are a bit lower. |
I agree. There's way more selection, and if you want leverage for haggling, you can play one merchant against another. Hamilton Hotel market is for suckers. |
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Jeweltone
Joined: 29 Mar 2005
Location: Seoul, S. Korea
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| Posted: Tue Aug 21, 2007 3:20 am Post subject: |
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Like all things, it depends on the dealer. I know what to look for (majored in theatrical costume design), but even I don't trust all dealers.
I can say that the woman in the basement of the Hamilton who sells amethysts is fair; they are not super high quality, but they are better than average.
The ones around the Jogno-3ga station itself are English friendly, and are willing to haggle, but make sure you examine everything closely before buying. As anything in Korea. |
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mikekim
Joined: 11 Aug 2006
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| Posted: Tue Aug 21, 2007 7:51 pm Post subject: |
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| Korean jewelry = do not buy. EVAR. |
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