Pocket Watches,Clocks,Rings,Necklaces,Jewelry Boxes etc…

Most of us can agree that it doesn’t take an abundance of wealth to buy fashion jewelry. There is something about fashion jewelry that allows all of us to look good and feel good without having to break the bank. The unique advantage of buying fashion jewelry is that you can actually buy several jewelry pieces for every outfit you wear for a small investment. But if you are buying fine jewelry from Tiffany or Cartier, you might get away with one or two pieces for the same price it would cost for 30 or 40 fashion jewelry items.

The other unique things I see in fashion jewelry is that it is worn by the lower, middle, and upper class. It does not discriminate because it is affordable and available everywhere. Next time you walk into Ross, Marshalls, TJ Maxx, or Kohl’s you will find a whole section of the store related to fashion jewelry. And yes, there are a few expensive jewelry pieces. But for the most part, you can get nice fashion jewelry for small potatoes in relation to fine jewelry.

But don’t mistake buying fashion jewelry for being cheap. Yes, money plays a part in it, but you also have to look good and be able to coordinate your fashion jewelry with your wardrobe or it is a waste of money (even if it’s cheap). I think that it takes more creativity and style to shop for fashion jewelry then it does to shop for fine jewelry. If you have the money and the riches, you can look great wearing a pair of two-carat diamond earrings. But what if you don’t have the $40,000 to spend on a pair of diamond earrings? Do you have the imagination, knowledge, and smarts to find a great set of earrings, a bracelet, and a necklace to match your outfit for the evening? That takes style to pull off!

There is something about the word “crafty” that makes me uncomfortable about the wholesale jewelry business. In fact, wholesale jewelry in general is supposed to be just like any other honest business. But unfortunately, the reality is that the wholesale jewelry business can be full of fraud and deceit. I am not trying to be negative about the wholesale jewelry business. In fact, I could be talking about any type of business. But the reason I want to bring your attention to the wholesale jewelry business is because some of the “fake” product is actually meant to be fake. Take costume jewelry, for example. If you were to walk into Cartier or Tiffany and spotted a costume jewelry piece, you may cry “foul” over such a thing. But what if you walked into the mall and checked out a jewelry kiosk that was selling discounted costume jewelry for less than $5.00 per piece. Would you think that the owner of the kiosk was dishonest? Probably not.

So the issue is not as much about the wholesale jewelry product as it is about the disclosure of the seller. If you tell someone your product is fake and you let them decide whether they want to buy, then you are going to be OK. But if you tell them the product is genuine, only for them to find out it is fake, you are in trouble!

For example, Claire’s wholesale jewelry company (not a real company) is selling 10,000 wholesale jewelry pieces to Bob the retailer (Bob is also an alias) at a price that is way cheaper than the competition. All the jewelry is labeled and everything seems OK from the first glance. The only problem is that Claire told the retailer that she purchased the wholesale jewelry at a steep discount from another wholesaler who was going out of business. The truth of the matter was that Claire had actually purchased the wholesale jewelry from a sweat shop in India who had just been caught by the authorities. So Claire was not selling the retailer any defective jewelry, but she was being dishonest about the source. If the local public were to find out that Bob the retailer was selling “sweat shop” jewelry, the bad publicity alone could drive him out of business. So the lesson to the retailer is to work with a trusted source and know your merchandise. Although Claire was dishonest, Bob is ultimately responsible for the merchandise he sells to the public.

Have you ever been to see a movie and notice the jewelry worn by the actors and actresses? There are so many facets of making a movie but one of the underrated duties is the internal promotion. Yes we have all seen the scenes where they show the Apple logo or the Cheerios box. And most of us notice the Starbucks coffee and the corner bookstore known as Borders. But how many of us have looked at the jewelry worn and noticed who supplied the goods? Is it Tiffany’s or Cartier or Saks? The truth of the matter is that nobody knows unless the executive producer is able to be creative. The way the producer can be creative is by having a scene that shows the name of a jewelry store or department store. Although the silver earrings worn by the actress does not have a label, the store that the actress walked through does.

Another place that the executive producer can give credit to the jeweler is in the ending credits. If you wait long enough to see all the credits (something most people don’t do), you will often see credit given to the provider of the jewelry. Believe it or not, all the jewelry worn during the filming of the movie is borrowed or donated for publicity. Again, it is almost impossible to identify which jeweler provided the silver earrings just by looking at the ears of the actress. But if the jeweler is paying for promotional space in the movie, you better believe that they want their products and name to be visible.

So next time you go see a movie with your friends or family, take a look to see if you can spot all the companies promoting their products. And make no mistake, every major brand you see is there on purpose and not my accident.