Would you buy a $114,000 diamond ring online?
As people get more comfortable with ecommerce, some high-end shoppers are turning to the web to make their expensive purchase according to this Wall Street Journal story (subscription required):
According to J.D. Power & Associates, only 4% of the approximately 17 million new cars sold last year and 6% of the about 15 million late-model used cars were bought online. (J.D. Power doesn't track models older than six years)....Even those numbers are a bit misleading. "Buying online" in the automobile market refers to picking out a car and negotiating a price before going to a dealership to get the car...
"The sky's the limit," says John Baird, spokesman for Blue Nile. The most expensive diamond on the site is a 12.9 carat for $500,000; the priciest ring ever sold was an emerald cut diamond ring for $114,000. The man who bought it also purchased a similar ring for $85,000, but after proposing, let his fiancee choose which one she wanted to keep. (The most expensive item ever sold was a five-carat heart-shaped diamond solitaire set in a pendant, for $183,000.)