[250r]

Let me start with "I'm a guy".... and holy cow! $15k on a ring!!! Anyways, I would just remove the diamond from the ring and get a new setting like you suggested. If you sold that you'd get a couple pennies on the dollar. Would she ever know that you gave that diamond to another before?

[dyermaker]

It was silly to spend 15,000 dollars on something thats true value is in the low hundreds.

If you were to take it back and downgrade it simply so that the, as SoleMate awesomely put it, "love vibes" were different--you'd only be being consistent with your silliness

[Stinkerbelle]

I would rather have no diamond at all, than one I knew my fiance had given to another woman.



(Luckily I didn't have to make that choice! )

[brashgal]

Keep the diamond, put it in a new setting. I think that is what makes the ring 'made for her'.

[SoleMate]

Just brainstorming alternatives...but are you sure that if you just TRADED the diamond to a dealer for one that was similar, you would have to take the same kind of price hit? Especially if you buy the setting from him?

Unless you got majorly ripped, or the diamond has wear, it just be tradeable for something close in price.

Don't lie to her about what you did with the stone. That's the coward's way out.

[tigerskye]

NO NO NO. BUY a NEW DIAMOND RING.

I am sorry but no woman wants to be reminded of her man's past. It is bad enough knowing that your man has been engaged or married before and having to hear about the ex. But even worse to have to wear something that was for her. Everytime she looks at the ring she will not think about you and the love she has for you but rather the other woman and how much you loved her. You want her to look at the ring and think oh my gosh he spent time and effort into picking out this ring for me and it is truely respects US. You need it to respect you and her not you and your ex!

If you TRUELY love the new woman you are with, you will spend even more time picking out her diamond ring. It is not about how much you spend on the ring(if you don't have the $15,000) but it about the moment, the thought, the care, and the love that goes into the ring.

I promise you, she would rather have a diamond that is cheaper but was picked out for her not someone esle. If you give her someone's esle ring you will only be setting yourself up for trouble!

BUY HER A NEW DIAMOND RING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[dyermaker]

Originally posted by tigerskye
Everytime she looks at the ring she will not think about you and the love she has for you but rather the other woman and how much you loved her.

Wow, this hypothetical her sounds pretty vain, are you sure she's marriage material?

If you TRUELY love the new woman you are with, you will spend even more time picking out her diamond ring. It is not about how much you spend on the ring(if you don't have the $15,000) but it about the moment, the thought, the care, and the love that goes into the ring.

He'd already be putting effort into finding the unique setting. Picking an actual stone doesn't take any effort at all--it's simply how much you can afford of the four C's--the unspoken 5th C being the X factor: Cash.

It's Christmas--Read this:

http://www.auburn.edu/~vestmon/Gift_of_the_Magi.html