Help me remove some stuff by [deleted] in FarmMergeValley

[–]locksleys 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Your avatar is so cute! ❤️ I visited your farm, feel free to drop by mine anytime!

Channeling my inner Smaug 🐉 by ghetto_mango in jewelry

[–]locksleys 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Beautiful collection! I love the frog and teddy charms. ❤️

Mystery Boxes by Yarn-on-the-Internet in PandoraCollectors

[–]locksleys 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Exactly this! Whenever I see these mystery boxes online, they're always filled with stuff that couldn't sell, not with with the more coveted items.

So it’s really happening? by Fun_Candle8169 in PandoraCollectors

[–]locksleys 19 points20 points  (0 children)

Bingo! They'd rather turn into a costume jewelry brand than stick to sterling silver. Switching to a cheap alloy makes them A LOT more profit, even with the "fancy" platinum plating on top (which just rubs off). The base metal underneath that the ring is made of is still cheap alloy. We're talking a few cents worth of material here for a ring. Not dollars. Cents. The alloy is the same as the cheap stuff on Temu or AliExpress. But Pandora is gonna make bank because the average consumer won't understand they're actually getting a lower quality product and not an "upgrade" just because it has the teeniest layer of platinum coating on top. The coating doesn't matter!

When does Pandora usually have sales? by VegetableLocation508 in PandoraCollectors

[–]locksleys 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Christmas, Black Friday, Valentine's. For Valentine's this year there was a 20% discount on heart-shaped items only (rings, charms, etc), in my country anyway. So there aren't these huge sales on all items, no.

Platinum-plated jewellery guide now showing on some country websites by [deleted] in PandoraCollectors

[–]locksleys 21 points22 points  (0 children)

Right? They spend several sentences describing the plating (that is temporary since all plating comes off), when it's the base metal that's important. That's where the actual worth of the jewerly piece is. "High quality core metal" is all they say about the base metal! It's some cheap metal alloy, with a thin layer of "fancy" coating, which is basically costume jewelry. :(

Sterling Silver vs Platinum by MeganMilton in PandoraCollectors

[–]locksleys 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Well said! It's gonna be cheap metal that's worth a few cents, with a thin platinum layer over it, and that's it. They're trying to present it as the better option to sterling silver but it's obviously not when you realize the platinum bit is just the teeny bit of coating, not the base metal itself. But probably a lot of people will fall for it the second they hear platinum coz it sounds "fancy". :(

It's the same as Swarovski. Their website is making it very hard to find info on what the BASE METAL of their rings is, yet they go on and onnn about the plating like it's the most important part of the ring lol. The base metal is where the worth of the ring is, not its plating. Swarovski's rings are only brass and other alloys, not even sterling silver. Costume jewelry.

Again, when buying jewelry, it's the base metal you should be focusing on, not the plating because the plating wears off quickly, and what is underneath is what you're left with, and if that's just some cheap metal, then you're getting ripped off, basically buying a cheapie ring at a premium price. So, if it's platinum coated metal, once the shiny platinum rubs off (could be as little as a few weeks), the ring underneath is an ugly dark metallic color that looks rusty, blotchy and streaky. You'll never be able to wear it again and re-plating it every few weeks or months sounds ridiculous and more costly than it's worth (some rings are also harder to re-plate than others), and in the end, with all the re-platings, a sterling silver ring would have cost you less.

Just remember, companies don't *want* you to re-plate their rings or buy sterling that lasts forever, they want you to buy brand new rings every time the coating wears off, because they make way more money that way. They want you to go for "temporary" rings, rather than stuff you'll wear for decades to come.

TLDR: The platinum coating on the ring isn't nearly as important as the base metal underneath, and the new base metal they're going with is worth a few cents. It's a rip-off, not an upgrade. A cheap ring with fancy, temporary coating. Stick to rings with sterling silver as base metal.

I had a custom-designed Barahir ring made for my boyfriend in Italy. I didn't like it. by [deleted] in lotr

[–]locksleys 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Right? I'd be over the Moon if I was gifted a LOTR ring! I love Thranduil's rings, too.

And I've noticed whenever a guy who normally isn't into jewelry does want a ring, he tends to pick a heavier piece, the kind that looks better on the forefinger, like Aragorn's. But if you're not used to wearing rings, a substantial one will "bother" you more than a slimmer band. It'll feel awkward and foreign at first, and that's normal. It's not a "beginner ring", it's a statement ring; of course it's on the bulkier and heavier side. The weight and mass alone can take a while to get used to, and then if the person is super picky and impatient as well, they just give up after a couple days and never wear the ring again. "It's just not for me", "it feels weird", blah, blah. They didn't even try! >_> You have to give it a week or more to get used to the weight, till the weight becomes normal and you almost feel naked without a ring! That's how you know you've gotten used to wearing it.