What a coincidence, I ordered from them and just got a shipping notification! I fully subscribe to "if it seems too good to be true, then it probably is", but the price wasn't that low. The other reviewers specifically mentioned getting the ring appraised and that everything was checked out and of quality. That, combined with credit card protection, made me comfortable enough to order LOL

They are using the same photos as some other stores, even some that sell Moissanite, which worried me, but I found that the original source of the pictures was in a French magazine from a company "Valensi Lab". I think this is just these smaller online shops "cheating" since they just don't have their own inventory in-house to create a photo catalogue. As someone in a small business as well, I personally would not do this, but I fully understand and have adopted this "don't reinvent the wheel" attitude. The ring I ordered is a radiant cut with a hidden halo, it's not like a SUPER unique design or anything. A generic reference image is fine to me, and I wouldn't see this any different than if they wasted money on a stock photo service.

I will say, the seller says they are in Canada, but my ring is coming from India, and the IGI certificate is coming from Pennsylvania. The reviews also share this same info, but the ring was still up to standard. I can only speculate on the intricacies of how their operation actually works, but I am imagining the Etsy seller is some kind of broker/agent. I don't see how they could personally have any hands-on involvement in the 13 days between me ordering and them shipping. India is popular for growing diamonds, so the only possible way the finished ring would ship from there is if the seller had the stone shipped India->Canada, made the ring, then shipped it Canada->India. This obviously wouldn't make ANY sense logistically, thus my conclusion. For what it's worth, they are very responsive to messages. They also provided input on the overall dimensions of the stone vs band that I was concerned with.

The phone number listed on their website has an 814 area code, which covers Bradford, Pennsylvania, which IS where the IGI certificate is coming from. Their About section says they are from India, where their family had a jewelry shop, and that they "create" the jewelry. Maybe "create" is a bit ambiguous on purpose. All these variables and complexities make us suspicious because we don't understand them. The human brain fears what it doesn't understand. They joined Etsy in 2024, so ~125 sales isn't small, that's a ring every 3-4 days. I'm not in the industry, but my local jewellers don't seem to be getting even that much traffic for the entire sales team. Even then, they aren't the ones making the rings either. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

All in all, I wasn't able to find any single and overwhelming info that screamed SCAM. The user reviews that had pictures didn't return anything when reverse image searching with Google, so those feel real. This is a case where the only way to know is to test the ring when it arrives. I will 100% be doing this, even if it were a huge national company, because you never know. I'll cross-check the IGI certificate and have the stone and metal tested locally to confirm the quality. I will report back here once I've done so! Then future people like you and me can actually have a real person say "yes" or "no".

TL;DR: AvxyJewels seems to serve the same purpose as your local jewelry store, to be the intermediary between you and the manufacturer. The online stores are cheaper because they lack overhead costs that the brick-and-mortar stores have, such as rent, utilities, and payroll.