Here’s a clever ad that is being featured in Playbill at Baltimore’s Hippodrome Theater right across the street. We figured that the show Stomp would be the perfect venue for this “Sell Your Jewelry” ad. A big thumbs up to David and Garth for a job well done!
Snowed - but open!
Boy did we get snowed this week! As soon as we had gotten ourselves out from under the first blast, Tuesday comes and hits us again. We even had to close on Wednesday and last Saturday! The Baltimore Business Journal was not above noticing the adverse effect this may have on businesses, including ourselves:
Ron Samuelson, owner of Samuelson’s Diamonds in Baltimore, said shoppers are maxed out after Christmas shopping already, and doesn’t expect to gain a lot of Valentine’s Day business. Samuelson recalled the weekend in December before Christmas Day, when snow hurt retailers looking to gain from the last-minute shopper.
“Now it’s a double whammy, and downtown is pretty bad,” Samuelson said. His West Baltimore Street store was closed Wednesday.
Last Saturday was the first day Samuelson had ever closed the store, he said.
Undaunted, though, we’re back! And our Fans on Facebook may have heard:
we’re open for business. the main roads are fine so come on down and say hi, free beer and MAJOR discounts if you do!
We’re just sayin’ – if you’re in the ‘hood, don’t be shy. And if you’re not in the neighborhood, there’s really not much else to do once you’re done digging out.
The last time this happened we were trying to have a party:
I guess we learned our lesson! For the most entertainment-per-minute you’ll ever get in a weather report, check this local forecast out (you won’t be disappointed.)
And remember not to buy *absolutely* every carton of milk and loaf of bread in the store, people – we’re going to be under for a max of 2, 3 days (if that) and really, we both know you go to the store only maybe twice a week. Just buy the normal amount.
Then again, if some people really are going to hibernate we’re not here to judge.
If you are not familiar with INSTORE magazine (if you don’t work in retail you might 
not be) it’s the fastest growing jewelry trade magazine, and the Smart Jewelry Show is its super-sized progeny. Featuring some of the biggest names in the biz such as Matt Stuller, the show ranges from topics that interest retailers, owners and vendors, to those focused on people who make jewelry by hand.
All of this is to let you know that our own Ron Samuelson will be speaking at the Monday Pre-Show Conference in an exciting session called “Social Media – Myth or Miracle?“. Smart Jewelry Show is scheduled for four days from the 23rd of April to the 26th, and Ron will be speaking the morning of the 26th.
More details to come!
For years now, newspapers have been trying to figure out how to finance news journalism in the internet age. Or, as it is more commonly put, “get people to pay for news online.” For a time, it seemed like micropayments would be the solution, but the profitability of online payment transactions relies on the rule of fewer transactions, larger amounts. It is far easier to move a one-hundred dollar bill than ten thousand pennies.
But beneath it all there was a deeper issue; we have been trained on the internet to search for news, and search algorithms rely on spiders, or automated or robotic browsers, to follow links and search content. Paid content may sit behind a wall, disallowing both robots and humans from finding it. The converse is that which is searchable is accessible.
Then there is the issue of what the subscribers do with the information. In traditional print, there was some limited oversight in reprinting and republishing and redistribution, mostly because of the cost and effort required of such things. On the internet, you can go to the public library, log in, and start a blog on blogger and publish to the world. Even before this, it was fairly inexpensive to get your name out there, with a bit of know-how.
This all adds up to the concept that if you do not offer the news that you may have paid to compile or write for free, someone else will. Indeed, early on some savvy writers such as Drudge took advantage of free distribution to gain immense popularity while newspapers were still struggling to figure out what the internet was, much less how to maintain their current business through the changes it would impose.
The New York Times has suffered no less than any from this unwelcome disruption, and their recent actions show that they are still trying to figure things out:
The news that The New York Times will start charging for access to its website broke over the weekend, but now it’s officially confirmed. As anticipated, one of the world’s most recognizable newspapers will be introducing a metered model, meaning they will “offer users free access to a set number of articles per month and then charge users once they exceed that number.”
There are various comments, both by the author and by his commenters regarding the situation. It is always a touchy subject. Some like to get their news for free, and would never pay for it. Others see the ebook tablet – Kindle and so forth – as a possible route for rescue of the newspapers.
Either way, the internet offers no help; the information on the internet is in practice not free to produce or distribute (there used to be time and rate limits on internet, if you can remember back that far…!) but the scale of the internet combined with the ubiquity of computers distributes that cost. If it had come around 50 years ago out of the blue, the $500-$1000 for a computer alone would be enough prevent illusions of it being free of cost. Those of us who grew up with computers had our first use for ‘free’ as it were; with our parents or guardians paying for both computer and internet access.
The way I see it, if we set up a system to reliably pay for journalism, we prevent two things: The first is invasive and pervasive advertising, and the second is outright begging. It’s a cultural thing. Will my generation adapt?
We Love Big Diamonds!
We want to give a special shout out to all of our Washington DC customers from here in Ravensland. We went down there last week and bought some great jewelry.
People were also selling a lot of gold coins (like Krugerrands), silver flatware (Gorham, Steiff, and my favorite silver pattern Kirk Old Maryland Engraved.)
And diamonds…yeah we bought some big ones! Rounds, cushion cuts, princess cuts and everything in between.
Now it’s time to get those diamonds re-cut to “Samuelson’s Diamonds Proportions” and make them the brightest and best diamonds on earth! If you are in Baltimore or Washington DC and want to sell your diamonds, silver or gold, give us a holler and we will be happy to take a look at your jewelry!
We love selling engagement rings and hearing about the unique ways our customers propose. What makes this one even more special is that these customers are personal friends of mine. After Jon made the move I got this text:
The deed was done on a one horse open sleigh ride in Stowe, Vermont. It was snowing and beautiful. Thanks so much. She LOVES the ring.
And then Megan sent over these great pictures with a note:
Ron – I just wanted to say thank you for helping Jon put together such a beautiful engagement ring for me! He proposed to me yesterday on a horse-drawn snowy sleigh ride through the Vermont forest.
This is why I love my job. Congrats to my good friends Jon and Megan! Wishing you many years of health and happiness!
In case you hadn’t noticed, with the last redesign our Testimonials section is no longer in the main menu. This doesn’t mean we have lost the feature, but it now has moved to the left side of most pages. If you click the testimonial you’ll see the updated list of testimonials – which of course, are updated as frequently as we get them.
We’ve been doing a lot of good work selling engagement rings lately, right here in Baltimore (people don’t mind driving in from Washington DC or the rest of Maryland, either) and it seems that our customers have been noticing! Here are just a few of people’s most recent comments about our services:
I just wanted to let you know how much I appreciate the help and diamond knowledge you shared with me Ron. Being a first time engagement ring purchaser at 46 years of age I was lost! Not only did I get exactly what I wanted by deciding the diamond and setting separately but I made the love of my life happy!!! Thanks Ron.
Brian
Dear Ron,
You guys seem to have a great group of people working there in the store. I do like the casual (non stuck up) type of people to work with when shopping. Was an easy trip up and easy trip back….yes, looking forward to receiving the diamond ring on Tuesday.
Thank you now,
Gary
Hi Ron,
The diamond arrived mid-morning. Hope to get to my jeweler’s tomorrow to have set. It is beautiful and to my eyes a great match for the other stone. Thank you for being so professional in doing the deal with me. I will be contacting you soon because another close friend wants me to pick out a larger diamond for them.
Bobbie
Hi Steve,
I just wanted to drop you a quick note to thank you for dropping the ring off to Myra. Time has been at a premium and your willingness to bring my wedding band this way was a great help.
Thank you. Best wishes for the New Year!Stan
(For more customer comments, click here…)
Thanks to our customers for being so generous with their praise! We hope to keep giving you the best service for many years to come!
If you’ve bought your diamond engagement ring (or other jewelry) from us, please comment because we’d love to hear from you!
No formal connections to Twitter (as far as we know.)
I like to pay attention (with one eye at least) to the happenings in the social media world, since it is likely our success on the web going forward will involve more and more of it.
It is somewhat amusing to see the ‘new media’s equivalent of the Oscars, the Pulitzer and so forth – as it more often than not serves as a promotional tool for itself! As an outsider of course I find this intriguing, but it also makes sense from their perspective to do so.
So on to the meat here. We have the ‘most influential people on Twitter’ – and the irony of the day is Mashable reporting that their own Pete Cashmore is regarded as #1:
Along those lines, INQ Mobile has just released their 2009 Twitter (Twitter) influence study, determining the most influential Twitter users in both the UK and the world. The winner? Not Oprah, not Ashton and not Diddy, but Mashable (Mashable)’s founder and CEO Pete Cashmore!
I’d offer congrats, but then, the way social media works he has probably seen too many congratulations already to read them.
An interesting fact here is that I was not surprised in the least by this, and not because of a kind of general theory about being a media person on Twitter and thus producing a lot of tweetable content, but on this simple fact. I actually follow Cashmore.
Generally speaking, I do not follow people who have a lot of followers or who follow a lot of people (10000+) as I have no interest in shouting for attention among thousands, and I certainly have little interest in gossip or self-help. Social climbing is not for me either (you can see I have few that I follow!)
But I followed Cashmore, mostly because of three things (that I can recall.) 1. He seemed like he was really there using the account. 2. He was active. 3. He offered things I was interested in, that were if not completely unique or original represented some kind of genuine work; a collection of stories and opinions which reflect Mashable’s take on things.
Many who are out there for ‘twitter success’ seem more like they’ve randomly grabbed stuff to put up; there’s no story to the stories. All chatter, no thought.
And I tend to think that this difference itself is Cashmore’s X-factor.
We love to hear engagement stories and proposal ideas. It’s what makes our job so gratifying. Sometimes, we sell a ring and never hear about it again. Other times, we hear how much our customers love their diamond.
And every once in awhile, we get a story like this:
Hi Ron,
I proposed to my girlfriend on Sunday the 8th, and she said yes without hesitation! We went out on a mountain bike ride at Patapsco Valley State Park, down near Elkridge. Took her up to the scenic outlook at Buzzards Rock, and asked her there. And of course, she loves the ring.
Dan included some pictures he’d taken of the event on flickr. We asked him if we could use them and he said:
You can use them on your Facebook or blog posts, just don’t edit them in any way other than resizing. Oh, and her name is Christy, just FYI. Thanks.
Dan
So without further ado we present the photos, unedited as Dan asked.
 Nice Stone! |
 Let’s give them a hand! |
Congratulations to Dan and Christy! We wish the best for them and their future marriage! Please comment and share your proposal story. Click here to see some more on our facebook diamonds fan page!
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