Samuelson's Diamonds Diamond Search

Our new Build-a-Ring option was featured in Baltimore Magazine’s 31 days of giving.

This new feature allows you build your ring from scratch choosing your diamond and setting!  Better yet, your new engagement ring can often be delivered in under two weeks!  With the new diamond search, you can choose from over 6,000 diamonds using criteria such as cut, clarity, color, carat, and price.

To see the write-up in Baltimore Magazine please click here.

To get started building your very own engagement ring please click here!

Mmmmm....Asian Chicken Salad and French Onion Soup

Ron Samuelson said that the company is in talks with PNC Bank, Five Guys Burgers and Fries, Panera Bread and “other major retailers” to come to the site as tenants…

Well, it’s been over two years but we kept our promise. Now we welcome Panera Bread to the block as our neighbors and tenants.

Everyone loves Panera. Some of my favorite menu items are the French onion soup, Asian chicken salad and the oatmeal raisin cookies…and I can’t wait to find some more!

Here's Panera, we are to the right - click to enlarge

We’ve known about this for a few weeks and kept it on the DL, but when The Baltimore Business Journal came out with this article, we wanted to give you something fun to read. They also didn’t mention that Panera was moving next to a 90 year old institution in Baltimore, so if they’re not going to mention us, we are!

We are right next door, and we all know that people who love gourmet coffee and Asiago bagels LOVE DIAMONDS!!!

Click here to see our May 2009 blog post/press release about it. A nice pic of David and me in front of our store with a sign – “coming soon”.

One very important aspect of our business is buying diamonds, gold and silver from the public. We have a very discrete office setting in Chevy Chase, MD where you can sell your jewelry. Regardless of whether or not you decide to sell your items to us we believe strongly in education, as it is one of the most powerful tools for any consumer. Recently, we received this thank you from a client that visited us in Chevy Chase.

I had the opportunity to meet Paul this afternoon and sell two 14k gold pieces. It was a wonderful experience and he was extremely courteous and knowledgeable. He explained many facts about metals and diamonds that I never knew about. The entire appointment was very pleasant and I will now highly recommend Samuelson’s to all my friends!

We love hearing when our customers are having such positive experiences. However, the reason we are sharing this experience with you is to highlight how our family owned and operated business has survived for 90 years. We take a lot of pride in educating our customers. To be honest, we want to close the sale as much as anyone else but we want you to leave with an education as well.  Whether you are buying jewelry or selling jewelry in either of our locations, this is the type of service our customers can expect.

This is the very first time we’ve had a second location in the history of Samuelson’s. We have so
many customers that sell diamonds, gold, silver and jewelry to us all the way from Washington
DC and Northern Virginia, that we had to make it easier. We’ve had such great success with our
DC friends that this is a natural fit for us and we’re beyond excited about this move.

So please contact us for an appointment and come check out the new digs. There is a lot to do in
our new neighborhood – great bars and restaurants – and with Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Ave
and even Chico’s (for you Mom) all in the area, you will be sure to get some shopping done as
well.

Please CLICK HERE TO MAKE AN APPOINTMENT AT OUR DC OFFICE.

Diamond Fans Unite on Facebook – thanks to a Baltimore Jeweler

One of the most popular destinations on Facebook with ties

DiamondFans

to Baltimore isn’t connected to a sports team or a national brand, but to a downtown jewelry shop.

Ron Samuelson, of Samuelson’s Diamonds on West Baltimore Street, operates the “Diamond Fans” page on Facebook, which recently surpassed more than 500,000 fans and is now the largest jewelry page on the social media site…

Samuelson claimed the “Diamond Fans” page about 2 1/2 years ago, and he has been diligently updating it with photos and links to news, facts and trends in the world of diamonds. He does occasional promotions through the page for products for sale at his Baltimore store — but pushing advertising about his business isn’t the main purpose of the page, he said.

Instead, Samuelson is using the page to build a worldwide community of fans of diamonds, who incidentally might choose to buy jewelry from his store. He regularly polls the fans of the page to gauge changing tastes and trends in jewelry. For instance, do they prefer yellow or white gold, or platinum settings?

His Facebook fans can tell him which kinds of products to focus more on selling in his bricks-and-mortar store, he said. Online revenue from leads generated from the Facebook page is still small, he said.

“This page, much like social media, is not about pushing deals in people’s faces,” Samuelson said. “Much like any other medium, it’s all about establishing trust and communicating with people, and then the business comes.”

Please click here for the entire article. Samuelson’s Diamonds remains committed to being a leader in social media trends and bringing you the best in customer interaction, community building and of course…DIAMONDS!

In early October, Ron Samuelson of Samuelson’s Diamonds created a cartoon video that went viral on YouTube using “cookie cutter” video technology from Xtranormal. He wrote the script, selected voices, and plugged them into two cartoon characters that play out a typical retail diamond-buying experience and voila!, “Blue Nile vs. Local Jeweler” was born.

Although a good percentage of views could be attributed to interest within the industry, there has been a noticeable interest from outside the trade. Regardless of where the number of unique views has come from, this video shows the potential and ease of using a video platform such as Xtranormal for retailers looking to add to or break in to video marketing. See what industry video marketing guru Nick Failla says about Samuelson’s “Blue Nile vs Local Jeweler” video:

“’Blue Nile vs Local jeweler’ is a knockout example of a video that was created using Xtranormal, one of the many powerful creative tools that is accessible to budding video producers online…

Click here for the full article titled Viral Spiral: Samuelson’s Diamonds.

More exciting videos and other fun stuff on the way!

Steve and Ron Samuelson

400 Block of West Baltimore Street

Balti-West 400, LLC (David S. Brown and A & R Development
Corporation) has moved forward with a $5 million retail based redevelopment of the 400 block of West Baltimore Street. A new PNC Bank anchors the north side of the block at 426 West Baltimore Street (at North Paca Street). The south side of the block features Samuelson’s Diamonds, a family-owned jewelry store that started in business in 1922 on Pennsylvania Avenue (the business was moved downtown to the corner of Baltimore and Paca Streets – 426 West Baltimore Street – in 1972).

With the Hippodrome Theater anchoring the northeast side of our block, this promises to be one of the most exciting areas in Baltimore. We will keep you updated on the new tenants.

Please click here for the full BDC 2009 Annual Report.

Click here for the press release from National Jeweler.

Look forward to seeing you there!

I was asked to give my opinion on what guys should do when buying an engagement ring. The guy before me says to “Man Up” – I’m ok with that, we’ve said that around here as well. I put it a little more gently so take a look at about 5.09 minutes in and you ‘ll see! This video was shot at the Lieberfarb booth, one of our best bridal lines: