Online Markets Soar

Good News this week in the online jewelry market from Rapaport.  This  is good news for Wink and all the hard work and passion that he puts into his love of shiny rocks.  Way to go Wink, and no wonder, with all these fantastic specials he has been running.  So here it is, from Rapaport to you the blogging community:

RAPAPORT

Diamond markets are relatively quiet but there is increased attention on U.S. Christmas retail figures as analysts scale-back seasonal growth expectations. Aside from strong online retail sales growth, the industry may have been hit by weaker than expected consumer sentiment following a strong Thanksgiving weekend.

MasterCard Advisors SpendingPulse estimated that retail sales for such key gifting categories as electronics, clothing, jewelry, luxury goods, furniture and other home goods rose only 0.7 percent between October 28 and December 24. But retailers could still experience strong sales this week said Michael McNamara, the vice president for research and analysis at SpendingPulse.

Meanwhile, comScore observed that Christmas-season retail sales from November 1 through December 22 jumped 16 percent year on year to  $38.7 billion and that rate of growth was in line with expectations.

“Free Shipping Day kicked off the final week before Christmas on a strong note with $1.01 billion in spending,” said comScore's chairman Gian Fulgoni. “It was the opening to an exceptionally strong week, which saw spending grow by 53 percent. We typically do not see such heavy spending this late in the season, but the fact that Free Shipping Day occurred on a Monday, combined with the fact that so many retailers extended their promotions into the middle of the week -- with guaranteed shipping by Christmas -- helped deliver an encouraging late-season surge. The result has been a significant uptick in the season-to-date growth rate, which now stands at 16 percent.”

Merry Christmas Winks Blog

Having trouble viewing this email? Click here   Merry Christmas It has been a wonderful and busy year and there have been many fantastic things going on with both Melissa and her family and my family. Still there have been some horrendous things going on in the world too. From Super Storm Sandy, to school shootings, there have been nightmares that have touched so many lives. My wish for all of you is that during the year, each and every day, you find some way to make someone's life better in the evening than it was in the morning when they got up. It could be as simple as a smile and a sincere hello, or as complex as traveling to a foreign land and helping to build homes with a program like Habitat for Humanity. What ever you do, may it produce the kinds of results that you were hoping for and may it spread peace and understanding to all those that you touch. Wink If you found this fun or useful, please use the share buttons below. Share:   Wink Wink Jones Winfield's LLC Wink phone 800 524-7904, my Google Voice is 208 918-1929 If you call this number it will ring in both my office and on my cell, so I will get your call whether or not I am in the office. Melissa Phone 908 637-8199 If you no longer wish to receive our emails, click the link below: Unsubscribe Winfield's 5120 W. Overland Suite C-300 Boise, Idaho 83705 United States (208) 344-0800

Merry Christmas Winks Blog

Having trouble viewing this email? Click here     Merry Christmas! It has been a wonderful and busy year and there have been many fantastic things going on with both Melissa and her family and my family. Still there have been some horrendous things going on in the world too.  From Super Storm Sandy, to school shootings, there have been nightmares that have touched so many lives. My wish for all of you is that during the year, each and every day, you find some way to make someone's life better in the evening than it was in the morning when they got up.  It could be as simple as a smile and a sincere hello, or as complex as traveling to a foreign land and helping to build homes with a program like Habitat for Humanity. What ever you do, may it produce the kinds of results that you were hoping for and may it spread peace and understanding to all those that you touch. Wink If you found this fun or useful, please use the share buttons below Share:   Wink Wink Jones Winfield's LLC Wink phone 800 524-7904, my Google Voice is 208 918-1929 If you call this number it will ring in both my office and on my cell, so I will get your call whether or not I am in the office. Melissa Phone 908 637-8199 If you no longer wish to receive our emails, click the link below: Unsubscribe Winfield's 5120 W. Overland Suite C-300 Boise, Idaho 83705 United States (208) 344-0800

Day 12 of Winks 12 Days of Christmas at HPDiamonds

Having trouble viewing this email? Click here   12 Days of Incredible Values at High Performance Diamonds Day Twelve Well, Christmas is nearly here and there is no longer time to make anything new and deliver it to you in time for Christmas.  I am going to offer you the same thing as yesterday, although now there is no time to use second day Fedex, it is either have me scan and email it to you or overnight Fedex it. A $1,000 gift certificate at High Performance Diamonds for $750. You may spend it on any item that we have. Whether it is in house, or a custom design or one of our diamonds or a Richard Homer colored gem. Oh, if you would like, you can also get a $500 gift certficate for $375.  I had a couple of people ask for this yesterday, and it seemed a reasonable request. Merry Christmas! Wink If you found this fun or useful, please use the share buttons below. Share:   Wink Wink Jones Winfield's LLC Wink phone 800 524-7904, my Google Voice is 208 918-1929 If you call this number it will ring in both my office and on my cell, so I will get your call whether or not I am in the office. Melissa Phone 908 637-8199 If you no longer wish to receive our emails, click the link below: Unsubscribe Winfield's 5120 W. Overland Suite C-300 Boise, Idaho 83705 United States (208) 344-0800

Day 12 of Wink's 12 Days of Christmas

Having trouble viewing this email? Click here     Twelve Days of Incredible Values at WinkCZ Day Twelve Today is the last day of our Twelve Days of Christmas Specials. It has been a fun promotion and judging from the responses, some of you liked it too. I appreciate the many comments and especially enjoyed hearing from so many of you, even if you were not buying anything. We have always considered our clients our friends as well and we hope to keep hearing from you in the years to come. Today I am going to continue the giving of the past two days, only with stones that are currently not on the donation list. We are going to give $30 on each Regent or Jubilee stone that is purchased and as we did the past two days, we will match any additional donations that are made by our clients. I am a firm believer in the WCA, a battered womens shelter. I can not imagine a much more horrifying thing than being in fear of the person you live with. Here are the two stones, very similar but both stunning! Here is a video of the RegenCZ in a beautiful ring. Here is a fun video of a Jubilee set in what we call the baseball style. Here is the RegenCZ inventory. RegenCZ Canary 9mm, one RegenCZ Colorless 9mm, one RegenCZ Colorless 12mm one RegenCZ Syn. sapphire 10mm, one RegenCZ light yellow 5mm, two (is any one else thinking earrings?) regenCZ light yellow 6mm, one RegenCZ light yellow 9mm. four RegenCZ light yellow 11mm, one Here is the Jubilee inventory. Jubilee Chinese White 6mm, three Jubilee Chinese White 7.5mm, two Jubilee Colorless 8mm, four Jubilee Colorless 9, one Jubilee Colorless 12mm one Merry Christmas! Wink If you found this fun or useful, please use the share buttons below Share:   Wink Wink Jones Winfield's LLC Wink phone 800 524-7904, my Google Voice is 208 918-1929 If you call this number it will ring in both my office and on my cell, so I will get your call whether or not I am in the office. Melissa Phone 908 637-8199 If you no longer wish to receive our emails, click the link below: Unsubscribe Winfield's 5120 W. Overland Suite C-300 Boise, Idaho 83705 United States (208) 344-0800

Merry Christmas America

With the economy being what it has been over the last few years, Christmas can be a tough time of the year for a lot of people.  Today I read some good news on the matter from Rapaport News.

RAPAPORT... This past week experienced strong retail foot traffic and sales in the U.S., according to ShopperTrak; however, the group lowered its Christmas-season sales predictions following a decline in year-on-year comparisons. The good news was that retail foot traffic, for the week that ended on December 15, did increase week-to-week by 15.1 percent and retail sales jumped 16.4 percent. But ShopperTrak reported a 4.4 percent year on  year drop in foot traffic for the week and sales slumped by nearly as much, or 4.3 percent.

“As a result, we forecast the week ending December 22 will experience the largest weekly sales volume of the year. And Saturday, December 22 will be one of the five busiest shopping days of the season,” said Bill Martin, the founder of ShopperTrak.

ShopperTrak now forecasts Christmas-season sales for the months of November and December combined to increase by about 2.5 percent year on year, which is down from an earlier forecast of 3.3 percent. ShopperTrak maintains that foot traffic will increase 2.8 percent compared with 2011, which does represent the first increase during the holiday season since the Great Recession in 2008. 

A meager increase, I know, but an increase nonetheless.  A good omen I hope for 2013 and America.  Merry Christmas everyone, hopefully we have a Christmas miracle on our hands here.  

Fun Fact:  The Christmas Tree cut was developed about 20 years ago by George Saltzman, New York, and is no longer widely cut in the United States. It is derived from triangular made that is polished, with grooves depicting the branches of a pine tree. The Christmas Tree is reportedly still being cut in extremely limited quantities in Israel and Belgium. 

Day 11 of Winks 12 Days of Christmas at HPDiamonds

Having trouble viewing this email? Click here   12 Days of Incredible Values at High Performance Diamonds Day 11 Well, Christmas is nearly here and there is no longer time to make anything new and deliver it to you in time for Christmas. I think today I am going to offer you this. A $1,000 gift certificate at High Performance Diamonds for $750.  You may spend it on any item that we have.  Whether it is in house, or a custom design or one of our diamonds or a Richard Homer colored gem.  I can print it up for you and Fedex it second day to you in time for you to wrap it up in some imaginative way and put it in her stocking along with her other treasures. Merry Christmas! Wink If you found this fun or useful, please use the share buttons below. Share:   Wink Wink Jones Winfield's LLC Wink phone 800 524-7904, my Google Voice is 208 918-1929 If you call this number it will ring in both my office and on my cell, so I will get your call whether or not I am in the office. Melissa Phone 908 637-8199 If you no longer wish to receive our emails, click the link below: Unsubscribe Winfield's 5120 W. Overland Suite C-300 Boise, Idaho 83705 United States (208) 344-0800

Winks 12 Days of Christmas at HPDiamonds

Having trouble viewing this email? Click here   12 Days of Incredible Values at High Performance Diamonds Day 10 This diamond is so new it is not even up on the site yet.  It is not yet even in the United States and will not be available for Christmas delivery, but I wanted to tell you about it. Fresh off the cutting wheel, it is Crafted by Infinity #6185, a .86ct K-SI1 for only $3075.  It has an AGS 0 cut grade and all of the other bells and whistles that you expect from a Crafted by Infinity Diamond, and comes with an additional whistle, a $500 gift certificate towards any mounting that you choose here at High Performance Diamonds, including custom designs. Merry Christmas Wink If you found this fun or useful, please use the share buttons below. Share:   Wink Wink Jones Winfield's LLC Wink phone 800 524-7904, my Google Voice is 208 918-1929 If you call this number it will ring in both my office and on my cell, so I will get your call whether or not I am in the office. Melissa Phone 908 637-8199 If you no longer wish to receive our emails, click the link below: Unsubscribe Winfield's 5120 W. Overland Suite C-300 Boise, Idaho 83705 United States (208) 344-0800

Day 9 of Winks 12 Days of Christmas at HPDiamonds

Having trouble viewing this email? Click here   12 Days of Incredible Values at High Performance Diamonds Day Nine Once upon a time you could not keep a ring like this in stock, they sold as fast as we could make them. I actually sold this one to my client back in the early 1980's and his wife only wore it a few times. They no longer want the ring and have asked me to help them sell it. I agreed, but only if they let me sell it at a ridiculously low price. This ring should retail in the $2,800 to $3,200 price range.  It has approximately 1.42cts of diamonds in the G-H color range and the clarity runs from VS1 to SI2 with no eye visible inclusions and the diamonds are well cut. $1,350 takes it home!  Ask for the Waterfall ing. Wink If you found this fun or useful, please use the share buttons below. Share:   Wink Wink Jones Winfield's LLC Wink phone 800 524-7904, my Google Voice is 208 918-1929 If you call this number it will ring in both my office and on my cell, so I will get your call whether or not I am in the office. Melissa Phone 908 637-8199 If you no longer wish to receive our emails, click the link below: Unsubscribe Winfield's 5120 W. Overland Suite C-300 Boise, Idaho 83705 United States (208) 344-0800

test Day 9 Wink's 12 Days of Christmas

Having trouble viewing this email? Click here     Twelve Days of Incredible Values at WinkCZ Day Nine Yikes!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We are quickly running out of Christmas shopping days. In keeping with the request for less expensive items... This platinum pendant has a diamond estimated to weight .49cts.  I also estimate it to be an I-J color, SI1 clarity.  It was NOT MADE BY US!  It is an estate piece that frankly was not made very well in my opinion.  If you have not already noticed, the lower right hand prong is not in proper alignment with the lower left hand prong, nor is it directly opposite the upper left hand prong. I don't know what it would cost me to make today with its light platinum chain, but I know it would cost me more than $1,000 just to make it.  Of course, if I made it, it would be made much more correctly.  Still, it looks very nice to the unaided eye.  I should just tell you how sweet it is and not show pictures, yeah, that would do it all right. Take it home for $700.  Merry Christmas! Wink If you found this fun or useful, please use the share buttons below Share:   Wink Wink Jones Winfield's LLC Wink phone 800 524-7904, my Google Voice is 208 918-1929 If you call this number it will ring in both my office and on my cell, so I will get your call whether or not I am in the office. Melissa Phone 908 637-8199 If you no longer wish to receive our emails, click the link below: Unsubscribe Winfield's 5120 W. Overland Suite C-300 Boise, Idaho 83705 United States (208) 344-0800