Free Sterling Silver Jewellery

Free jewelry? semi-precious stones, .925 sterling silver? where do I get this? Well not entirely free, the bad news is there is a $6.99 shipping and handling fee. That's about £5-6 GBP depending on the current rates. There is also the option to buy a chain for pendants at $4. I suppose you could argue that this makes it merely cheap silver jewelry, but however you phrase it, it's a bargin, and the quality is anything but cheap!

OK, that's that bit, you know what it costs, technically – nothing. What's the catch? Again, (so far) nothing.

What is it?

• Its a website (based in USA) that allows you to order free jewelry from a changing selection. The pieces are all .925 sterling silver with a variety of semi-precious stones and designs. Stones tend to be amethyst, garnet, citrine, peridot, smoky quartz, topaz, (London and Swiss), and occasional lapis lazuli, cubic zircon and some others. There are pendants, rings and earrings. Pendants are sans chain and rings are only in the size listed.

Rotating Selection

The listing has 4 pieces up at once for you to chose from. These are up for 15 minutes and then change. The changing times are staggered so new pieces come on every 5 -6 minutes. You can view the next up pieces for 15 pieces in advance although you can only get pieces that are on the 4 piece listing. There is an email facility that allows you to select pieces in the 15 next up selection and be notified by email when they are available to get. If you miss a piece you can't get it back although it will revolve round again eventually. I don't know the precise timing of this but it seems to be about 24 hours or so. You can order as many pieces as you like, but each one has the $8.99 shipping and handling fee attached. Payment is by visa, mastercard or paypal and seems secure. Shipping takes about two weeks to the UK (10 working days), I don't know what it is internal in the USA.

The Jewellery - So I took the plunge and selected a very nice amethyst pendant.

It is a stylish modern design made up of an 'S' shape of silver holding two oval cut amethysts in each curve of the 'S' in a half bezel and prong setting. (A bezel setting is where a 'lip' of the metal goes all the way round the stone, enclosing it. A half bezel and prong is where the lip only goes half way round and the stone is secured in by a prong on the open side. The advantage of a full bezel is its very safe for the stone, holding it very firmly. It doesn't let much light into the stone however so you'll loose some sparkle and clarity of colour from this setting. A half bezel and prong is a good compromise of safety while still showing off the stone.)

The amethysts are about 35 - 38 points (0.35-0.38 carats) each, oval cut and about 6mm by 4mm in size. The clarity is exceptional (I microscoped them at over 50x), the colour is good - mine are perhaps a fraction on the light side, but no worse than some the local jewellers were selling at ten times the price I paid for postage.

Over all, an excellent piece made better by the price – zilch, zip, nothing, nada. The workmanship seems very good, it is well finished, polished and set and is overall something well worth recommending.

So how do they get the money for this? - To be honest, I have no idea

Well for one thing, i guess the shipping and handling doesn't actually cost $9 but don't look a gift horse in the mouth right? that's about £5 in UK money so its not that bad!

As far as I can gather their main idea is to get you interested in the full catalogue in the hope that you'll buy something there. Presumably there must be something in that or they wouldn't have been running for as long as they have.

The third way is from the chains they sell. Pendants don't come with chains, if you don't already have one, you'll have to buy one and they're hoping you'll buy from them. The chain is a .925 silver Italian style box chain (the links look like open ended boxes linked together). Mine seems pretty solid and while lacking some of the grace of a very fine link chain is still very elegant - especially when you consider the price of $4 for a 16, 18 or 20 inch chain. The woman who is going to be wearing this piece is petite and anything other than fine jewellery looks very out of place on her.