Wednesday, March 5th:  Several Asha� cuts sold out now: Our sales growth is climbing faster than anticipated, and we have now sold out of 1.5ct Flanders, and 2ct Princess Asha�.  We will be making more, but they probably will not be ready until April.  The inventory status has been updated on the appropriate pages.  

*2ct Flanders Asha� back in stock:  On the good news, we have completed another batch of 2ct Flanders, and after filling backorders, we have 21 now available.

*Ring turn around time will be expanded to 10-15 business days:  Based on our increasing sales volumes and growing backlog, we are going to have to expand the turn-around time for when a ring is ordered, to when it is shipped, to be 10-15 business days (2-3weeks) on average.  We understand that customers want to have their ring yesterday after they place an order, but rushing the work and not doing it right does neither of us any good.  We currently have two diamond-setters, and are looking to hire one more to help keep up with our orders.  If we can expand our resources sufficiently, then in the future we may be able to go back to our previous turn-around of 7-10 business days, but for now and the foreseeable future, it will be our policy to have at least 10-15 business days before your ring is shipped after placing an order.

*Order Status software will be coming next week:  With the increased time required between placing an order and receiving it, we realize a lot of people will be emailing with "what's the status of my order" (though, being perfectly blunt, these requests generally impede progress on your ring, because we then have to interrupt one of our goldsmiths during their work to get an update).  We are in the middle of implementing a new software system, similar to Amazon.com, where you can visit our website and enter your order id and zip code, and get an update of where your order is (parts being pulled, sizing, setting, shipping, etc).  We hope to unveil this towards the end of next week, and hope that will help with your patience while waiting on your order.  

Tuesday, March 4th:  Renaissance Engagement ring pages re-done to allow you to customize the prongs and center stone: Our Renaissance engagement ring, a very consistent seller, has been revised to allow you to select any cut center stone.  We have mounted everything from rounds to princess to pears on this ring, and all looked very elegant....so we decided it was time to ensure customers could readily choose for themselves what cut center stone to add.  However, in pricing all the items separately (ring shank, prongs, center stone) we found that we were selling the engagement ring portion (shank and diamonds) at or slightly below our current cost to produce, in part due to the rising price of precious metals this past year.  Thus, we will be raising prices after March 15th on the ring shank portion, to ensure profitability on the ring shank.   Our Renaissance page is here!

*"Asha�" has officially become a registered mark!:  Our lawyers informed us today that "Asha�" has now passed all of the legal requirements as a trademark, and we will receive a certificate of registration next month from the US Patent and Trademark office that Asha� has become a legally registered mark.  Thus, once we have the certificate, we'll switch over from using the Asha� marker to the cooler, and legally more substantial, Asha�.

Monday, March 3rd:  Illustrious Engagement ring pages re-done to allow you to customize the prongs and center stone: Our Illustrious Engagement ring has become very popular lately, so we've revised the web pages for it to allow you to simply order the ring shank, and then order the prongs and center stone you want.  With this revision, you'll see that our Tiffany Channel Set ring and Illustrious ring have merged - they both use the same shank, but the Tiffany Channel set allowed one button shopping for those wishing to purchase a round.  With the new customizable format, you can select the prong style and the center stone of your choosing. 
Our Illustrious page is here!

*Nice Princess Asha� feedback from a new customer:  We're happy to be able to share an excerpt from an email from a new customer, who wrote us to share their feedback on their new Princess Asha� ring.  As always, we want to say thanks very much to this customer for taking the time to write, and for letting us reprint their feedback on our website!

"I just received the ring on Friday, I am very very impressed! I now believe the customer's reply back on these diamond simulants on the website. They are simply gorgeous! For those of you out there looking and thinking as I did a few weeks ago. Look no further.  I am completely sold. Now my fianc�e is so happy with the ring and the size and cutting of the stone."

*Sold out of 2ct H&A round Asha�:  We've had a big increase in demand for 2ct rounds, and have sold out as of today.  We hope to have more available by the end of the middle of March.

Monday, February 17th - New option to save money ($22) on loose Asha� purchases: We're pleased to announce that we have added the option to our online shopping to allow you to specify what type of packaging you wish your loose Asha� purchases to come in.  By default, we have been packaging them in our very beautiful Silkwood ring/gem boxes...however, while this is ideal for presenting it as a gift, we realize that customers that are purchasing for themselves might prefer to save some money and forego the Silkwood box.  

Hence, on all loose Asha� purchases, you may now select the packaging of your choice: Silkwood box, included in our current Asha� pricing, or Diamond Paper and save $22 on your purchase.

*First ever Ultrasonic giveaway for our message board members!:  We've been able to garner lots of feedback, criticism and ideas on how to improve our offerings via customers who post on our message boards over the last year.  As our way of saying thanks, we will be giving away one of our Branson Ultrasonic cleaners to a registered message board member that has posted during the month of February, on Friday February 28th.  We realize that many (most in fact) people simply post without registering (as 'anonymous') which is fine, but this give-away can only be done for registered members (as anonymous is just that, anonymous, so we have no way to contact you if you win).  

Thus, if you wish to participate in our giveaway, ensure you are a registered member on our message boards, and have at least one post under your registered name during the month of February.  Employees, vendors or relatives of BTD.com are not eligible, if the winner is an international customer, they will receive the international version of our ultrasonic cleaner.  Odds of winning are currently 1 in 125 (as we have 125 registered users).  Selection is by random number generation (using the website www.random.org), with the random number being matched to the users registered id, and finally confirming the selected user has made at least one post during the month of February.  The winner will be contacted by their registered email address.  Results will be announced on Friday, February 28th!

*Nice Pear Asha� feedback from a new customer:  We're pleased to be able to share part of a recent email from a new customer, who wrote us to share their (humorous) story of receiving their ring.  As always, we really appreciate customer feedback, and thanks very much to this customer for taking the time to write and share their experience!

"I just got home and my husband was holding my ring and said "We have a problem..(my heart sank)..you need to call them because they sent you a real diamond, this is no CZ"...It's just beautiful!!! I could not be happier..:) Thank-you so very much!!"

Friday, February 14th - Happy Valentines Day!:  We're hiring another customer service manager:  We've been continuing to experience very strong sales growth and that is beginning to overwhelm our office, so we have hired a temporary office assistant, and are interviewing for another customer service manager to help us ensure we continue to provide you with top notch customer service.  

*Stuller 4 prong Solstice ring will be available shortly:  We've received a lot of requests to start carrying this ring, and we have two models set and ready for photos...as soon as we get some sunshine, we'll have these photographed and available for purchase on our website.

*Cartier Reproduction Princess and Round heads:  Darryl has finished carving these for the 1ct sizes, and Peter is working on creating the molds.  We hope to have these available in two weeks.

*Nice Asha� Asscher feedback from a new customer:  We're pleased to be able to reprint an excerpt from a new customer, who wrote us after receiving their ring.  As always, we greatly appreciate customer feedback, and thanks very much to this customer for taking the time to write, and for letting us share their feedback!

"Thank you so much, the ring is absolutely BEAUTIFUL!! The Asscher stone is STUNNING. I was worried it wouldn�t be �sparkly� enough, but it is just perfect and so brilliant. My husband and I both admired it for at least an hour after receiving it. The beveled Tiffany solitaire setting is gorgeous and such excellent quality and the low-profile setting is just what we envisioned. You have made a believer out of both of us!!"

Friday, February 7th:  New article on our colored diamonds by Kathy Taylor, G.G!:  Diamonds come in a rainbow of colors, and since we are currently working on producing blue colored Takara synthetics, Kathy has written a very detailed article discussing what causes natural diamonds, and our Takara synthetics, to show different color hues such as blue and yellow.  The full article is here, but here is a very quick preview:

ROSES ARE RED, DIAMONDS ARE BLUE� AND GREEN�AND YELLOW�..

 By  Kathleen Taylor G.G.

The mesmerizing blue of the Hope Diamond; the captivating allure of the Tiffany Yellow; the unique distinction of the Dresden Green; the inky depths of the Black Orloff.  These are just a few of the famous, fancy colored diamonds whose very names inspire thoughts of intrigue and romance.  Royalty, socialites and movie stars, among other powerful people throughout history, have used diamonds as visible proofs of their importance and wealth - both to themselves and to others.  The fact that a remarkably-sized diamond has a distinct hue adds to its uniqueness.  But, what exactly gives gem diamonds their variety in coloration?  Is it possible to alter the hue of natural diamonds from their mined appearance to become visually more appealing?  Can we reproduce this effect in synthetic diamonds?  Many people are unaware that diamonds exist in a multitude of colors.  To them, �colorless� personifies what all diamonds are supposed to look like.  But to truly appreciate the value of any diamond, especially a diamond with a �fancy� designation, an understanding of the color�s cause and origin is important. 
 This article continues....click here.

*Nice Asha� feedback from a recent customer:  We're pleased to be able to share an excerpt from a recent customers email about their Asha� purchase.  Thanks very much to this customer for sharing their feedback, and for letting us reprint!

"I received my ring today. I couldn't be more pleased with my new Asha� diamond simulant! It's absolutely stunning! The brilliance of the stone is positively mesmerizing. I can't stop staring at my ring. I honestly can not tell the difference between my real diamonds and my Asha�. Actually, the Asha� diamond simulant looks far BETTER than my real diamonds!!! It definitely exceeded all my expectations!!! I can say without hesitation, I WILL be a repeat customer. Thank you so very much!!!!"

Thursday, February 6th:  Our line of rings will now be carried by DiamondOptics.com!:  DiamondOptics.com is a natural diamond dealer focusing exclusively on SuperbCert diamonds.  They will be using our line of settings to set their customers natural diamond purchases into - consequently, we will be modifying all our rings online shopping options to ensure they are available without a center stone for their customers.  Every once in a while, we get new customers who ask if our settings are good enough to use for high-end natural diamonds, and the answer is an absolute yes - many customers have already set high-end natural diamonds into our settings, and we expect more will be doing so with the addition of DiamondOptics.com using our settings for their diamonds.  You can visit the DiamondOptics.com website here!.

*Helen of Troy will be re-designed and re-launched late March:  We have temporarily taken the Helen of Troy ring off of the site, as we have decided to make a few changes to its design.  We'll be re-launching it in late March with its new improvements!

Monday, February 3rd, PM update:  Economies of Scale and Flanders Asha�!: After reviewing our financial data from last year, we found that our best month ever for sales was last April, driven by the Flanders Asha� being at intro pricing for that month.  With some additional research, we are pleased to announce that we will be testing our economy of scale program by reverting the Flanders Asha� to intro pricing from now until April 1, 2003.  Assuming we are able to get sufficient volume as a result, we expect to make the intro pricing for the Flanders permanent, in similar fashion to the experience with the Asha� Asscher. 

Thus, as of today, Flanders Asha� will be priced at $175/ct until April 1st.  Further, all customers who purchased the Flanders Asha� from 01/01/2003 have already been credited the difference between normal pricing and the intro pricing (we have directly emailed those customers to notify them of the credit being placed on their card.) Our Flanders Asha� page is here!

3 Our Flanders Asha� showing its brilliance!  
The Flanders has one of the best white light scores of any of our Asha� cuts.

To answer a common question, the Flanders cut may be mounted like a princess using our Asscher Cartier head, and thus can be used for our best-selling Cartier reproduction ring.  

*Website traffic on the rise:  Just an aside, we are pleased to announce we set a new record last Friday with over 2,500 visits to our website for Friday alone.  We have a very extensive traffic monitoring system in place, and we'll continue to monitor our server daily.  Further, as the need arises, we will certainly continue to add more hardware to ensure all visitors have a prompt and crisp browsing experience at our site.  Our website is currently sending out over 6 Gigabytes of data per month to keep up with the web traffic!

Monday, February 3rd:  BTD's 2002 Annual report to our Customers: We received all of our year end financial summaries from our accountants last Friday.  While we are not a public company, our customers (current and potential) are in effect our shareholders, so we thought it would be helpful to provide you with an overview of our results, both financially and otherwise.

2002 Highlights:

• Sales revenue increased over 400% as compared to 2001
• Net profitable for the year, net profitable in 9 of 12 months (vs. net profitable in only 6 of 12 months for 2001).
• Web-site traffic increased over 320% for the year, website moved to fully dedicated web-server to handle increased traffic.
• Asha� version 4 (Amorphous) was introduced in Jan.02, and Asha� officially became patent-pending
• Takara lab-grown diamonds introduced
• Moved into larger Bellevue office space (three blocks from Microsoft main campus)
• Received Better Business Bureau's Honor Roll award for customer satisfaction

For 2003, we are continuing to focus on our 'efficiencies of scale' mantra, meaning we will continue to cut products that are not selling in larger volume.  This will allow us to free up cash flow (rather than having capital tied up in extra inventory) as well as help us to continue to offer you, our customers, better pricing as we gain increased purchasing power over our raw materials by doing larger volume.  

The primary goal in 2003 will be to achieve another 100% in total sales revenue for the year (Jan 03 sales are up over 100% vs. Jan. 02), and ideally, finally having a full year of every month being net profitable.  Last years 3 unprofitable months were directly correlated to large expenditures related to the amorphous coating program, and expenses related to the start-up of the Takara's.  

Finally, there is a reason the 400% sales increase, the 320% web-site traffic growth and customer satisfaction are specifically bolded above.  It is to ensure that you know, that we know, that the reason for those sales increases are directly as a result of customer satisfaction.  Thus, to achieve our sales goals for the year, we will be working hard to continue to offer you better customer service, and an expansion of offerings that your feedback (primarily via our message boards) has indicated you want!  We appreciate your continued trust in choosing us for your jewelry needs, and look forward to your continued feedback as to what we are doing right, and where we can improve.

Friday, Jan. 31st:  SuperbCert H&A 3-stone diamond floating pendant now available!: We've completed an all-SuperbCert H&A diamond 3 stone floating pendant and have made it available for sale.  Using 1.42ctw of natural SuperbCert diamonds, these diamonds are a .20ct D/VS1, .51ct E/VVS2, and culminate with a .71ct E/Internally Flawless beauty.  All have screaming b-scope scores, GIA grading reports, etc. (details on the stones are at our SuperbCert page here).  This pendant is now available on our 3-stone floating pendant page here!

*Last day before the Takara price rise is today!: A reminder for those considering any of our Takara yellow cultured diamonds, today is the last day of $2750/ct pricing.  After Feb. 1st, Takara yellows will be $3250/ct.  Our Takara yellow page is here!  

*1 Gigabyte of RAM memory added to our dedicated web-server!: As part of our efforts to make your browsing and shopping experience better, we recently added another 1 GB of Ram to our web-server to help ensure our server is always able to promptly handle your visits to our site.  We are also happy to mention that web traffic to our site is up another 30% as compared to 3 months ago, hence why we have been upgrading our dedicated web server.  By dedicated, we mean there is a full, single computer that does nothing but handle our website....unlike shared web-servers where as many as 250 other websites can reside (and pages can take forever to click to), ours is completely dedicated to us and does nothing but handle the BTD website, to ensure you have a crisp browsing experience through our web pages.

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