How many times have you gone into a store and had to search for someone to help you? That will not happen at Martin Binder Jeweler. This is our home, and regardless of whether your jewelry budget is $50 or $50,000, you will be immediately greeted in our fully-staffed store with a friendly Hello and receive knowledgeable, kind service.
We still believe in spending as much time as our customer needs in order to help you find a perfect gift, or the perfect diamond.
And, we only sell the finest jewelry, though that doesn't necessarily mean the most expensive jewelry. But, we have very high standards and only sell items that we can guarantee 100%.
Our Team Our family of jewelers, customer associates, and technicians has over 200 years of combined service to better serve you.
Our History Martin Binder opened up his small watchmaking store in the late 1930's in Columbia City, Indiana . Always admiring a university community, Martin Binder decided in 1949 to move his burgeoning business to downtown Valparaiso, home of Valparaiso University. As his enterprise progressed and business started booming, Martin hired a lovely young salesgirl, Mary Helfrich, for his growing store.
As they say, the rest is history as Martin fell in love with and married Mary. The duo proved to be a formidable pair as Mary added fine jewelry collections to the store's mix. In 1967 Mr. And Mrs. Binder moved their now prospering store to a much larger space down the street where Martin Binder's shared a prime corner location with a drugstore and lady's boutique.
After just completing our tenth, and most recent renovation, Martin Binder Jeweler, tripled in size from our original square footage, now
proudly sits across from the Courthouse, where we are proud of our heritage as the retail anchor of downtown Valparaiso.
Our founders have capably passed on the 14-karat baton to watchmaker son Martin John, co-owner, and daughters, designer Jeanette and Carol, office manager.
And, in 1991, Jeanette's son Robert Flude, after graduating from university and working in real estate and as a jewelry manager, returned as co-owner to the family store where he had worked with his beloved grandfather Martin and grandmother Mary since a child. Robert brings a third generation of quality, service, and integrity to the store.
Truth In Pricing How many times have you walked into a store and been hit with the "50% off today only" signs? You see it all the time at discounters and most stores in the mall. Pretty enticing, huh? Problem is, those mall stores and big discounters don't tell you that they've marked up that item three extra times so they can mark it down and give you that "great deal".
At Martin Binder Jeweler, we do not play the mark-it-up so we can mark-it-down game. We never have.
We believe that our customer is wise, and has the right to make a fair, honest purchase without playing games with pricing. Our philosophy -- you have the right to know exactly what you are buying and we price our merchandise accordingly.
We don't have huge sales because we don't really have to. Our customers know we play on an honest playing field, with un-inflated prices on our tickets.
Now, don't get us wrong, just because we don't play the pricing game doesn't mean you aren't getting the best value. We scour the world on frequent buying trips and work diligently with our suppliers to find you the best direct values in diamond and colored stone jewelry.
We encourage our customers to educate themselves. And shop around. Because when you compare apples to apples, and diamonds to diamonds, you will find we have the best pricing, with the best servicing anywhere. That is our guarantee.
Honesty and Integrity Recently, a young man came into our store looking for an engagement diamond. He said that he had shopped at every jeweler in Northwest Indiana , every diamond house in "jeweler's row" and finally came into our store. He said he hadn't come in earlier because he thought "we would be too expensive."
So the young man came to see us when a friend had told him of our impeccable reputation. And we happily showed him diamond after competitively priced diamond.
We were not surprised when he told us that another jeweler tried to sell him a diamond that was supposed to be an E color and VS clarity; this young man said he had seen enough diamonds during his shopping trials to know that this diamond didn't look nearly as good as graded and the price was so low he thought it was too good to be true.
"My gut," he said, "just told him that diamond wasn't what (the jeweler) said it was."
We hear this type of story all the time.
We know that there are local jewelers and "diamond wholesalers" that continuously mislead shoppers with inflated diamond grades. They often get away with it because diamonds are difficult to compare, it's not like you are buing a car, and let's face it, how often do you shop for a diamond? There are dishonest jewelers that will take advantage of that fact.
We do not, never have, and never will, subscribe to some jeweler's philosophy of mis-representing a diamond's grading to make it look more attractive. It is not only dishonest, it is illegal. If you come into our store and see and a diamond that is marked as a D color, VS clarity, you are going to get a diamond that is D color and VS clarity. That is our guarantee. Better yet, always ask for a GIA certified diamond.
$100 Pricing Challenge
Shop and Compare. We absolutely guarantee that you will not find a better quality, better priced comparable diamond, engagement mounting, or finished piece of jewelry than at Martin Binder Jeweler. If we can't beat another diamond price, we will give you $100 as an in-store credit.
No other jeweler can match our pricing for quality.
