Jewelry

Local Professional Continues Commitment to Consumer Protection with Jewelry Industry Recertification - Pasadena Now

Nelson Holdo

With the holidays approaching and the shopping season in full swing, it might be just prudent to make sure your next important jewelry purchase meets the quality standards you’d expect. In Pasadena, one jewelry expert who’s had extensive experience, and has a global clientele, is willing to extend a helping hand – even a free consultation – to those making their first jewelry purchase.

Pasadena-based high end private jeweler Nelson Holdo has just successfully completed the annual American Gem Society (AGS) recertification exam, developed to maintain professional credentials and demonstrate the jeweler’s ongoing commitment to the Society’s mission of consumer protection through continued education and the highest ethical standards.

Holdo earned his distinguished Certified Gemologist Appraiser title after completing a course of study and a corresponding examination, making him one of fewer than 500 such appraisers in the nation. Even with his over 35 years of experience as a high-end jewelry dealer, Holdo is required every year to pass a new exam encompassing the latest industry developments, including topics on gemology, business, technology, and legal regulations.

The AGS title, says Scott Berg, President of the AGS Board of Directors, is what tells your customers that you are committed to their jewelry buying experience, and shows your dedication to professionalism and ongoing gemological education.

In an interview, Holdo tells how he started with the jewelry business, from the time he was an Organic Chemistry major at Caltech, to receiving his Gemologist diploma from the Gemological Institute of America, and his diploma in Jewellery and Watch Management Studies from the CFH Institute in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Holdo developed and trademarked the Asanti brand as the founder and President of Asanti Fine Jewellers – the finest jewellery salon in San Marino for nearly 20 years until 2010. In the wake of the 2008 economic meltdown, Holdo says he had to close the store.

“I then took over as president of the oldest jeweler in the country, Black, Starr and Frost; I was on a three-year contract with them, but they were in Newport Beach and I was commuting from my home in San Marino to Newport,” Holdo said. “So when my contract was up, I said ‘I love the brand and the store, but this three hour daily commute is making me old before my time.’

Holdo has taken the expertise gained from almost 37 years that he’s been in the business, with between four and five thousand clients, to match people up with the right jewelry.

“Whether it’s jewelry or time pieces, I serve as an advisor in the purchase of those items. And that can take mean being an independent sales representative for another jeweler, or it can mean being a buyer’s agent working for my client,” Holdo says. “It takes a number of forms but that’s the idea – it’s not a business so much as it is a professional service.”

Ninety percent of Holdo’s clients contact him for business by cellphone or by email, he says. His business has a basic website, but he still prefers personal contact rather than for clients to rely on what is presented online.

“In this day and age, everybody thinks they are an instant expert based on Googling information,” Holdo says. “Unfortunately the information gleaned online is insufficient at best, and misleading at worst. At the end of the day, there’s a reason that things that are inexpensive are inexpensive, and my job is to try to create value for my clients. So I find them the best possible quality using all the knowledge and parameters that I’ve established over the years to find them the best value possible.”

With his credentials, Holdo is one of a few retail jewelers that have chosen to meet the exacting standards required for membership in the American Gem Society, where he was a past director. His expertise is called upon regularly by the Gerson Lehrman Group Consumer Goods and Services Council.

He has also lectured extensively to such groups as the Kiwanis, Rotary, Junior League, the University Club, the Town Club, and San Marino League, and serves as a fashion, style and image consultant for television and movie personalities as well as an international clientele.

For more information, you can check Holdo’s business site, www.lagems.com, or even read through his profile on www.nelsonholdo.com.

For a private consultation please call or email Nelson Holdo at: 626-705-1102 or NH@LAGems.com