Husband sets eBay record with purchase of 3.2 carat diamond ring

WHEN a man asked his girlfriend to marry him he gave her a "modest" engagement ring. A decade on and he has surprised her with the a gift that broke eBay records.

The ring in question...

WHEN a Sydney man asked his then girlfriend to marry him more than 10 years ago, the engagement story was romantic but far from his idea of perfect.

The young couple got engaged in a lift and the ring he presented was gorgeous but within his means at the time.

A decade on and now a successful businessman, the man decided it was time to give his wife the diamond ring she deserved so spent months looking for the perfect gift.

But he didn't find it in a jewellery store or in a shopping brochure. Instead he found the 3.2 carat beauty on eBay.

However, when he purchased the cherished item on the auction website via PayPal he had no idea he would set a record.

The ring, which cost more than $30,000 was the biggest PayPal mobile payment made in Australia in the past year.

"I wanted to buy my wife something special for our anniversary," he said.

"I thought it was our 10th anniversary, but it was actually our 11th as she reminds me.

"She had always joked she wanted a bigger diamond to sit on her big fingers so I spent ages researching it and finally got to a point where I could afford to do it."

The businessman said he had always been an eBay and PayPal fan and wanted a ring with history.

After months of searching he found what he was looking for when a lady wanted to sell her ring which she had received as a 21st gift.

The Sydney man was smitten and after paying his money, flew up to meet buyer who lived near Noosa.

"I met the buyer at the airport and as we sat down I was so excited I wanted her to try it on so I could see what it looked like," he said.

"But a colleague of hers walked past and thought I was proposing and started congratulating us."

With the story made clear, the man was on his way home after telling his wife he was caught up with business.

"We sat down to dinner and the ring was sitting on the table and went unnoticed for the duration of the meal," he said.

"Finally she noticed the box and was just blown away."

He admits he wasn't nervous about parting with that much money in one go, but did get a little jittery when the buyer delayed meeting him by a week.

But the m said he felt confident he wasn't a victim of fraud as PayPal called him to make sure the purchase was legit.

With a happy wife, the 37-year-old says he is now busy working on his surprise for their 20th anniversary.

And yes, he does plan to look at buying it through eBay.

PayPal spokesman Adrian Christie said the increase of mobiles and smartphones showed more and more people were comfortable buying online but urged buyers to use a secure payment option such as PayPal.

"Over the last year, we've seen millions of our active Australian users increasingly turn to their mobiles for every day purchases, from ordering ahead a morning coffee to paying bills or buying one-off high value items like this one," he said.

"The man's purchase of a diamond ring from eBay was the largest mobile transaction made via PayPal last year. With that said larger transaction are becoming more common."

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