In general, there are 4 ways to sell a diamond ring. We will review each. If you are wondering how to sell a wedding ring, you have come to the right place.
- Sell the wedding ring to a friend or acquaintance
The best way is to sell the wedding ring to a friend of close acquaintance. You can often get the highest price in this fashion. The downside is the embarrassment of selling it to a friend, and the discomfort of seeing your old ring. Another major downside is most people generally don’t have thousands (or tens of thousands) of dollars sitting around. They will require payment plans. And of course if they stop paying, you can lose both your ring and your friend.
- Sell the wedding ring on consignment
The next way is to sell the diamond ring on consignment. The major pro of this approach is the consignment shop is selling closer to the retail price than if you sold directly to a dealer. However, there are major issues you must consider when selling your wedding ring with a consignment store.
First – although the majority are insured, I have heard many, many times of damage occurring to the items, and the store claims the damage had occurred in the past. If this happens, it’s your word against theirs. Good luck.
Another horror story – I have heard first hand – is that of nicer diamonds being switched out. Again, you may not even be aware it happened until much later. And by that point your diamond is long gone, and you have no way to prove they switched it out.
Another problem – the consignment store takes a percentage of the sale price. Often it’s a high as 40-50% of the sale price. So let’s do some math. You come to our office and receive an offer for $8,000 on a diamond ring. You think you can do better on consignment. To receive the same amount as us, the ring would need to sell for around $13,000. And that’s for the SAME offer as ours is. Our offer is instant payment – no waiting, no risk, no issues. Let’s say you wanted to net $10,000. You are looking at a sale price of $16,666. The likelihood is next to zero. We’ve been doing this for 16+ years and I don’t recall, ever, someone getting a home run on a consignment piece.
Yet another issue is timing. No matter what they promise, we have consistently heard it takes 6 to 18 months for a sale. Of course, many, many items never sell, and you’ve wasted a year trying.
And lastly, the store may just go out of business. A very large, respected consignment store recently went bankrupt, and everyone lost every item they had.
- Selling the diamond on an online listing service
The third way to sell a diamond ring is to sell it yourself online, through a type of listing service. About 95% of our clients sell to us on the first visit. Out of the 5% who want to try to sell their jewelry themselves on one of these self-listing type websites, 100% of them come back to us. We hear all the horror stories. Mostly it’s the scammers. Sometimes it’s more insidious. You can read the headlines in the news all the time – the stories range from robberies to murders.
- Sell the wedding ring to a professional dealer
The last way is with a professional dealer like SW Jewelry Buyers. We are licensed by the City of Scottsdale, and the Scottsdale Police Department. We have been trained at the Gemological Institute of America, and are highly qualified to determine the value of your jewelry items.
If you are wondering how to sell a wedding ring, look no further.
We evaluate the ring in just a few minutes, and our offers are consistently the highest in the Valley. You are paid on the spot. No waiting, no risk, and no stress.
In conclusion, there are essentially 4 ways to sell a diamond ring or wedding ring. We strongly feel selling your diamond to SW Jewelry Buyers is the safest, easiest, most profitable way to do so.