Good question. The jeweler might say “I sell, not buy. Go see a pawnbroker”.
I don’t know the jewelry business, but considering the overall setup - unless it’s doing a roaring business, they need a huge investment in inventory to sell, since design is something very personal. While a car dealer might have a hundred cars on the lot, and sell them through within a year or less, how many rings does a jeweler need to ensure they have just the right one for you? And they’re not selling for the same price as a car, and people don’t trade in their wedding rings on a new model every 3 to 5 years (or, most don’t). Etc. Consequently, it would not surprise me if the markup is high for what they can sell. You want commodity prices, you can get gold bricks from Egypt.
And when you need an appraisal, you need the price at which they would sell you a replacement, not what you could sell it for. The only person who would pay you that appraisal price, or even close to it, is another end consumer.
The only good thing about jewelry, unlike groceries, is that the inventory does not expire.
There’s actually one jeweler doing just that in my area. They have some really stupid ads, but in one of them, they basically advertised a yearly diamond upgrade. You buy a ring that you can afford, and after a year, they’ll take it back, and credit you the original price on an new, bigger diamond. I’m not sure how many times they’ll do this, but if it turns a one-time $1000 purchase into a series of yearly $1000 purchases, why wouldn’t they just let you keep rolling it over?
The problem with person-to-person sales is that one or both parties probably isn’t qualified to evaluate the stone. In fact, I’ll bet that a good percentage of people would be fooled by a cubic zirconia stone.
I recall a Canadian TV news show (W5 ?) quite a few years ago, that did a test where they took a cubic zirconium “diamond” ring to several jewelers for an appraisal. About half did not catch that it was not a diamond. One even insisted, when the TV people confronted him afterwards, that they were wrong. (And natually, the appraisals were all over the map).
I suppose there’s a market for bling, but it would seem to me that “trading up” a ring that reperesents an romantic engagement or wedding seems like the ring is meaningless, so then why buy one in the first place? But then, kids these days… There’s a reason why grandma’s ring is passed down from generation to gneration, but the teacup set and the cooking pots less so.
i’d be curious to know from someone in the business what the retail markup on jewelry is…
I wish people were just more honest with themselves - if a jeweler was advertising cubic zirconia and artificial diamonds at an honest price, and people simply like they way they look and are happy to pay said price for them - no harm/no foul. No one will care how much or little you paid for it.
With “real” diamonds and shady jewelers you are always going to pay more to have the “real thing”, without really knowing the value of it, or depending on someone else to estimate it’s value. With the made-up value of a diamond, marketing insinuating that real is better than “fake”, traditions and emotions, and shady jewelers, the system is ripe for fraud.
I can picture an ad that might work with religious folk:
Jesus descends from the clouds and there is an earthquake in the cemetery. All the dead come out of their caskets looking young and beautiful dressed in heavenly robes. One woman looks down at the diamond ring on her finger and smiles. Fade to black and a “Diamonds really are forever” appears onscreen.
I’ve noticed when watching Antiques Roadshow that the appraisers will often give the owners two different values for some items. One will be what it might fetch at auction or otherwise sell for and the other, almost always higher, value will be what it should be insured for.
The propaganda makes this less marketable.
Also “used’ diamonds” are worth surprisingly little. Spend $5K on a ring, you might get $500 offered. How Much Do Pawn Shops Pay for Diamond Rings?. So, for example, a $10,000 retail price diamond ring sold in a new jewelry store has about a $3,000 resale price, and if you pawn it, you’ll likely only get $2,250 at most. This extremely high new jewelry store profit margin is what upsets customers when they want to sell their jewelry item.
But Diamonds are kinda rare. They just aint that rare.
Right.
Yeah, brown diamond used to be used for industrial uses, they werent made into jewelry- unless very large.
Blind taste tests show that is it not as good as Smirnoff.
But it is pennies more.
And you can sell it for about $250.
My Ex worked at a funeral home doing makeup (she was a cosmetologist but jobs were scarce). Wedding rings were common, nothing else. and she said they were not stolen. Mind you back then, a simple gold band wasnt really worth a lot.
Very likely “mine cut” which is very low value. sorry. But that doesnt mean it isnt beautiful.
Recently went shopping for a “right hand” ring for the wife. (Didn’t know the “right hand” ring was a thing, but the women in the office seemed to be plugged in.)
While I can’t remember the size of the stone (2.5 carats maybe) the price for the stone was $16,000. I asked about a lab grown stone, and the retailer had a look on her face as though she soiled herself. Anyway, I got the whole “only a real stone can be an heirloom piece” and “we’ll always buy back the real stone from you at the same price in the future if you’d like to trade up” spiel. When I pressed and asked for a comparable lab grown diamond, she trotted one out that was indistinguishable (at least to me) from the ‘real’ one. The lost was $3,500.
I had to drag it out of her but she admitted that about 60% of the diamonds they sell now are lab grown.
Our local place is leaning in to the lab-grown diamonds, mostly because they’ve finally given up the fight. But they’re still marketing hucksters, so they’re describing them as “Made in the heart of an artificial sun”, so that they still sound expensive.
The point about resell is - jewelry is very specific to taste. if the jeweler buys that ring, he may need to hold it for years before it actually sells. He will offer substantially less. But even for used cars, we accept that the dealer will offer less than a private sale and if they don’t, they are actually just discounting the car bought in exchange. Try selling a car to a dealer without buying another, see what they offer.
I see there’s a website advertising now - worthy. com - (not so) subtle TV ads “…when my mother was ready to sell her wedding ring, she sent it to Worthy. com”. (Hmmm) This would bypass the jewelry store by doing the same as eBay but dedicated to jewelry, presumably with the service and commission to ensure that the jewels are in fact as advertised. (I didn’t check the details because to me it’s not relevant).
About 10 years ago my wife bought a “fun ring” as the lady in the store called it, a matching ring set with small diamonds that went between the wedding and engagement rings. However, she does enough at work that after a frantic call one day - she lost her big diamond, and only found it after a half hour search - she no longer wears her rings to work. (I recently lost 25lb and my wedding ring finally fits again )
Yes, the bling factor is winning over the provenance factor all else being equal.
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