I know next to nothing about jewerly. I don’t wear any and my wife has never liked wearing any beyond earrings on special occasions.
So I have come into possession of a 2 caret Ring. I would like to sell it but beyond taking it to a pawn shop and getting possibly ripped off, I don’t know what to do with it. I did not buy it but the cost was $3600.
I live in Orlando, FL and am looking for suggestions to turn this into cash. Turning to Dopers with more knowledge than I.
Can’t see the details on my iPad, but check here to get certified (they probably will want stone out of ring, but if solitaire - shouldn’t cost that much to be remounted)
two carats for $3600 must not be a high quality diamond. Take it to a jewelery store, mom and pop not national chain, see if they will sell it on consignment. You can also make a private sale newspaper, e-bay, craigslist etc. I’d avoid the pawn shop.
Actually, I think the OP should take it to multiple places; pawn shops, jewelry stores, etc., so that he can get a range of estimates of its worth. And I agree that if he’s talking about a single stone, it’s probably not very good quality for $3600. And if that was the retail price, I suspect he’ll get perhaps one quarter to one third of that amount.
Take it to an accredited jeweler and have it appraised. They’ll give you an accurate description of the stones (size, carat weight, colour, any flaws) and the price. They’ll also give the purity of the metal (14, 18, 24k gold, sterling silver, platinum) and the price of the metal on that given date. They will tell you what they would give the appropriate price as.
The appraisal will run you anywhere from $50 to $100 depending on where you live, but it’ll give you ammo to sell it with. You’ll have ten times more luck if you know what you’re selling, nobody will be able to take you for a ride, and it’s more encouraging for the buyer to hear “I’m selling a 1.75-carat brilliant-cut diamond ring set in a 18-karat white gold band” rather than “I’m selling this ring–it’s got a diamond, and the band is silver…I don’t know anything more, though.” Google “jewelry appraisal [your town]” and call around for the best price.
What apollonia said. I don’t see how you can start anywhere else. You probably won’t get the appraisal value when you sell, but at least you’ve got a solid starting point.
Maybe not, I’ll find out. It was bought about 9 months ago, I don’t know where.
It was returned to my son after a 7 month engagement. I talked him out of throwing it into the ocean. I do plan to give him whatever I mange to get for it.
I’ve seen 1ct advertised for $1300 - I assume that was SI (Some Inclusions) - retail. Resell value would be less.
OTOH, a relative paid $17,000 (yes) for 1Ct at Tiffany’s in NYC. They don’t sell anything less than VS1, I think (VS1 - Very Small inclusions - 1). Even half a carat was about $3600. Even with markup, you can see the difference “Clarity” makes over SI.
Colour, Cut, Clarity, Carats. Cut matters, because a good cut will discard weight to make the diamond the right shape to get good internal reflection - thus making it sparkle more.
And so on… If you want, and it’s not too expensive, get a quick appraisal for the CCCC and then do some research on what that is worth. It ensures you get a better price than just shopping it around.
Have you considered having it redesigned in some way? Since the resale value is going to suck no matter what, and you probably don’t want to keep the ring as-is given its history, this might be a good third option. You could take it to a jeweler who can use the diamonds and gold to make a new ring, ear rings, necklace, etc. That won’t be cheap either, but it’s better than losing $2,000 now and putting another $3,600 down for the next attempt at matrimony.
Our family did something like this with an inherited ring from a grandmother. Nobody wanted it as it was - she had taken some good diamonds from an old wedding ring, and added several crappy low-quality diamonds for bulk, with a result that made the whole ring look like cheap costume jewelry. We let the jeweler keep the crappy diamonds and had the higher-quality stones reset in a new design. The finished product looked ten times better, cost only a few hundred for the jeweler’s time and made an impressive graduation present for one of the grand-kids.
