What To Expect When Selling An Engagement Ring

My job is generally a happy one.  I deal with people who are looking for gifts either for themselves or to celebrate an occasion, or perhaps even both.  Couples come to me for my opinion on what they should get for an engagement ring, or what the best timepiece would be for any given occasion (or sometimes just to chat, which is okay too).

But as we all know, not all relationships work out and not all marriages last.  And the sad part of my job is seeing a person walk through our door wanting to sell an engagement ring to us.  This can be very hard, and usually, for the person wanting to sell, there is a lot of emotion tied up in it.  So I wanted to provide some advice for the person selling the engagement ring and what to expect if trying to sell the ring to another jeweller:

1. For obvious reasons, there is not much of a secondary market for pre-owned engagement rings.
2. If you can sell it privately, that is where you will make your most money, but be careful.  Don’t put your address on Kijiji and tell the world you have expensive jewellery for sale.
3. There is recycle value in the gold of the ring, and the main diamond.  If there are any small diamonds, they will carry much less, if any, value.
4. If you are trying to sell the ring to the jeweller, they will generally look at it as an item that will have to be taken apart.  Remove the gems, and melt the gold; they will base their offer on this.  Why you ask? See point #1.
5. If you are willing to take a store credit, generally you can get more value.  For example, if we were to offer a $1000 cash for any particular item, we will always offer 50% more in store credit ($1500 in this example).
6. If you have an appraisal on the ring, please keep in mind that appraisals are typically what the ring would sell for brand new out of a showcase on the date of the appraisal.  Usually, this is used for insurance purposes so that the insurance companies know the full value of what they are insuring. This is not the price a jeweller would pay as they can purchase rings at a wholesale level.  So they would need to be able to purchase your ring at a price below what they can buy from one of their suppliers.

Lastly, the jeweller buying the item needs to make some money off of it as well. So if the offer you get is lower than you expected, hopefully this will clarify why.