When faced with the question, “Where can I sell my diamond ring for the most money?“ it’s crucial to approach the process with care and consideration. At Diamocycle, we understand that the decision to part ways with an engagement ring or cherished diamond jewelry may stem from various situations, and we are committed to ensuring that the selling experience is as positive and seamless as possible. Rest assured, you’re in good hands as you explore the best options for selling diamond ring or for selling wedding ring. It’s not as scary as it sounds! By the end of this article, you’ll even be able to reply to your friends when they ask you, “”Where can I sell my diamond ring for the most money?“.
While the circumstances that may lead to selling an engagement ring or piece of diamond jewelry may be unfortunate, we, at Diamocycle, remain committed to making the process of how to sell a diamond ring as positive as an experience as possible. Beyond that, we’re deeply invested in helping you understand the best way of how to sell an engagement ring for the most money. And just think, at least selling diamond ring or selling engagement ring will make you some money.
What is my Diamond Engagement Ring Worth?
At a fundamental level, the most important thing to remember is that the key to selling a used diamond ring or selling diamond ring is focusing on minimizing your loss. As we have often noted, it is very rare to recoup the full amount you spent on a diamond when you sell an engagement ring. That said, there are obviously a variety of places where you could resell an engagement ring, all of which will result in a different amount recouped.
Of course, the amount you will be able to sell your engagement ring or diamond jewelry is entirely dependent on the jewelry piece itself. In general, the resale value for diamond jewelry or for selling an engagement ring is somewhere between 20% and 60% of their original sale value, so that’s what you should expect if you’re looking to sell wedding ring.
It is important to remember that selling diamond ring or selling wedding ring is an individual experience that demands careful consideration and research. As no two diamonds, vendors, or potential buyers are the same, there’s no exact formula of how to get the most money for your diamond ring. That said, we remain as always committed to helping you get the best price possible for when you are looking to sell a diamond or sell an engagement ring.
Below we break down the anatomy of your engagement ring or diamond jewelry to help you understand how to sell your diamond ring and see how much your item might be worth. So, if you are still wondering, ‘Where can I sell my diamond ring for the most money in the easiest way’, keep on reading the following considerations on how to sell wedding ring:
The Quality of the Item
To start, the best way to get a great value for your diamond ring is to have a quality item. The more the item is worth, on a base level of materials and diamond quality, the higher is your diamond ring resale value, and the lower is your loss when selling engagement ring or selling wedding ring.
Where You Bought It
It’s always important to remember that brick and mortar jewelers have large overheads and markups and have likely charged you a significant markup selling you a diamond against the true price of your diamond jewelry. At a brick and mortar, what you paid is significantly more than the value of the item, as the retailer had to cover their labor and overhead costs.
As you likely know, a retail jeweler hasn’t mined, cut, and polished their diamond. Instead, they’ve bought that diamond from a wholesaler, who had bought the diamond from a diamond manufacturer. Each link in the supply chain to bring a diamond to you results in an added mark-up that you cannot make back when you have a used diamond ring to sell. Beyond that, keep in mind, the retailer will then add an additional markup to cover the overhead of running their brick and mortar store, which makes the whole process a bit difficult, if you want to sell wedding ring.
While online vendors will often charge a markup of around 18%, brick and mortar stores have been known to charge up to a 100% markup, meaning that you’re paying the jeweler twice of what they paid the wholesaler for the stone. As you keep this in mind, it becomes clear how selling an engagement ring to a jeweler may not be the right place of where to sell a diamond ring. Regardless of where you sell your used diamond rings, please remember that selling a diamond ring or selling engagement ring is a process of minimizing risk rather than making a profit.
As you begin to search for “the best place to sell a diamond ring near me,” we encourage you think about the following aspects of the item itself:
The Brand of the Item
If you were to have a brand name designer, such as Tiffany & Co, it might be possible to sell your engagement ring to a jeweler for a higher price. That said, when you sell your engagement ring, you’re truly selling it for the resale value for the diamond – the value and cost of the setting rarely factor into the offer price. That’s why some brands are able to fetch a premium price in selling diamond ring or selling wedding ring (as they will also fetch a premium once resold to the new lucky owner).
Therefore, we want to warn you that several brands (including Tiffany & Co) charge a very high markup on their rings, and as discussed, often, that markup is not reflected in the offer price when you’re trying to sell your diamond ring for cash. Unless the brand makes a difference to your buyer, you may end up getting the same offer for a 1 Carat Diamond from Tiffany & Co as you might on a 1 Carat diamond from Blue Nile. Again, when it comes to selling wedding ring or selling diamond ring, it all depends on the buyer as much as it does on the stone. But assuming that all things are equal in the diamond, this is not an unlikely occurrence when you’re asking the question of how and where can I sell my wedding ring, and what is the best way to go about selling a diamond ring.
The Diamond Itself
The brutal fact of selling your engagement ring or diamond jewelry is that the price you are commanding to sell your diamond jewelry for cash truly only has to do with the center stone.
As we’ve previously discussed, the resale value of a diamond is often based on the 4Cs (color, cut, clarity, and Carat), each of which will impact the value of the diamond and the price at which you’ll be able to sell wedding ring, or any kind of jewel.
That said, as the central diamond will be the main anchor for your resale price, we strongly recommend that you get an appraisal of your engagement ring or diamond jewelry to have an upper benchmark of how much to sell your used diamond ring. Having an appraisal will help you set your expectations appropriately for the amount of cash you might get for your diamond rings. It’s especially good to get the opinion of an expert on this, especially if it’s the first time that you’re selling engagement ring or selling wedding ring, and therefore you’re thinking, “Where can I sell my diamond ring for the most money?”.
What’s an Appraisal?
When you bring a diamond in for a jewelry appraisal, you are asking a jeweler or gemologist the value of the diamond jewelry. Given that there are 27 different types of appraisals, based on whether you’re selling diamond ring or selling engagement ring, the reported value might also change. That said, you can get an appraisal to help you determine your engagement ring’s resale value.
We strongly recommend getting an appraisal of your item as you begin to explore “Where can I sell a diamond ring?” Selling a wedding ring is a difficult and emotional process, and by knowing the value of your wedding ring you can better negotiate with engagement ring buyers as you find the best place to sell an engagement ring.
To learn more about Diamond & Jewelry Appraisal, read our Diamocycle Guide: Diamond & Jewelry Appraisal 101.
(What About the Setting?)
Unfortunately, the setting is not a huge factor in determining the resale value of a diamond ring. When you pay for an expensive setting, you’re paying for the labor and the markup price, not the actual value of the setting. As a result, when you sell an engagement ring, the price you’re being offered is simply for the largest (and often center) diamond stone. Trying to sell an engagement ring setting will not land you a large amount for the setting alone. Unfortunately, this is the downside of selling diamond ring, which is why you get probably a bit discouraged when you ask yourself, ‘Where can I sell my diamond ring for the most money?’.
In addition, many purchasers of engagement rings and diamond jewelry are paying for the base prices of the center stone and the metal components, not the labor involved in making the ring. When you sell your diamond ring, you are truly just selling the center diamond.
That center diamond is the main determinant of value. As mentioned above, if you have an elaborate setting you likely paid for the labor and the mark-up of that setting, but it will factor less to not at all into the resale price. As much as it hurts to hear it, settings are often melted down for their metal components, rendering all the money you spent on the labor of making the setting ineligible as part of the resale value of a diamond when you are trying to sell your engagement ring.
HOW DO I GET A FAIR PRICE FOR MY ENGAGEMENT RING?
Below are our five secrets for the best way to sell a diamond ring, answers to the question of “Where can I sell my ring?” and the best way to sell an engagement ring and get the most money. Keep reading if you want to know how to sell wedding ring in the fairest way possible.
1. Know Its Worth
As mentioned, we strongly recommend getting an appraisal for your engagement ring or diamond jewelry, especially when you think about the process of “selling my wedding ring.”
With that in mind, however, we encourage you to remember that just because a jewelry appraisal tells you your engagement ring has a certain resale value, there’s no guarantee that you’ll actually get that offer when you go to a store and sell your engagement ring!
It’s also always invaluable to understand what kind of diamond your diamond is. Is it real, fake, synthetic, or natural? To learn more about diamonds and how to tell what your diamond is, visit our Diamycle Guide: How to Tell if a Diamond is Real.
Diamond appraisals, even when specifically done for a resale value, often overestimate the value of the stone and ultimately create high expectations for the seller of the diamond ring. This can somehow discourage you, if you’re selling engagement ring or selling wedding ring.
Given that the appraiser is not purchasing your stone, they have little incentive to give you a realistic quote and would rather leave with a happy customer than a customer disputing the legitimacy of their appraisal. Especially as the customer is contemplating questions such as, “Where can I sell my engagement ring?” However, in the end, this overestimation only hurts you the seller as sellers often then think (and hope!) that they can sell their engagement ring for more than they actually can get.
To help you better understand the resale value of your diamond, check out our Diamond Weight Calculator – which offers a gentle estimate of how many carats your diamond might be and, in effect, how much you should sell your engagement ring for.
2. Understand the Diamond Market
Contrary to popular belief (and to what people think before they set out to sell wedding ring), diamonds are actually not a strong investment over time. While we often believe that there is a strong resale value for diamonds and diamond jewelry, in fact, diamonds do not increase significantly in value over time.
Besides a small selection of specialized and rare color diamonds, the vast majority of commercial diamonds have actually decreased slightly over time, making it tricky when you decide to sell wedding ring later on.
That said, when you’re looking over a long time period, it might look like diamond prices have increased. While research might tell you that the market price of a diamond per carat from 1960 to 2016 has increased by ten times, a 10x increase on your money is actually an incredibly poor investment, when you take into consideration inflation and the value your money has been accruing via traditional investment means. For example, while a diamond purchased at $1,000 in 1960 would now be worth $10,000, $1,000 invested in the S&P 500 in 1960 would have grown to approximately $213,690, offering you a far better total return on your investment.
In addition, any seeming increase in diamond value must also take into consideration inflation. For reference, there’s been cumulative inflation of over 700% from 1960 to 2016 which actually means that any appreciation in value for your diamond is incredibly low. In addition, the pressure from synthetic diamonds in the marketplace has also contributed to a lowering in the price of natural stones when you’re looking to sell a used engagement ring. These are all important facts to consider before you think of selling engagement ring or selling diamond ring.
With this understanding of diamonds in the larger investment and resale market, we hope you’ll equip yourself for a realistic experience as you aim to resell your engagement ring and start searching how to “sell my engagement ring.” Selling wedding ring and selling diamond ring shouldn’t be a painful experience, after all!
3. Understand the Appraisal Market
While we strongly recommend that you get an appraisal of your engagement ring or diamond jewelry prior to selling it, we also encourage you to remember that appraisals often overestimate the value of the diamond and should serve as an upper boundary of what you might be able to sell your engagement ring for, even when you are being savvy and deciding to “sell my engagement ring online.”
The first reason that your appraisal may be overvalued is that the appraiser is often trying to offer the consumer a value for the future, and takes into consideration the potential for an increase in price. The other reason that an appraisal is often inaccurate is that the appraiser often tries to soothe the ego of the purchaser and minimize any possibility for buyer’s remorse. Appraisers often overestimate the resale value of a diamond ring to make purchasers and diamond owners feel good about their engagement ring and feel like they got a good price. Lastly, by having a valuable appraisal done, it is less likely that the receiver of the appraisal will doubt the appraisal’s claim or ask for a refund. While this tactic is morally dubious, since consumers often end up paying more for insurance, we ask that you please take this into consideration as you move forward with your appraisal information and as you begin to try and sell your engagement ring. The more you are able to tell the buy, the more likely you are to get the most cash when you start the process of selling your diamond ring, or the process of selling wedding ring.
4. Understand the Business Model of Your Seller
As always, it helps to understand the business model and mindset of the person across the table from you as you seek to sell your diamond ring.
While we dive deep into the business model of pawnshops and quick value stores in our Diamocycle Guide Where to Sell Diamond Jewelry, we’d like to take a moment to explain how local retailer jewelers sell diamond wedding rings.
The above guide will be instrumental as you begin to explore “Where can I sell my diamond ring?”
To know the best place to sell your wedding ring, we encourage you to ponder your options. The process of how to sell a wedding ring depends on the business model of who you are selling your engagement ring to.
As you likely know, local jewelers often buy diamonds at the market rate from wholesalers. Given the longevity and trust built into that relationship, a retail jeweler’s only incentive to buy a diamond elsewhere (ie from a consumer) would be at a very cheap price. While local jewelers might seem like a great place to sell your engagement ring, as you ask yourself, “where’s the best place to sell my ring?” or “where can I sell my diamond ring for cash?” we remind you that just because a retail jeweler pays a good price for a diamond from a wholesale jeweler, doesn’t mean they’ll pay you that price when you look to sell wedding ring, or any kind of jewellery. .
While retail jewelers do purchase diamonds at market rates, it’s incredibly rare for retail jewelers to offer that level to engagement ring sales out of their standard chain of sale. Given that, we do not strongly recommend you think about selling a ring to a jewelry store.
Instead, we encourage you to think about where you would buy a used diamond ring for sale, and ask yourself how can I sell my wedding ring to that venue. Where to sell diamond rings is often the same specialists and experts from who you would buy them.
Think of It Like Selling a Used Car
As you move through the process of selling your engagement ring, we encourage you to think of the process much like selling a used car. You definitely won’t get the list price (or the appraisal value) but it can be helpful in giving you a sense of around how much you might be able to fetch when selling your diamond ring.
In addition, it’s helpful to remember that if you see an engagement ring with the same specs as yours listed at $5,000, that’s the replacement value – ie how much you would have to spend to replace your item. That said, if you are trying to “sell my diamond ring” to the same exact vendor- you’ll likely be offered a fraction of that (say $3,750) for the resale value of the diamond, as the vendor will then turn around and sell your engagement ring at $5,000, and of course, needs to make a profit on the item. The profit that the vendor makes, of course, is the difference between the item’s resale value ($3,750) and its replacement value ($5,000). The higher the overhead or profit that the vendor is hoping to make, the less you’ll be offered when you sell your diamond ring for cash.
Like the process of selling a used car, we strongly encourage you to use a diamond price calculator to determine how much your ring is worth. A diamond calculator can take the diamond weight and other factors to tell you how much the diamond you are selling is worth. With the estimate of a diamond value calculator or a diamond ring value calculator, depending on the item you are hoping to sell, you can go to a jewelry consignment store near you with a pre-established baseline of your second-hand engagement ring value and what you are willing to sell your ring for.
With this in mind, we again encourage you to investigate how to sell your diamond ring online, as the factor of the physical store will be removed from the equation and your bottom line. This is one of our best tips for when you’re wondering, ‘where can I sell my diamond ring for the most money?’. It’s sure to assist you.
5. Pick a Process That Works For You
The price you will sell your engagement ring will likely be less than what you paid for it, and likely less than your appraiser quoted you. (Please remember this as you try to discern, “Where’s the best place to sell a diamond ring near me?”) Even so, Diamocycle still has strong opinions and recommendations of where to sell your engagement ring. There are many vendors and operations that would love to pay you a suboptimal amount for your engagement ring. Do not let vendors capitalize on your confusion and frustration of how to sell your wedding ring. Pre owned engagement rings do have value!
While you might not get as much as you like when selling wedding ring or selling diamond ring, you can certainly end up going somewhere that will pay you far less. Another place might also give you a fair bargain as to where you can “sell my diamond ring for cash.”
We strongly discourage selling your engagement ring to a pawn shop. While it seems like an easy and fast solution, you are guaranteed to get an incredibly low offer to sell your diamond ring for cash. Instead, we recommend selling your engagement ring to a private individual within your network or using a wholesale online insured vendor such as Diamocycle. This is the ultimate answer we have for you, when you ask us “Where can I sell my diamond ring for the most money?”.
To learn more about the places to avoid and the places you can trust for selling your diamond ring, read our Diamyocycle Guide: Where to Sell Diamond Jewelry.
Quick Tips for Selling a Used Engagement Ring
Be Willing to Wait & Put in Work
While pawn shops and other stores provide quick easy cash, the best way to minimize your loss on selling a diamond is to do so via an online retailer (such as Diamocycle) or via a mutual friend. Friends surely won’t try to get advantage of you when you try to sell wedding ring to them.
Doing the research to figure out where you can sell your engagement ring and how to get the most money for your diamond ring or waiting to find the right mutual friend obviously takes time and effort, but as we discuss in our Diamocycle Guide, it’s usually worth the work when you have a diamond ring to sell.
Cut Out the Middle Men
The fewer people standing between you and the final destination of the ring, the better. As you evaluate processes and potential options of where to sell an engagement ring, we strongly recommend that you cut out as many middlemen (or women!) as possible to end up receiving the highest offer for selling your engagement ring as possible.
Here’s some tips to ponder as you begin to ask yourself, “Who buys diamond rings near me?”
Sell Your Diamond to a Diamond Specialist
We want you to get the best price for your engagement ring. With that in mind, we strongly recommend that you begin (and hopefully) end your search of where to sell an engagement ring online with a diamond specialist.
Given that they’re online – when you sell a diamond ring online you’ll eliminate the fees added to your diamond sale price that brick and mortars need to charge to cover their physical overhead. And beyond that, their expertise and niche in the market allow them to garner better prices for engagement rings, and, as a result, offer you a fair and reasonable resale value for a diamond.
Beyond that, they specialize in resale engagement rings and used wedding rings, which allows them to both buy and sell your item at a premium. The more they’re able to sell it for, the more that a diamond and used engagement rings specialist is where you can sell your diamond rings for the most money. Selling wedding ring or simply selling diamond ring shouldn’t put you at disadvantage!
Lastly, their online model is often built on ease of use and efficacy, meaning that you rarely (usually never!) pay for shipping and handling, can count on your diamond being insured, and lastly, receive payment fairly immediately after the sale. Given the combination of fast, secure, and high price, selling online to a diamond specialist, truly is the place to sell a used diamond ring.
To get a sense of what you might be able to sell your engagement ring for, visit our Diamocycle Diamond Resale Value Calculator.
Bonus Content: How to Prepare Your Engagement Ring for Sale
If you’re planning to sell your engagement ring, it’s essential to prepare it properly to get the best price possible. Here are some final additional tips on how to get your ring ready for sale in an online marketplace:
- Clean your ring: Before you list your ring for sale, make sure it’s clean and shiny. You can clean it at home with warm water, mild soap, and a soft-bristled toothbrush. However, for a more thorough cleaning, take it to a jeweler for a professional cleaning.
- Take quality photos: To attract potential buyers, take high-quality photos of your ring. Take photos in natural light and from different angles to highlight its unique features.
- Gather necessary documents: When selling your engagement ring, make sure you have all the necessary paperwork, including the original receipt, certificate of authenticity, and appraisal report.
By following these tips, you can prepare your engagement ring for sale and ensure you get the best price possible, so you can rest assured if you were asking yourself the question, ‘Where can I sell my diamond ring for the most money?’.
As always, we take pride in helping you navigate the tricky decisions and moments of life ahead. If you ever have any questions about how to sell your engagement ring online, never hesitate to contact us.
Your Neighborhood Jeweler,
Diamocycle