Your Diamond Ring Resale Guide

Those who are new to buying and selling jewelry may not be familiar with the various factors involved. If you have a diamond ring that you are intending to sell, getting an accurate valuation is important to ensure your diamond retains its certificate and to ensure customer satisfaction.

Being sure of whether you want to sell your diamond ring is especially important unless it is an heirloom or of personal significance to you or to someone else. However, if you have no particular emotional investment in the piece, it may be a good candidate for resale.

1.  Where to Sell Your Diamond Ring

One of the key factors to be aware of when selling a piece such as this is to understand the best place to sell a diamond ring.  Diamonds can be sold via a local jewelry store, pawn shop or diamond exchange. Sourcing a number of sellers will allow you to determine where you can get the best price.

2.  Expected Profit

In some cases, there may be factors such as high mark-up to consider, which can result in a loss of profit, but in most cases you can expect to see back between 20% to 60% of the original retail price, depending on where it was first bought.

3.  Timing Your Sale

The best time to sell is when diamond prices are high. While in general diamonds tend not to increase in value over time, their price can still be affected by a number of factors such as global fashion trends and the rate of inflation.

4.  The Rapaport List

Another factor to consider is whether it is included on the Rapaprt diamond list (or “Rap list”), a weekly baseline for pricing loose diamonds sold as individual stones Diamonds that do not appear on the list are generally sold in bulk at “parcel price” per weight.

5.  Setting a Price

In general, the heavier the diamond (or the higher the carat), the more valuable it is. A single carat equates to ⅕ grams and is subdivided into 100 points, so a chipped diamond of fewer than 0.5 carats may not have a high resale price. It is also worth noting the resale price will always be less than when it was purchased new. Pricing also depends on a number of factors, including:

●     Original place of purchase

●     Value

●     Chosen selling method

In most scenarios, diamonds are bought at a discount to the Rapaport Price. Once this is established, other elements might come into play that could determine the discounted price, including:

●     Color

●     Clarity

●     Cut

●     Fluorescence

●     Inclusion

●     Quality

●     Luster

Other factors include natural origin and the type of diamond being sold. Some gems, such as moissanite are not considered diamonds, while laboratory-grown diamonds tend to be worth very little on the resale market. In terms of type, melee or accent stones tend to retail for less and are sold on their collective weight depending on quality and size.