The "3 Rs" of Selling Your Engagement Ring

If you want to sell an engagement ring, it can be an intimidating task. If it was the first engagement ring you ever purchased, there was likely a process of learning about how to buy one. Almost every jeweler website has information about the 4 Cs. But when you find yourself needing to sell an engagement ring… Well, it’s a little tougher to find information about that, isn’t it? The goal of this article is remedy that. So here are “The 3 Rs of Selling a Diamond”:

Selling Your Engagement Ring, The 1st “R” — REALISTIC

First of all, you need to get realistic about how much money you’re going to get for your ring if you want to sell it quickly.

The reality is that you’re probably not going to get what you paid for it at the retail store.

If I can get real for a second: Jewelry stores don’t mark up jewelry for fun or greed. Jewelry has the markup it has because jewelers take on an enormous financial burden to keep their showcases full of beautiful jewelry.

And they do it knowing full well that many of the pieces in their showcases are going to sit there for months or, in some cases, even years before they sell.

Selling jewelry isn’t easy. And it takes time (sometimes a lot of time) to get full price.

So you either need to lower your expectations for what amount of money you’re going to get for the engagement ring, or you need be willing to invest time and money in marketing the ring to potential customers.

And you need to be willing to wait for that person who will pay full price.

Sorry.

But that’s real talk from someone who’s been selling jewelry for decades. Getting full, original retail price for a pre-owned engagement ring is really, really hard.

Just to put that further into perspective, if we put your used engagement ring in our showcase, WE still wouldn’t get what you originally paid for it. Here’s why:

(this next part might not be easy to swallow either:)

There just isn’t a high urgency to pay full price for a used engagement ring. People who buy engagement rings are looking for that perfect ring that’s new and fresh.

They want a clean slate for their love story.


No one wants to tell his friends and family that he bought the ring from his buddy whose relationship imploded.

Even if it wasn’t worn, or was “barely worn,” the people you are trying to sell it to likely won’t perceive it as “new.”

And they won’t pay what you paid.

Again, sorry.

Not trying to be rude here, but these are the realities of selling an engagement ring.

Getting back what you paid, 99.9% of the time…


Is NOT.

Going.

To happen.

Selling Your Engagement Ring, The 2nd “R” — RATIONAL

There is rarely a “good” story behind selling an engagement ring.

And very often the people we see who are selling engagement rings are (understandably) angry. They want to get a bunch of money for the ring and spend the money and go to Vegas with the girls, or buy a new truck, or…

Whatever.

You might feel like you need to sell it for $X so you can prove a point to your ex.

But here’s the deal.

The person you’re selling your ring to doesn’t feel what you’re feeling and typically…

Doesn’t care.

Sorry.

Ultimately, for the buyer you’re selling to… It’s just a transaction.

As a fellow human, I empathize with the emotional position you’re in. I understand that drive to “get even” and move on.

But when you’re selling an engagement ring, the buyer is only thinking about themselves.

If you’re selling your ring to a jeweler, the jeweler wants to give you a good price that allows them to also turn around and sell the piece at a profit.

If you’re selling to an individual, they only care about proposing and getting married.

Sorry.


When you’re selling your engagement ring, you have to check your baggage at the door.

Selling Your Engagement Ring, The 3rd “R” — READY

This is a weird one.

I’ll try not to go too Dr. Phil on you.

But similar to the previous “R,” your buyer isn’t your therapist.

If someone makes you a reasonable offer on your engagement ring, you need to be emotionally prepared to let the ring go, take the money, and move on with your life.

I’m not advocating that you take a lowball offer just to get the ring out of your life.

But if you reject multiple offers that are comparable…

It’s likely that you’ve been offered a reasonable market value for the ring…

And you’re saying “no” either because you have unrealistic expectations of what you’ll get for the ring, or you’re not actually emotionally prepared to let the ring go.

“THE 3 Rs OF SELLING A DIAMOND”: WRAP UP

I hated writing this article.

I got into this business because I love helping people in love take the next step in their relationship.

I got into it because I love helping people celebrate happy milestones and share joy with the people they love.

If I had my way, I’d never buy another engagement ring again.

But this is the world we live in. People make mistakes. People do things that they ultimately regret. They torpedo relationships that could have been fulfilling for a lifetime.

It honestly breaks my heart.

And I want you to know I feel for you and your situation.

And if you’re looking to sell your engagement ring, I can promise you two things if you come to Garcia & Co. Jewelers:

1. We’ll give you a fair market offer on your engagement ring with no run-around. We’ll pay you as much as we can for your ring without running ourselves out of business.
2. We’ll treat you with dignity and discretion. Myself and my staff understand that this is a difficult time. There are no good stories behind selling engagement ring. We don’t take that lightly and we’re here to help.

If you’d like to get a no obligation offer on your engagement ring, come see us.