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My wedding ring is really nice. Wide gold band, inlaid with nice stones, and a pretty big diamond. Custom designed. Appraised for a pretty high amount. If I had the amount it was appraised at I'd have 2.5 months of living expenses paid for, including mortgage, property taxes, food, everything.

Of course I didn't think I'd get that full amount. I'm not stupid. I thought, oh, maybe I'd get 40%, or maybe 30%. I mean, that diamond is big and extremely high quality. All this time I've thought to myself that my ring was a kind of "money under the mattress" safety net. If all else failed, I could sell it, even if only for parts, and get myself out of a financial scrape.

Well, the joke turned out to be on me, my friends. I took that pretty ring and the appraisal that valued it and went to a jeweler yesterday. Gonna sell that sucker & get me some cash! Gonna save the day, kids! Mommy's selling her ring!

NOT!

Jeweler didn't want the diamond, not big enough. Didn't want the side stones. Was only interested in the gold. Would give me a hundred bucks for the gold.

What the ever-loving fuck??? Excuse me??? A hundred fucking dollars?

Didn't do it. I still have the ring. The jeweler gave me the name of a local consignment place that sells jewelry. But the thing is, I don't want to sell the ring as a ring and have some other person wearing it. You guys, my wedding was cursed and I was married to the Son of Satan himself. I don't want any bad mojo to go along with that ring & curse some unsuspecting person with the same fate I endured.

But FNA, I need money.

What do I do?

Don't try to sell it piecemeal. That's where you lose money. You need to find someone who wants to buy it as a ring.

Check your local area for Estate Jewelers. Google "[city] estate jeweler" and see what comes up. Try those places (all of them). Bring all the paperwork you have (including the appraisal) with you. In bigger cities, estate jewelers are only interested if the center stone is 1K or bigger; not sure about smaller areas - it's basically not worth their time to try and sell smaller rings, because most people who buy estate pieces do so to save money on a big stone.

Is your appraisal a sale appraisal or an insurance appraisal? The fact that it's custom designed will drive the latter down (until it's old enough to be an heirloom piece) or the former up. Rationale is that no one else wants your custom design, but it's also harder to replace. Get a sale appraisal if all you have is an insurance appraisal.

I sold mine on CL for 60% of the sale appraisal value. That was after visiting 3 estate jewelers, one of whom wanted to rip me off, and one of whom gave me some really nice advice.

His advice was that it takes the average estate piece six months to sell. If I wanted to get more than the 38ish% he was offering me (my best offer), I would need to sell privately - and the bigger hurry I was in, the lower price I would bring in. If you want max value for estate jewelry, you have to be patient enough to wait for the right buyer. If time is your enemy, you will be more likely to bargain, accept low ball offers, etc. I expected to wait six months.

I was really fortunate; in my case I did get the full 60% I was seeking within a week. It was completely unexpected and I wouldn't expect anyone else to have the same experience, unfortunately. The right buyer just came along at the right time in my case.

Good luck - it's certainly an adventure.

If you do CL, they do have a nice feature where you can relist stuff without recreating the whole listing after it expires (1 week).

ETA: There are also jewelry specific sale sites, like idonowidont.com, where you can try to sell it.

For any online sale, the more pictures and information you put in your listing the better. Get a soft, new toothbrush and a tiny drop of dish soap and wash your ring very, very well with the hottest water you can stand (plug the drain), dry it using a blow dryer on hot (hot air eliminates water spots on the stone), and take photos using a macro lens/macro setting in bright, natural light. Show the ring from at least three angles (side, top, profile), on the finger, on a plain black background, framed on a flower, etc. to show it off well. Market the hell out of it.

[This message edited by Amazonia at 7:54 PM, April 7th (Monday)]

Oh, and as for not wanting to sell it as a ring because of the bad juju, I'm sorry, but in this instance, you have to choose - you go with the emotional, superstitious stuff, or you go with the practical side where you get to buy groceries. It's not going to work out so you get both. The component parts of a piece of jewelry are worth significantly less once you remove the value of the craftsmanship that combines them.

Have your priest or pastor bless it, sprinkle with sage, whatever you feel you need to do to "cleanse" it, but sell it as a ring and move on, hon.

I'd look at eBay too. You have the appraisal (which is the replacement RETAIL value), you should be able to sell it on there for around 40% of that. Accept PayPal payments only.

That's funny that Amazonia mentions not selling your set piecemeal, because that was the advice I got when I had this issue several months ago, lol!

My wedding set cost $8,500 and I was offered $1000 about a year ago, when we first split up. I thought that was too low, so I hung on to it and brought it someplace else several months later and was told the same as you (didn't care about the diamonds, only wanted the gold) and was offered about $150, lol! Needless to say I still have my set as well! I've listed it on craigslist a few times and a facebook garage sale. It generated a bit of interest, but no sale yet. Maybe you'd have better luck?

I can't help you but in my case, I was first going to throw mine away. Then I decided to take it to one of those gold & silver exchange type companies. I just took what they offered and when my D is final, I will use it to buy some beer and wine to celebrate.

[This message edited by WestMonroe91 at 9:20 PM, April 7th (Monday)]

Sell it honey, the ring isn't cursed - that guy is.

(((((((Nature_Girl)))))

The general rule of thumb is that you may be able to get about 30-40% of your ring's value by selling it.

You could try consignment at a jewelry store--ask how much the jeweler will get if it does sell.

There's a site called I Did Now I Don't where you can also sell (it's like an eBay for jewelry). I'm not endorsing it; I only know that it exists.

If you are desperate for money, you'll never be able to come close to any value. If you can wait it out, one of these sources might come through for you.

Are you kidding me. Cursed???

That ring is blessed. YOU are an awesome person, plus funny as hell too. The fact that you were honorable in your M, and that you are strong in your morals, that is what that ring has to offer another couple! He never wore that ring, and it was probably the only decent thing he ever did for you and the kids. To keep it when you need the money would be the curse.

I sold an ugly pair of earrings and a ring I didn't care for to a pawn shop. The earrings had diamonds but I only got money for the gold .... $60. The earrings were probably close to 200 retail.... I gave each of my girls $20 and kept 20 for me.

I had the exact same experience with mine. Went to different places and they all said the same thing. The type of diamond I have (marquise) is not "IN" right now so there is no market. He was not interested in all those side diamonds. He would only take the gold.

His advise was to keep it. He said it was a beautiful set and it would be a shame to scrap it for next to nothing so back to the security box it went.

Do you have the written good appraisal? If so post it to CL with pics of the ring, and that, ask for 75%, and be willing to deal. The more you barter with people the more they think they are getting the "Deal of a lifetime". When in fact you overprice the item, and only go down to where you are willing to.

My H the master salesman, taught me this, and sister it works. I have sold so much shit I would have just thrown out on CL and gotten more money than I would have dreamed, and people HAPPILY pay for it.

Some kid wanting to propose will come along and snap that sucker up.

As for being Cursed.....Nah It and your kids are the only good things from that relationship, and if the ring is cursed, why wouldn't the kids be? Maybe you could get a group discount on blessings and exorcisms if you took the kids and the ring to the local church, but then they would want 50% of the profit from the sale of the ring.....