We are not the buyer
maker+stone sells rings. We do not buy diamonds, we do not take them on consignment and we do not run a trade-in, so nothing here is written to make you an offer or to talk you out of someone else's. That is worth saying at the top, because almost every other page you will find on this subject belongs to a company that wants to buy your ring.It is also worth saying that most people arrive at this question sideways. A parent has died and the estate has jewellery in it. A marriage has ended and the ring has stopped meaning what it meant. A deposit is thirty thousand short and there is a box in a drawer. None of that is a shopping decision, and the advice that suits it is slow, specific and unexcited.
The short versionGet three offers and get them in writing. Ignore the insurance valuation as a guide to price. Do not let anybody weigh the gold and call that a number for the ring. Find the grading report before you find a buyer. And if the stone might be lab-grown, read that section before you speak to anyone, because the answer is lower than you are braced for.
The mistakes, and what each one costs
Here is the whole answer in one place. Nothing on this list is exotic, and most sellers make two or three of them at once, in a week when they have other things to think about.
Ten ways to sell a diamond for less than it is worthOrdered roughly by how often we hear about them rather than by size of loss. The four drawn in gold are the ones to settle before you leave the house, because each of them either cannot be undone or changes the number before a single offer is made.
If you read one thing off that ledger, read the first line. The spread between offers on the same stone in the same week is wider than any other variable a seller controls, and it costs nothing to collect a second and a third. The rest of this page is mostly about making those three offers comparable.1
Taking the first offerThe widest gap on this list
Three offers on the same stone can land a long way apart, because each buyer is pricing a different thing: one wants the metal, one has a customer waiting for exactly this ring, one is filling a tray. Get three, and say plainly that you are getting three.
2
Quoting the insurance valuation as a priceMonths of being told no
A replacement valuation is what your insurer would have to spend at full retail to buy you a new one. It is written high on purpose and it is not evidence of resale value. Bring it, because it describes the ring accurately, and do not open with it.
3
Selling to a pawnbroker or a we buy gold counterThe stone, given away
Those counters price metal by weight against the spot gold price and treat the diamond as something they got for nothing. If the centre stone is worth anything at all, it has to go to someone whose business is stones.
4
Turning up without a grading reportThe buyer's doubt, charged to you
Find the report before you find a buyer. A GIA report on a natural stone is worth real money at resale. A report from a laboratory the trade does not follow gets discounted, and no report at all means the buyer prices in their own risk and their own grading fee.
5
Cleaning it badly, or having it repolished firstWeight, and sometimes the paper
Warm water, a drop of dish soap, a soft toothbrush, then stop. Never have a stone recut or repolished to freshen it up for sale. It comes back lighter, the measurements no longer match the report, and you have turned a papered diamond into an unpapered one.
6
Not knowing whether the stone is lab-grownThe entire conversation
Find out from the report, or pay a gemmologist to tell you, before anyone makes an offer. Learning it across a counter from a dealer who has just put your ring under a tester is the worst version of that afternoon.
7
Selling a signed piece as a generic ringThe whole brand premium
A Tiffany, Cartier or Bulgari ring is worth more than the same stone in an unsigned mount, and the box, the papers and the service receipts are what carry that premium. Say the name, produce the packaging, and sell to a buyer who trades the brand.
8
Pulling the stone out of the settingThe setting, for nothing
Unless a buyer has told you they want the loose stone and priced it that way, sell the ring as it is. Unsetting costs bench time, ends the piece as a piece, and the metal you are left with is worth its scrap weight.
9
Meeting a stranger alone, or posting it uninsuredAll of it, occasionally
Do the handover inside a bank branch or a jeweller's shop during trading hours, with someone with you. If it has to be posted, insure it for the sale price with a carrier that will actually cover jewellery, and read the exclusions rather than the headline figure.
10
Assuming a cash sale beats consignmentUsually the difference between them
Consignment through a jeweller, or a lot in an auction, takes weeks or months and the fee comes off the top. It still tends to net more than a same-day buy-out, because the ring reaches somebody who wants to wear it. Ask for a consignment quote alongside the cash offers and compare the net figures.
Who actually buys a diamond here
Australia has a real secondhand diamond trade, and it is smaller and more personal than the American one. It comes down to five kinds of buyer: diamond dealers, mostly in Sydney and Melbourne, who buy stones outright; auction houses, who take a lot and sell it in a catalogue; jewellers who will put a piece in their window on consignment; online buyers who quote from photographs and post you a satchel; and private buyers, who are somebody on the internet with a bank transfer.What each of them pays is not close to what the others pay, so here they are against the same reference: the figure written on the ring's insurance valuation, set at 100.
One ring, offered to every kind of buyer, drawn against its valuationA natural diamond ring with its grading report, as a share of the retail replacement valuationBands are maker+stone's reading of what Australians who have been through it tell us they were offered, and of the fees these channels publish. They are not a survey, and no Australian index of secondhand diamond prices exists to check them against. The bottom band is what the ring most likely cost new: valuations are written above the shop price, which is why every offer on this chart looks worse than it is.
Two things are worth reading off that chart. The first is that nothing reaches the top bar, ever, and no honest buyer will pretend otherwise. The second is the two shortest bands. A pawnbroker and a gold counter pay about the same as each other whatever is set in the ring, which tells you precisely what they are pricing, and it is not the diamond.There is no Rapaport list for Australian sellers, no public index, nothing you can look a figure up in. That is not a scandal, it is just a thin market. It does mean the only defence you have is comparison: three offers, in writing, on the same described stone, with the fees named. Ask for the net figure, the money that lands in your account, not the headline.Retail replacement valuation, the figure on the insurance paper100
Pawnbroker, cash today5 to 15
Pricing the metal, and expecting to keep it.Same day
We buy gold counter5 to 15
Scrap weight of the band. The stone rides along free.Same day
Online mail-in buyer10 to 25
Quoted off photographs, then re-quoted once it lands.Days
Diamond dealer, outright15 to 30
A real price for the stone, struck under what they pay wholesale.Days
Auction, after the seller's fee20 to 45
Commission, photography and insurance come off the hammer.Two to six months
Jeweller consignment, after commission25 to 50
Sold to a retail customer at retail, less the jeweller's cut.One to six months
Private sale, buyer found yourself30 to 55
The most money and all of the work, the handover included.As long as it takes
What the ring cost new, at retail40 to 70
Valuations are written above the shop price, not at it.For reference
A valuation is not a price
This is the argument that happens at almost every counter. The seller has a piece of paper saying eighteen thousand dollars and the dealer is saying four, and both of them are being honest.
Three pieces of paper, and what each one is worth to a buyerA retail replacement valuation answers one question: what would it cost an insurer to buy you a new one at full retail. It is written high because being under-insured is the failure the valuer is paid to prevent. Reading it as a resale figure is the most common and most painful mistake on this page.
The same logic applies to what you paid. A retail price includes the shop, the staff, the display cabinet, the marketing and the margin, and none of that comes back when the ring changes hands the other way. We set out which document is which, and who signs for a diamond in this country, in Australian diamond certification.Insurance valuationA registered valuer, often the shop that sold it
Stands behind
What replacing the ring at full retail would cost, on a stated date
A written description of the stone, the metal and the setting
Enough detail for an insurer to write a policy
Does not
Say what a buyer will pay for it
Grade the stone independently, in most cases
Bear much relation to what you paid in the first place
Grading reportGIA, IGI or the DCLA in Sydney
Stands behind
Weight, measurements and proportions, measured on the stone
Colour and clarity, judged against master stones
Whether the diamond was mined or grown
A number a buyer can look up while standing in front of you
Does not
Put a price on the stone
Cover the setting or the workmanship
Survive the stone being recut or repolished
The original invoiceWhoever sold it, years ago
Stands behind
What was paid, and when
Who made the ring, which matters for a signed piece
That the ring is yours to sell
Does not
Set a floor under any offer
Prove the grades that were quoted at the time
Interest a dealer, who is pricing today's market
The file that is worth money
Before you speak to a buyer, spend an afternoon on the drawers. This is the only part of selling a ring where the return on an hour is obvious.
A buyer without a report is buying a stone and an unknown. The discount for that unknown is always larger than the fee for grading it would have been.
What to have in front of you before anyone quotesSecond-hand dealers and pawnbrokers are licensed under state legislation across Australia and must record seller identification, so bring photo identification to any sale. If the ring came from an estate, the executor's paperwork does the job the invoice would otherwise do.
The report is the item that changes the number. Which laboratory signed it also matters, and it matters more on resale than it ever did on purchase: a GIA report on a natural stone is trade currency, and a report from a laboratory a dealer does not follow gets treated as a starting suggestion. Our guide to which grading lab to trust sets out which names carry weight and which do not.The grading reportAsked for first
The single document that moves an offer. It tells the buyer what they are holding without them paying to find out.Without it: the buyer grades it themselves, conservatively, and the cost of being careful comes out of your price.The girdle inscriptionAsked for first
Most graded stones carry the report number laser-etched on the edge. It ties the paper to the stone at ten times magnification.Without it: a report is just a report for some diamond, and a careful buyer treats it as unverified.The box, the pouch and the brand papers
On a signed piece this is a large part of the premium. Full set is a phrase that has a price attached to it in the trade.Without it: the ring is priced as a good ring by an unnamed maker.The original invoice or receipt
Establishes provenance and that the ring is yours to sell, which matters more after a death or a separation than at any other time.Without it: expect questions, particularly from an auction house, which needs clean title before it can list anything.The insurance valuation
A careful description of the whole piece, including the setting and the small stones, that nobody has to redo.Without it: nothing much. It was never a price.Service and repair records
Shows the ring has been looked after, and tells a buyer whether it has ever been resized or had a claw retipped.Without it: the buyer assumes the worst about a worn setting and prices for a rebuild.Clear photographs, taken in daylight
Lets you ask several buyers for an indication before anyone handles the ring, which is how you get three offers without three appointments.Without it: you drive around.Your driver licence or passport
Licensed second-hand dealers and pawnbrokers here are required to record identification from anyone selling to them.Without it: the sale does not happen that day.If the stone is lab-grown
Say this part plainly, because it is the one that hurts. A lab-grown diamond recovers very little on resale, often not much more than the gold it is set in, and a lot of dealers will not quote on one at all. The reason is not snobbery. Production keeps growing and wholesale prices have fallen every year for most of a decade, so a brand new stone at your grades costs a dealer less this month than yours cost you, and there is no margin in buying used inventory that is cheaper new.We sell lab-grown and natural stones, and we tell buyers of lab-grown this before they pay, so it would be strange to soften it for a seller. What matters here is the order you find out in. Learning it from a dealer who has just run a tester over your ring, in a week when the money is already spoken for, is a much worse afternoon than reading it here.
How to find out before you goCheck the report first. IGI grades most lab-grown stones and says so on the face of the document, and modern stones carry the word inscribed on the girdle. No report, and a gemmologist with a screening instrument will tell you in ten minutes for a small fee. A jeweller looking through a loupe cannot, and neither can you.
None of this makes a lab-grown ring a mistake. It was never an asset, and neither was the natural one: a mined stone sold to a dealer typically comes back at a fraction of retail too, which is the whole point of the chart above. We work through both sides of that in is a lab-grown diamond worth buying.Getting three offers, and comparing them
Three offers are only useful if they are offers on the same thing. Send every buyer the same photographs and the same report number, and ask each of them the same five questions.
What to ask a buyer, and what the answer meansNone of these questions are rude, and any established dealer answers all five without blinking. The one that sorts the room fastest is the request to put it in writing.
Then compare net against net. An auction estimate of twelve thousand is not better than a dealer's six if the seller's commission, the photography and the insurance take a quarter of the hammer price and the sale is four months away. Write both down as the amount that reaches your account and the date it gets there, and the choice usually makes itself.“Is that offer for the stone, for the metal, or for the ring as it is?”
A straight answerA number for the centre stone, a number for the gold by weight, and a note on whether the side stones and the setting are worth anything to them.
Keep asking if you hearThat is what the piece is worth. One figure with no working behind it usually means the stone has been valued at whatever is left over.
“Which grades are you pricing off, and are you using my report?”
A straight answerThe grades on your report, quoted back to you, with any disagreement said out loud and explained.
Keep asking if you hearReports run generous these days. Sometimes true, and it is also the standard opening for marking a stone down without naming a reason.
“Will you put the offer in writing, and how long does it stand?”
A straight answerAn email the same day with the figure, what it covers and a date it expires. Any established buyer does this without being asked.
Keep asking if you hearIt is good today only. Urgency is the oldest tool at the counter, and a stone that is worth something this morning is worth something next week.
“Are you buying it outright, or taking it on consignment?”
A straight answerBoth, with the fee named as a percentage, an estimate of what it would list at, and how long they would hold it before you can take it back.
Keep asking if you hearWe only buy outright. Fine as an answer, and it means their number should be compared against a consignment quote from somebody else.
“If I say no, what happens to my ring right now?”
A straight answerIt is handed straight back, in front of you, with the report and the box.
Keep asking if you hearAnything involving the ring going out the back, into a safe overnight, or away for assessment without a signed receipt describing it.
Handing it over
A private sale pays the most and asks the most of you, and the part people underthink is the last twenty minutes. Meet inside a bank branch or a jeweller's shop in trading hours, not a car park, and take someone with you. Wait for cleared funds. A bank transfer that shows as pending is not money, and neither is a bank cheque you have not been able to verify.If the ring has to travel, insure it for the sale price with a carrier that will actually cover jewellery. Standard parcel cover caps out well below what a ring is worth and several policies exclude unset stones outright, so read the exclusions rather than the headline number, and never post anything before the money has arrived.
The unhurried version of this is always the better one. A ring that has been in a drawer for six years can wait another fortnight for a third offer.
One receipt, every timeWhenever the ring leaves your hand, even for an assessment out the back, get a signed receipt that names the piece, the carat weight, the report number and the date. Reputable buyers offer one without being asked. It is also the document that makes an insurance claim possible if something goes wrong.
The order we would do it in
Most of the loss in this process happens because the steps get done backwards: an offer first, the paperwork afterwards. Run it the other way and the same ring is worth more without anybody negotiating.
Six steps, only the last of which cannot be undoneThis is the sequence we would follow ourselves, and it assumes you have a few weeks. If you do not, the honest shortcut is steps one, two and four: know what it is, find the report, and still get three offers, even if all three are same-day cash.
One last thing, and it has nothing to do with money. A ring from a marriage that ended, or from a mother who has died, is not obliged to be sold, and it is not obliged to be kept either. Plenty of people reset the stone into something they will actually wear, and plenty of others take the money and feel lighter. Both are fine. What is not fine is being rushed into either one by somebody who profits from the decision.1
Find out what you actually haveChangeable later
Locate the grading report, or pay a gemmologist a couple of hundred dollars for an identification. You want to know mined or grown, the weight, and whether the ring is signed, before anyone else does.Getting this wrong is how a lab-grown stone gets taken to three dealers, and how a Cartier ring gets sold as a nice solitaire.
2
Gather the fileChangeable later
Report, box, papers, invoice, valuation, service records, and a few honest photographs in daylight. An afternoon of looking through drawers is the best-paid work in this whole process.Every missing document becomes a discount, because the buyer is pricing what they cannot verify.
3
Decide what you need, and what you will not takeChangeable later
Not a hoped-for number, a floor. If the money is for a deposit or a settlement, the useful question is what has to be raised and by when, because time is the thing you are trading away when you take a same-day offer.Without a floor, the first offer becomes the anchor and every later one gets judged against it.
4
Get three offers, in writingChangeable later
A diamond dealer, a jeweller who takes consignment, and one of an auction house, an online buyer or a second dealer. Send the same photographs and the same report to each, and ask each one what comes off the top.One offer is not a price. It is a starting position from the only person in the room who knows the market.
5
Choose speed or money, knowinglyChangeable later
Cash today is the smallest number on the page and it is a perfectly reasonable choice when the estate has to be settled or the house is closing. Consignment usually pays more and can take half a year.The gap between the two is the price of waiting. It is worth knowing what you are being paid to be patient.
6
Hand it over properlyHard to undo
In a bank branch or a shop, in trading hours, with a signed receipt that describes the ring and the report number. Insured post if it has to travel. Cleared funds before the ring leaves your hand.This is the only step on the list you cannot revisit. Everything before it is a conversation.
Not sure what you are holding?Send us a photo of the ring and the report if you have one. We will tell you what the stone most likely is, whether the paper is worth anything, and which kind of buyer to approach. We are not going to make you an offer, because we do not buy diamonds.
Ask us