WHY DON’T ALL JEWELERS BUY DIAMONDS?

“I wanna sell…”

You take your diamond ring into a jewelry store to sell it.

The store tells you “We don’t buy diamonds, only gold.”

Why is this?

The truth is, some jewelers buy diamonds, some don’t. But why?

You would think that all jewelers would want to buy, after all, they can resell them…

What gives?

Jewelers do buy diamonds. Certainly. But at discounted rates from vendors. What prevent them from buying diamonds from the public is this…

1) Cash

A lot of jewelers just don’t have the funds to make large purchases on the spot. To buy diamonds (which can run into the thousands), they’d need to have the available cash on hand. Either you have it, or you don’t.

2) Confidence

Some jewelers just don’t feel confident when it comes to buying from the public. They don’t know who it is they’re buying from. They could be criminals. The stone could be fake, imitation, lab-created. They could also be trying to swap out stones… You just never know, it’s a risky business.

Buying diamonds is not a 2 second process. The stones need to be cleaned first, weighed, inspected, and quality checked. It’s not as easy as “Here’s a diamond, where’s my money?”

Plus, dealing with the public gives you no warranties, guarantees, or return policies. Vendors give you all these things. The public gives you nothing. What you get is what you see.

3) Image

This is probably the biggest reason why a good portion of jewelers don’t buy from the public. Jewelers have an image to uphold. Jewelers don’t want to look shifty, shady or appear dishonest. They don’t want the public thinking they are ripping them off. This is why many jewelers turn down diamond sales.

Jewelers say they don’t buy diamonds because they don’t want to offend anyone… This is especially true if you are one of their good customers.

Buying diamonds

Now, on the other hand, jewelry stores that do buy diamonds still don’t offer much for them… Many people already know this. There’s a good reason why they offer so little… They can buy the same diamond from a vendor at cost. So why would they pay you more for the exact same stone?

They wouldn’t. You wouldn’t. No on would.

Selling a diamond only gets you about 10-30% of what it’s worth. This is pretty much true anywhere you go.

If jewelers told people that they would offer them $400 for a $2,000 diamond ring, people would get mad, feel insulted and leave out the door (never to return again).

“I bought this diamond from you” is what most people blurt out. Not cool.

Customers figure that the store that sold them the ring would be the one that would pay them the most money for it… Not true.

It doesn’t matter where you bought it from, the cost of diamonds is usually the same.

Not to mention the fact that the ring is now used. And of course, jewelers do want to make a profit off the transaction, as well. Can you blame them?

Jewelers make a choice

So all jewelers make a choice of whether to buy diamonds from the public or not. It’s a personal decision.

It all depends on how they want to be perceived. For it they tick off their customers by offering little for their diamonds, they could lose valuable customers for life.

Some jewelers don’t want to take that risk, so they decline the sale. But, at least their integrity stays intact.

It’s all in what they buy…

Buying gold is a different story.

Most jewelers do buy gold. Gold is melted down and sent to a refiner. Jewelers pay scrap metal value for this gold. This process is easy for the public to understand and grasp.

But a couple of hundred for a diamond worth thousands doesn’t sit so pretty, does it? Even knowing it’s just for the metal, and not the stones…

Many jewelers come right out and say “I don’t have the cash available, so I can only offer you this much.” It helps soften the blow. But it still smarts.

The bottom line is this::

Jewelers don’t want to insult you with the price they give. It’s not easy telling people their diamonds are only worth so much. Which is why it’s better to…

Trade-in diamonds.

Many jewelers will say that they don’t buy diamonds, but… They do take trade-ins.

This is great. You get value for your used item, and you get a brand new jewelry at the same time

But check around first.

Check around before you sell or trade-in your goods.

Compare prices and trade-in values. Don’t worry so much about what they are giving you in trade, what really matters is what the bottom line is. Are you paying $3,700 for that 1.00 carat diamond, or are you paying $5,000??? That’s what you really want to know.

All jewelers buy diamonds.

This is a fact. They do buy diamonds, they just might not buy them from you.

Don’t take it personal, it’s just the way it goes.

Image is everything.

Cheers! :)