Selling High Quality Jewellery
Selling your unwanted jewellery can be a difficult and time-consuming process. There is lot of cheap and poor quality second hand jewellery online with little resale value, however there is also plenty of near new and high quality jewellery with good value that can still return a great sale price with the right selling platform.
Generally the best chance of selling your jewellery is to have a significant size diamond to give the jewellery significant value, however when the jewellery is only made up of precious metal and minor quality or size gems, to gain a reasonable sale for your jewellery it needs to be sold as a complete piece on the merits of its condition and design.
For jewellery with very little component value, selling closer to the market replacement is much more difficult and relies on the needs of the buyer wanting your design and being accepting of the quality, current condition and to within their budget. With so many items for sale online and in store making a match with you jewellery and potential buyers is difficult and often gives the buyer greater negotiation power in the sale.
There is a lot of pre-owned jewellery that will simple have had their day either through wear or design and can only be sold for its scrap components but for jewellery that is of good quality and can be easily restored back to new condition, Diamond Brokers Queensland, can assist with selling your jewellery. The better quality and more attractive your jewellery the better chance that it will have to sell and with the assistance of a second hand jewellery dealer will make the process of selling your jewellery much easier, more secure and return the best sales result.
Selling Diamond and Gem Dress Rings
A premium quality modern style cocktail or dress ring can be ideal jewellery to sell second-hand. There are a few things however to be aware of with these rings to be able to sell them at a high return. Firstly they need to have a reasonable retail value, condition and the design needs to be acceptable to current buyers.
Diamonds will always retain a high worth but gemstones can have quite a variable value depending on the quality and variety. Often with wear gemstone jewellery can sustain damaged but as long as it is not too evident are still fine to be resold as pre-loved.
As with the style cocktail dress rings are often creative designs suited to the era they were made. Some of these styles with still remain modern and others will be more difficult to sell, as the design may no longer be attractive to the majority of buyers.
Dress rings make up such a wide range of jewellery and can often be difficult to identify the sale value and potential. Therefore, we recommend that you contact us with as much details that you have on your ring so we can assess if it will be suitable to be sold through Diamond Brokers Queensland.
Why is second hand jewellery difficult to sell?
In any piece of jewellery no matter the manufactured cost, selling the design is only worth what someone is will to pay for it, which makes finding a buyer for second hand jewellery very difficult. This is because the exposure for a particular piece of second hand jewellery can be very limited and with changing trends it is very easy for jewellery to become out dated.
Second hand jewellery is generally considered anything be it a dress ring, necklace, earrings, bracelet or pendant where the majority of the value of the piece is going to be in the manufacture of the actual jewellery and not its components. There is a lot of jewellery where the value of removing the diamonds or gems contained in the jewellery does not have enough individual worth for purchase by a jeweller and the scrap value of the gold is also much lower than the manufactured value of the piece of jewellery. This leave the piece to either be worth only the scrap value or trying to find a direct buyer for the jewellery which you can expect to take sometimes a considerable length of time just to find a direct sale and then it is only worth what that buyer is willing to pay to have to jewellery.
Selling second-hand precious gems
Selling precious and semi-precious gems second hand is probably the most difficult area of the jewellery market. The value of a gemstone is much more difficult to determine and the condition can quite often be compromised.
To sell a second-hand precious gem (Ruby, Sapphire or Emerald) requires the seller to have the necessary original purchase documents or certification to provide the authenticity of the gem. As without knowing the details, with so many possibilities of what the gem could be, they must be authenticated by a gemologist to assess the type, origin, treatment, condition and quality of the gem to determine the current market value before it can be re-sold.
Semi-precious gems are generally a little easier to asses but without some form of authenticity will still be need to provide proof of what is being sold. Most precious gems are usually of high quality but of lower value with only a few types being worth significant value in the second hand market and must be in premium condition.
There is a very large number of gems in the world with many gem types available in several colours and many in the same colour as other gems. This makes identification of the gem the first step and most vitally important step to list a gemstone for resale correctly.
In the world of gemstones most have had some form of treatment to enhance the gems appearance. Most of these treatments are permanent and acceptable within the trade but how and why a gem has been treated will quite often significantly affect the price of the gem and often requires testing to identify that treatment.
Most gems have several major origin sources and will often vary in price, quality and appearance based on where they have been found. This is often not completely traceable but does help with the sale if the origin can be identified.
Most popular gemstones can now also be created in a laboratory to produce a much cheaper and often better looking gem. This is often quite evident from the appearance but if not specified all gems that are assumed natural gems must be tested to ensure they are not represented incorrectly on resale.
Even the hardest gemstone, sapphire, is quite soft compared to diamond and with prolonged wear in jewellery will sustain damage. Unless the gem has been kept loose or has never been worn it will almost be assumed that the gem will have some evidence of wear which will reduce its value. For well looked after pieces this damage may only be seen under magnification but for older well-worn jewellery there may be no value left for re-sale. For large high value precious gems that have been damaged there may be some hope if the gem can be recut. This will cost money and will change the value of the gem and until it has been cut there is no guarantee of what will be returned but if successful will produce a new premium gemstone.
The quality of most natural gemstones sold in jewellery in Australian is generally quite high but there are varying levels of quality available in most types. The saturation and consistency of colour, the clarity and the precision of the cut will all need to be assessed to determine where the gem will fall in the current market value.
Most small and low value gemstones will have very little value and are most likely going to be reliant on the design and value of the ring for resale. However those precious and semi-precious gemstones that are of high quality and value and are still in relatively good condition have the ability to sell on their merits in the second hand market. The price will rarely be the same as the market price for a new gem but will often have enough to return a significant price.
Selling options for second hand jewellery
At Diamond Brokers Queensland we have four possible options we can offer for selling your second hand jewellery and gems.
Cash Purchase – The fastest way to sell your jewellery is with a straight cash offer. The downside with a fast sale is that the price offered can be as low as 10-20% of the valuation price and is based solely on the component value of the item and how the jeweller sees that they may need to sell it to still make a profit.
This is usually reserved for jewellery where it no longer has any resale value in its current condition or if the seller requires an immediate sale.
Store Consignment – High quality, high value jewellery with a modern saleable design will have the best potential to sell at the closest price to wholesale market replacement. Listing your jewellery on consignment will give your jewellery the best opportunity to sell at the best return price by giving the item reasonable time to find the right buyer.
Tender Auction – For second hand jewellery that still has good value but where the quality and condition are a little more subjective, selling at tender auction will return a good price in a reasonable time. Tender auction allow the seller to test the market by seeing how much the buyers in the market are willing to offer based on the attractiveness of the item for sale against similar available products.
Trade Exchange – One of the best ways to return the value spent on jewellery is to trade it for another item. If you do not need to sell your jewellery to return the money then trading it for other jewellery will retain much more of the original value of the item you want to sell. Second hand dealers are much more flexible on trading jewellery as they do not need to outlay further cash and if there can still be a profit from the trade they will also be less particular about the jewellery quality than with a cash purchase.