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Got an engagement, wedding ring to sell? Get the most from your diamond rings in 2023

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Are you exploring options for where to sell your wedding ring after a divorce? Or are you ready to sell your diamond engagement ring after a relationship ended?

Whatever the reason, making the decision to sell relationship rings is not an easy one. But, once you have decided to sell, the next step is figuring how where, when, and how. We have lots of experience with this topic! 

If you’re thinking about selling your engagement ring, it’s important to understand the differences between buyers, what they are willing to pay, and the potential resale value of your diamond ring vs. the retail value.

Based on our criteria, which we detail, these are your three best options to get the most money for your diamond engagement ring:

Best place to sell your diamond ring for the most money: Diamonds USA

Selling your engagement ring to a local jeweler or pawn shop may give you quick cash, which is important to a lot of people. However, local jewelry buyers typically pay less than online buyers — plus also require you to leave your house and are far less private than online diamonds buyers.

I recommend considering a reputable diamond buyer online like DiamondsUSA, which pays within 24 hours of an accepted offer, has an A+ BBB rating, and ships fully insured from your home.

DiamondsUSA is one of the best gold and jewelry buyers on the market and buys any and all sizes of gold and diamond jewelry. Other buyers require a minimum size and value of diamond.

Here are the top reasons why Diamonds USA is our No. 1 recommendation:

Fairest pricing and payment for wedding and engagement rings

  • Get paid within 24 hours of accepted offer, about 3 days from requesting mailer
  • 10% bonus if you send your item within 7 days
  • 100% highest price guarantee
  • Pays by Paypal, print-at-home check, direct deposit, personal check by Fedex or First Class USPS or Virtual Visa credit card — your choice

Reputation

  • A+ Better Business Bureau rating
  • 4.7/5 Trustpilot stars
  • Founded in 2005

Safety and insurance

  • Free, secure mailer or FedEx or USPS package sent to your home
  • 100% highest price guarantee
  • Insurance up to $100,000 by Jeweler's Mutual insurance
  • CashforGoldUSA facility in Foxboro, Mass., is insured by Lloyds of London

How to sell to DiamondsUSA

  1. Go to DiamondsUSA and request a free appraisal kit delivered to and picked up from your door. You can also print out a mailing label to speed up the process. If you mail in your item within 7 days, you're eligible for a 10% bonus.
  2. Once received, you will get a confirmation email or call, and DiamondsUSA evaluates your item and extends an offer.
  3. Once you accept the offer, get paid within 24 hours!

If you choose to decline the offer for whatever reason, DiamondsUSA will immediately return your item for free, no questions asked. 

Learn more about this company through this review of their sister site, CashforGoldUSA.com.

Value add

  • If you do not accept their offer, DiamondsUSA will send your item back immediately, free of charge
  • Buys all diamonds (and gold and silver), no matter the quality or size
  • Simple, fast process

Check out these recent Diamond USA sales:

February 2023 — .78 ct round brilliant J Vs2, $1,050.20:

.78ct round brilliant J Vs2 diamond engagement ring sold to Diamonds USA.

March 2023 — GIA 1.00 ct. round brilliant E VS2 $2,800:

1.00ct. round brilliant E VS2 diamond engagement ring sold to DiamondsUSA.

February 2023 — 1.72 ct. Round brilliant J SI2, $3,000:

1.72ct. Round brilliant J SI2 diamond ring sold to Diamonds USA.

February 2023 — 2.8 ct. round brilliant J SI1 $15,500:

2.80ct. round brilliant J SI1 diamond ring sold to Diamonds USA.

DiamondsUSA is also the best option for selling gold and platinum wedding rings. Actually, DiamondsUSA and its sister sites, CashforGoldUSA and CashforSilverUSA, can help you sell the following:

  • Diamond ring with a center stone of any size
  • Wedding ring with lots of small diamonds in the setting (known as melee diamonds)
  • Engagement ring with small diamonds or other gemstones in the setting
  • All other diamond, gold, gemstone or even silver jewelry and coins

Where to sell a designer engagement ring: Abe Mor

If you have something that’s high value because you have large diamonds or a designer engagement ring (Tiffany & Co, Cartier, Harry Winston, Van Cleef & Arpels, etc.), and you don't need the money immediately, consider Abe Mor. Here’s why:

Pricing and payment

  • AbeMor.com is an online diamond buyer that accepts stones of at least .5 carats
  • Shipping and insurance is always free
  • Will overnight payment upon request, though the whole process takes a week or more

Reputation

  • 4.9 stars on its Google Business profile
  • A+ BBB rating 

Safety

  • Send in your jewelry with a free, 100% trackable FedEx mailer 
  • Insured by AIB Express Logistics in transit for up to $50,000 — though more insurance can be requested if needed
  • Packages shipped to an AIB secure location and brought to Abe Mor by armed guards
  • You receive a tracking number

Value add

  • Zero online customer complaints

How to sell to Abe Mor:

  1. Go to Abe Mor's website and click “Request an estimate” to fill out a short form, including your name, contact information, and a description of your loose diamond or diamond jewelry. You can also upload images to the site, as well as a grading report, if you have them.
  2. You will receive an initial offer for your item within 1 to 2 business days via email and/or text (if you check the box to receive a text offer). 
  3. If you reject the offer, then Abe Mor promises to ship your item back to you immediately for free.
  4. If you choose to move forward, Abe Mor will send you a trackable prepaid FedEx shipping kit, which should arrive at your home within 2 to 3 business days. You can schedule a pickup at your home or drop off at a FedEx location.
  5. Within 48 hours of receipt of your item, Abe Mor’s in-house team will conduct a final appraisal and send you an official offer via phone or email. You can negotiate before accepting or rejecting this offer. Upon request, Abe Mor will send items for GIA certification. 
  6. If you accept the offer, payments are typically made within 3 business days either via check or wire transfer.

Check out our Abe Mor review to learn more about this 55-year-old business. Or get an online appraisal from Abe Mor now >>

Where to get cash for your engagement ring without selling: Diamond Banc

If you need to get the most money for your engagement ring today, but you don’t really want to sell it, then consider a jewelry loan from Diamond Banc. A jewelry loan allows you to send in your engagement ring (or other jewelry) as collateral against a loan, in exchange for interest.

Here's why we like Diamond Banc:

Pricing and payment

  • Diamond Banc accepts jewelry valued at $500 to $500,000
  • Accepts diamonds, fine jewelry, luxury watches, gold and precious metals
  • Loans up to 80% of the estimated liquid wholesale value of your jewelry (varies depending on the price volatility of the asset)
  • Interest rates start at 2.5%, with loans in 30-day increments (minimum 61-day loan period, up to 5 years)
  • Receive funds in as little as 24 hours

Reputation

  • Better Business Bureau A+ rating
  • Trustpilot 4.7 stars, 535 reviews

Safety

  • Assets are fully insured and stored in alarm-protected, 24-hour security monitored, fireproof vaults
  • Shipments are 100% free and fully insured for the value of your item

Value add

  • Also buys jewelry and watches outright
  • Storefront locations in Tampa, Boca Raton, Miami, Aventura, Calif., Orlando, Nashville, Atlanta, Charlotte, Kansas City, Columbia, and Rochester, N.Y.

How to get a jewelry loan from Diamond Banc:

  1. Fill out the submission form at diamondbanc.com with a description of your jewelry and desired loan amount to get an initial quote.
  2. Diamond Banc provides a free, insured shipping label to send in your jewelry for final evaluation, and then sends you an offer.
  3. If you accept the loan offer, you’ll be issued payment immediately via check or wire transfer. If you don’t, your jewelry will be immediately returned.
  4. Once your loan has been fully repaid, your jewelry will be securely returned to you. 

Learn more about how jewelry loans work and read our Diamond Banc review.

Where to sell your diamond ring ‘near me'?

There are a few options when it comes to selling your diamond ring. If you need money immediately, these are your local options: 

If you can wait a bit for the money, these are some of your other options:

Of all these options you have to sell your old engagement ring, these likely won’t get you the most money as if you were to work with a diamond buyer online. Here’s why:

  • A local retail business has high overhead in rent, staff and advertising, and less competition than an online diamond buyer, so you may not receive as much cash in comparison to other options.
  • Selling on ebay or Etsy is a lot of work, and requires expertise in jewelry photography and marketing. Unless you have a large cache of product that warrants building a platform, selling just one or a few products is very hard to do.
  • Pawn shops typically buy all kinds of gold and diamond jewelry, but expect to pay a very high commission and receive less cash than if you went to a reputable jeweler or online gold or diamond buyer.

Moissanite vs diamond: What to know about resale value in 2023

How to sell your diamond ring or wedding ring

Here are the basic steps for how to sell your diamond engagement ring or wedding band:

1. Gather all the information you have about your ring

If you have a GIA certificate for your diamond or other lab report, the original box, receipt, and any documentation of the size and quality of the stones and metal, send or bring it with you when you sell.

There are just a couple of internationally recognized jewelry grading laboratories. These include:

  • Gemological Institute of America (GIA), based in New York City
  • International Gemological Institute (IGI), based in Antwerp, Belgium

The resale value of your engagement ring depends on the size, cut, clarity and color of the stone, as well as the market value of the precious metal in which it is set. Plus, yours might be worth more if it's from a designer jewelry brand. All of these can be documented in a lab report or even a diamond appraisal

These reports typically cost between $100 and $300, so they're only worth it if your item is worth at least $1,000.

More later on how to value your diamond engagement ring.

2. Get an appraisal of your ring and diamond

It is important to understand what your ring is worth on the resale market, including the grade and weight of its stones and setting. A quality jewelry appraisal or lab report will document these details. 

An appraisal can also help you determine how much your engagement ring or wedding ring is worth. Most local jewelers in your community will offer an appraisal, often for free.

This can be a good estimate of the replacement value of your jewelry, which can help you get it insured and understand its retail value (the price you would pay today for the item in a store).

Learn more about how to get a jewelry appraisal and diamond certification, if you don’t already have these documents.

3. Get offers from multiple buyers 

You can always start with a quote from a jewelry store, diamond buyer, or pawn shop near you. 

It’s also easy to obtain multiple offers from online ring buyers, including Abe Mor (for designer engagement rings with larger stones) and DiamondsUSA (for any jewelry). Or, if you’re not ready to sell, you can apply for a loan on your ring from Diamond Banc.

These sites will ask you for some basic information either online or over the phone. Then they will make an estimate. From there, a quality online buyer will send a free FedEx, UPS, or USPS mailer that includes insurance, and you should be able to track your item all the way to the buyer, through their specific selling process.

If your ring is worth more than $1,000, you can also try to auction your ring through online jewelry marketplace, Worthy.com.

Read more about how Worthy works in our Worthy.com review.

Understanding diamond ring resale value

One of the reasons many women choose not to sell their engagement ring is that the price they are quoted from a jeweler or auction site is much lower than they believe their ring is to be worth.

There are several reasons for this:

  1. Wholesale ring buyers need to make a profit when they resell your ring or earrings, so they like to buy low, and then turn around and sell your diamond for a higher price.
  2. The market for diamonds and jewelry changes all the time, so the market price of your jewelry may have dropped since it was originally purchased. Also, engagement ring resale value fluctuates with supply and demand. Diamond values are down at least 25% over the paste year alone.
  3. There is often confusion about the total carat weight of a diamond ring or other jewelry. A common misunderstanding is that the jewelry owner believes that, for example, she has a 1-carat engagement ring, when in reality, the center stone is .5 carats, and the surrounding smaller stones total .5 carats. Most jewelers or ring buyers value the smaller stones very little — perhaps less than $100 total in this case — and are only interested in the center stone.
  4. Many people also do not know the actual, certified resale value of their diamond center stone.

Do diamond engagement rings hold their value?

While over time, diamonds have historically risen in value from a retail price point, do not expect to get your money back on an engagement ring. Typically, resale value of fine gemstone jewelry is one-third to one-half of what you pay for it. 

In recent years, diamond prices have fallen, making now a good time to sell before prices drop further.

Should I get my engagement ring appraised before selling?

An appraisal from a local jeweler is useful for insurance resale value, or perhaps to understand the quality of your engagement ring. A lab report can be very helpful in selling your engagement ring, or getting a loan against your ring, but will cost $100 to $300, so this only makes sense for more valuable items.

How much will I get if I sell my diamond ring? How much is a diamond worth?

Your engagement ring is worth the current market rate for the diamond and metal.

The real value in selling your wedding or engagement ring or other jewelry you don’t wear is that it frees up all that negative energy attached to the item, stewing indefinitely in your jewelry box. It felt good to rid my home and mind of that significant marriage memento.

Even if you loved the ring, loved your ex, loved being married, love any kids that came from that union (yes, yes, yes, yes for me), it is time to move on and free the mental energy attached to the ring — not to mention the money!

How much will a jeweler pay for a diamond ring or wedding ring set?

A jeweler will likely pay you anywhere from 50% to 70% of the retail value of your ring. Pawn shops will likely pay 25% to 60% of the retail value. Again, this may be less than what you would get from an online buyer, as a jeweler will have a higher markup. Shop around to ensure you get the best price. 

How much can you sell an engagement ring for?

A 1-carat diamond and gold engagement ring will fetch resale prices ranging from $1,000 to $5,000, depending on the cut, quality and setting. Platinum setting and large side stones can mean higher prices, as can name brands like Tiffany or Cartier.

This ring sold at Diamonds USA. The weight is for the center stone only:

January, 2023 — .91 Emerald G VS2 $1,102.90:

Sell engagement ring on Diamonds USA.

Start the selling process with Diamonds USA now >>

Bottom line: Should you sell your engagement ring? What’s the best way to sell wedding rings?

Relationship ended? Why keep your ring when you could use the cash? 

A couple years after my divorce, I sold my engagement ring and wedding band, used it for a family vacation, and never looked back.

Overall, I am a huge fan of selling your engagement ring in the event that your relationship ends, and I did so myself. The owner of the engagement ring is typically the woman, so you are free to sell it when you divorce.

I admit that the cash I earned by reselling my engagement ring was less than I’d hoped, but after some research, I understood that there is a significant difference between retail and resale value of a diamond. It is what it is.

I only received a fraction of what my now ex-husband and I paid for it, but I felt I got a fair price and used the proceeds to fund a trip my kids took to Europe with their dad to visit family — which, again, I felt good about.

Our recommendation for the best place to sell wedding rings is online through DiamondsUSA.

Diamond buyer DiamondsUSA

How about you? Do you still have your engagement ring? Or did you resell your wedding ring, give it away, turn it into a necklace, or throw it out the car window into a ditch on the way home from the court date finalizing your divorce? Do you feel you understood the true resale value of your jewelry?

Please share in the comments!

Looking to sell other belongings? Did you know you can sell your wedding dress for cash?

Where can I sell my engagement ring for the most money?

Selling your engagement ring to a local jeweler or pawn shop may give you quick cash, which is important to a lot of people. However, keep in mind that brick-and-mortar jewelry buyers typically pay less than online buyers, so I recommend considering a reputable diamond buyer online.

Do engagement rings hold their value?

While over time, diamonds have historically risen in value from a retail price point, do not expect to get your money back on an engagement ring. Typically, resale value of fine gemstone jewelry is one-third to one-half of what you pay for it. Diamond prices have been declining over the past year.

How much can you sell an engagement ring for?

A 1-carat diamond and gold engagement ring will fetch resale prices ranging from $1,000 to $5,000, depending on the cut, quality and setting. Platinum setting and large side stones can mean higher prices, as can name brands like Tiffany or Cartier.

How much will a jeweler pay for a diamond ring?

A jeweler will likely pay you anywhere from 25% to 50% of the retail value of your ring. Shop around to ensure you get the best price.

Should you sell your engagement ring?

Overall, I am a huge fan of selling your engagement ring in the event that your relationship ends, and I did so myself. Diamond prices are declining, so best to sell now before your ring is worth less in the future.

Wealthysinglemommy.com founder Emma Johnson is an award-winning business journalist, activist, author and expert. A former Associated Press reporter and MSN Money columnist, and National Jeweler editor, Emma has appeared on CNBC, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, NPR, TIME, The Doctors, Elle, O, The Oprah Magazine. Winner of Parents magazine’s “Best of the Web” and a New York Observer “Most Eligible New Yorker," her #1 bestseller, The Kickass Single Mom (Penguin), was a New York Post Must Read. As an expert on divorce and gender, Emma presented at the United Nations Summit for Gender Equality and multiple state legislature hearings. Her next book, The 50/50 Solution, is out March, 2024 with Sourcebooks. More about Emma's credentials.

Yingjia Puk is a GIA-certified gemologist and CAD/CAM jewelry designer as well as a member of the National Association of Jewelry Appraisers. Yingjia has worked extensively with jewelry since 2006, with positions at Harry Winston, celebrity jeweler Lorraine Schwartz and Good Housekeeping and BlackBook magazines. Previously, she managed the gemological laboratory at Worthy.com. Yingjia is originally from Singapore.Yingjia's LinkedIn profile

152 Comments

Right after separating I took off my ring, gathered the rest of the gold, platinum & diamond jewelry my ex gave me and went straight to the jeweler he bought them from. Walked out with $6000. Second best decision I made!

After a 25 year marriage my 2 carat diamond and eternity band wedding ring sat in s safe for 12 years. One of my kids suggested that I should have it remounted and worn on my right hand. I took her advice and redesigned both rings. Love how they came out. They are no longer marriage related to me but two great rings.

To celebrate the finalisation of my divorce from the ex-husband who had 2 affairs and squandered our son’s education trust fund I traded up my 0.5 carat diamond engagement ring for a 5 carat cocktail ring with the jeweller who made the original engagement ring and held a party to celebrate the next chapter of my life. Two older divorced ladies said “Oh well should have had a party and bought ourselves new rings”. Do it for yourself sisters!

Not sure what to do… Divorce after 23 yrs my original engagement ring was picked out as a sapphire not even a diamond and was on clearance for $600 then after being 5 yrs married I worked at a jewelry store and decided to buy myself a diamond and matching did band so I got a nice set retail $6400 but I got it for $3200. Never received any gifts beyond a box of chocolates w stuffed toy and flowers on Valentine’s.. other than that no Christmas, Birthday or even just because .. felt very unappreciated bringing up 5 children… The final straw was finding out that although we both worked the mortgage was behind 5 yrs in payments. Time to move on and take back the reigns. Just have no idea where to begin.

Great ideas here, but I don’t seem to understand what I should do with my ring.
I’m still attached with it and I don’t think I’ll ever want to sell it.
Anyway, there are many horrible things that people do to their wedding ring after divorce.
I just don’t know why I’m still having the ring, after all I am the one who suffered!
May she be happy. Just this.

Hi Emma! I’m intrigued by your willingness to send your jewelry in the mail to these online places. How did you know they wouldn’t just keep the jewelry and you’d never hear from them again? Or that they would give you the correct amount owed to you from the sale? Did you have a contract or any other document agreeing to the terms of the sale? I know there are testimonies and endorsements on these sites but sending expensive jewelry via the mail to these sites seems so scary to me!

I checked out all the sites mentioned here, all have great BBB ratings and the shipments are indeed insured via FedEx – you can see this all yourself :)

Just read Tom’s comment, above. Tom, I can spot guys like you a mile away. Someone damaged you in your past. Your mommy, no doubt. So sorry. She produced a sow’s ear, and you can’t make a good husband out of a sow’s ear anyway.

When we got married we were broke and i chose to use what little $$$ we had for a down-payment on a condo instead of a ring. Never ever regretted it.

Like I always say, an engagement ring is nothing more than divorce insurance that your wife will cash in the second she has sex with your best friend. Best thing for guys in America is to NEVER get married. Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free? Even more when once you marry the woman she actually becomes the cow within a few years.

I was saving my ring after we divorced I didn’t know why just didn’t want to get rid of it. Then I decided I would make a necklace for my daughter with the diamond when she was older. However I never really put thought into how about getting rid of it and letting go correlate. Anyhow I ended up getting robbed of everything I own pretty much and that was one of the items because I did not have a safe box. Lesson learned in so many ways. But I am actually not sad about it now because when my daughter gets older I will make her, her own diamond necklace for graduation that has no ties to a broken marriage.

I’m in that situation currently. I was separated for four years out of our marriage, and now our divorce has been final for 2+ years. I wanted to save the ring for my daughter, but now look at it as a curse. The marriage that I had with her father, I’d never dream of passing it along to her. Now I want to get it out of my house and hopefully find some peace here as well with it gone.

My marriage ended about a year ago, divorced 10 months. I just decide what I am going to go with my engagement ring.
It is a single 1/2 cts with two 1/4 cta on either side. I and Turing the 1/4 cts into earnings and replacing them with the birth stone of each of my kids.
Can’t wait to find the right jewelry to do the work.

2 years after my divorce I trying to decide what to do with my wedding rings. The more I thought about it them more I kept hearing my mother say a woman should never waste a good diamond. I took the wedding set to a trustworthy and reliable jeweler and he sketched out a necklace using the diamonds. It turned out beautiful and I can pass the diamonds down to my daughter with a story behind it.

My engagement ring is beautiful and I miss wearing it. It’s been in my safety deposit box for a couple years now. With the trend of black diamonds and chocolate diamonds I decided to switch out the one carat center piece. I wear it on my right hand and it is stunning. I am very happy. I joke that it’s black like my heart. I may turn the original diamond into a necklace or save it for one of my kids.

I believe if the husband is the one who wanted the divorce then the wife should keep it. Then do what she wants with it.
But if the wife wants the divorce then she should give the ring back to the husband. I don’t see the wedding ring as a gift. I see it as a symbol of love, a way to show your commitment to loving each other “til death do us part”.
If you don’t want your husband, why do you want the ring he gave you? You end the marriage, return the ring.

I think it depends a great deal on why the marriage is ending and the general character/spirit of the marriage… Not just who files for the divorce.

Also, I see the wedding band as the symbol you described…. The engagement ring is kind of like a deposit or a warranty on a future together. Giver breaks the relationship/the future and loses the deposit. Recipient breaks the relationship/future and has to refund the deposit. Wedding bands, unless family heirlooms, should be kept by their respective parties to do with them as they wish.

I have been divorced for 14 years. My engagement and wedding ring are in a safe deposit box at the bank. My thought was always to give the engagement diamond to my oldest son and my diamond wedding band to my youngest son so they could use what they wanted to create the rings for their future wife. You have an interesting take on rings (one I can see and understand) -I never looked at my rings as carrying the “bad” that caused our divorce—always knew my kids were born out of love and associate rings with the good that once was. My sons are 20 and 19. I have no regrets in life. I would do it all the same way just to have my kids! I guess by the time my divorce was finalized I was content with knowing I gave my marriage my all and there was nothing I could do to save it (you can’t make someone want to stay when they want to go). I never looked back after divorce. Took me years before I ever thought of dating someone but I have been happily involved with someone for the past 7 years. My rings symbolize the good in my ex that produced my sons….not the bad in my ex that ended our marriage. Just my take on things—doesn’t make me right or wrong…just the way I choose to view it. Thank you for sharing your story on rings.

Thank you for posting that Sandra:
Some of the rest of what I see here stings. I have been divorced for two years, albeit not a decade yet, My ex wife and I share three young children and I struggle to build a more amicable co-parenting relationship. I have my band and she our her engagement and band…I bought all three. I wasn’t rich and am not now for sure, but every time I look at the band I think of the day we bought them, and the happy times that came after. never the arguments or the errors or the deep sadness that came after my ex wife walked out of the door of our home. I wore the ring in defiance and desperation through the first 8 months of my separation and then carried it bundled in boxes and a velvet bag for months after that–I was convinced that I would get to some place we had been that I would think was the perfect place to bury it…I couldn’t bring myself to letting go of it, and what had failed in that way…I certainly cannot see myself selling it anymore than I could see myself carving off a chunk of my heart and selling that because she had been attached to that in some bad way. I’m not exactly sure what I will do with it,but I am certain that in some way, it will be stuck with me, and I it for the duration that I bought intended it for…Aren’t the lessons we get from our walk through life, those painful and those joyous worthy of a token reminder now and again. shouldn’t we be humbled by our shortcomings and treasure the joy that paralleled it…No life experience will ever sit in the same place as within my heart, mind or soul as cradling a women I was deeply enamored with between my legs, peering over her shoulder with my arms encircling her and her hands in mind squeezing together as our son was born…IM KEEPING MY RING!

Thank you for sharing this. It is a deeply personal decision… If my pieces carried such deep, positive memories of the shared journey, I would feel the same. Mine, though, are reminders of how aline I was during some of the most painful experiences during our marriage and I can’t keep reliving that. But had the birth of our son, or raising him, and such things been truly shared experiences, even if the marriage ultimately ended, I’d hold on to my engagement ring and wedding band…

Thank you for this post. I have been divorced for 2 years now and my rings are sitting in a box in the closet. My engagement ring and wedding ring were from my grandmother and I feel so torn. I adore the rings and my grandparents, but they just bring me such heartache.

I went to the exact middle of the Golden Gate Bridge, and threw my wedding band over the edge into the water. Apparently a friend told me that is what a lot of people do from the bay area after they divorce. However, I did have the stones removed and made into a beautiful necklace that I designed myself. I chose to keep it because hey, I did get my children from this period of my life, so it wasn’t all bad…

Address shock of retail versus wholesale (which you may very well be selling it back for). I otherwise sold it because I felt like a fraud. R that he still had some control that I wasn’t even aware of. Let it go. I cried at the store. So many triggers. And it was so cold and symbolic while they undid the prongs, to identify and weigh it.

I kept the main diamond to turn into a necklace or ring from my daughter when she turns 16. Although my marriage went sour, I have no regrets because I have two beautiful children. She needs to know that she was wanted and loved and that for a very long time, we were happy.

I sold the small diamonds and gold, along with some other gold pieces to earn money to revamp my master bedroom and bathroom after the divorce. I kept the house and couldn’t wait to make it my own. I have no regrets in selling my ring. By the way, sold his ring for cash, too, since he left it here.

I held onto my engagement and wedding rings for about a year after my divorce. At first I wanted to pawn them or do Cash4Gold but I wasn’t going to get much. Both rings were 14 K white gold and 1/4 CT diamonds. I would have been lucky to get $100 for both. But since both rings were bought at and registered with Kays Jewelry I talked to them and they gave me a great deal. Just for my engagement ring they gave me $700 credit toward a $1400 purchase. So when my new man and I decided to get married, I picked out my new engagement ring and paid for half of it with my old one! Some people may not agree with it but I think it was a great investment!

Seems to me if a man gives an engagement ring to the woman he marrys and they later get divorced then she should return the ring to him along with the wedding ring or as a minimum sell them both and split the proceeds

I have been reading through the comments and feel bad for you, Gary. It sounds like you’ve had some really bad experiences with women who took advantage of you. I care about that. It seems you’re reaching conclusions that all the women sharing their stories here are also taking advantage of their exes. Maybe some of them have. My husband sold some very precious possessions of his to buy me a spectacular diamond ring for our engagement. We had some difficulty in our marriage before he passed away two years ago. Had we ended our marriage I would not have given the ring back to him (he absolutely never would have asked for it) but I wouldn’t have been able to sell it either because we always deeply loved one another, even during our hardest times. Not everyone has such fortune. Surely you can see that for some it may be very healing emotionally to eliminate a symbol of their crushed dreams especially when the split is not amicable? And in some of these examples women have stated that they needed the money the sale of the ring provided. Unless a woman has broken an engagement or otherwise been egregiously responsible for the marriage dissolution it doesn’t seem intuitive to me that she’d be obliged to return the ring. We all have to take our own path and do the best we can. I think that’s what the majority of the women who have shared here have done.

Hi,
I have an engagement ring that I want to sell 18K thick white gold band 1.54ct D/SI2 EGL certified brilliant solitaire. Any ideas, where to sell my ring in Dallas?
Thanks!!

I have a beautiful canary diamond w platium band 4 carats from my long term marriage. Now my new guy wants to use it to buy me an engagement ring. My guy does not need the money he just IMO being cheap! Now I’m rethinking on if to even to stay with him. Just makes me feel like I’m not worthy .

My second ex husband used the diamond from my first engagement ring as a down payment on the ring he gave me. Then we were saddled with a 12 month ring payment at $450/ month after we got married so I really contributed to most of this ring. Not to mention he admittedly had an affair within the first 8 months of our marriage while I was 6 months pregnant with our daughter. I chose to stay for many reasons (not playing the victim here but I did choose to sit tight, knowing I would eventually get out of this) and focused on my health, pregnancy and other child. Every day I looked at that ring and it meant nothing to me so I can’t believe I STILL have it in my damn jewelry box?! It’s been 2 years since our DIE-Vorce & he’s already remarried with an infant! What am I thinking?
Thanks for the article Emma! The sell of this tainted ring has now moved to top priority! A male friend of mine told me to sell it a while back as he happily sold his, right after HE threw his Mont Blanc pen that he’d signed his divorce papers with off a bridge & into the Chattahoochee River (Atlanta).
Also, knowing the markup & that I probably won’t get much, ( WE paid $6500) so perhaps what little ROI I do get will help me fund a vacation! I need a trip to London to see a great friend/single mom who just moved there & will give me a tour/free place to stay & loads of laughter! Cheers damn it!

A canary can easily be worn as a right hand ring or used in a new piece. That you posted your dilemma here makes me think if you let him trade it in to pay for your new ring that the new ring will carry that negativity with it. I wouldn’t let him have it.

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