Selling Your Jewelry

Last week, I talked about a client who wanted to sell her jewelry, and it turned out pretty well for her.

This week, I want to talk about another client.  The story wasn’t as happy for him.

The second client bought a diamond from a Los Angeles dealer in the Diamond District, who is now living in another country. That jeweler sold him a diamond with an inaccurate lab report that mis-graded his stone.  It was not a GIA report.  I told him I only deal with GIA certified stones. I sent the diamond to GIA for a new report.  When it came back, the comparison was shocking to my client, but not to me.  His diamond that was originally certified as a high color dropped to a low letter we hardly ever see.  That is, the original certificate wrongly classified the stone and gave my client a false sense of the value.  It was worth MUCH LESS than what he thought it was because of the faulty certificate, and the new certificate’s classification was much closer to what I thought the diamond should be.   End of story is that I didn’t buy his stone because the value to me was less than half of what he paid from the original dealer, who cannot be found because he now lives outside the US. My heart went out to him.

Cleaning Your Jewelry At Home

Before resuming with my Selling Your Jewelry Posts, I wanted to talk about something very important.

Over the years I’ve heard horror stories from clients on how they gave their jewelry to fine jewelry stores for cleaning, and when they got the cleaned jewels back they never really looked the same. The reason is likely because the stones were switched for lesser quality stones.  It happens ALL.  THE.  TIME.  So many stories.  Not every fine jewelry store does this, but I heard of even very fine, very “reputable” stores doing this.   This is my opinion and hearsay, but I have an easy, quick way to avoid this.  Clean your jewelry at home!

This is what I do at my own house and for my clients.

— Place your jewels to be cleaned on a towel in the kitchen or bathroom next to the sink.

— Plug the drain.

— Get a bowl and add ammonia and liquid soap, just a squirt or two.

— Mix the cleaning solution, then place the jewels in it.

— If your jewelry consists of solely metal and diamonds, let them sit for a few minutes.

— With a soft tooth brush start brushing the top sides and under belly of the jewels.

— Rinse with warm water and again lay on a towel.

— Use a blow dryer to dry the jewels.

The result are AMAZING.  Everything will look better than new.

For color stones, I don’t let them sit as long in the same solution.  For pearls, I use ivory soap and warm water. Let the pearls dry naturally — no blow dryer, as the heat can damage them. Take your time, as the drill holes need to dry as well as the string.

It’s that easy.

Moral of today’s story — NEVER TAKE YOUR JEWELS SOMEWHERE TO BE CLEANED.

Selling Your Jewelry

In my world, I’ve noticed a trend in clients selling unwanted jewels, which is a good thing.  My clients receive money for spending or investing elsewhere and sell jewelry that otherwise would sit around.  However, there are always pitfalls to avoid, which brings me to the subject of the posts for the next few days.  How to sell your unwanted jewels.  Today marks the first of two different cases that I want to share.

The first one is a new client who lives in another state.  She was referred by a mutual friend in yet another state. She had an important diamond ring which previously had been shopped around in high end jewelry stores, again across many different states. Because my world is very small, I quickly learned the six month history of her trying to sell the diamond. She received promise after promise of high dollar numbers on the sale of the diamond, but she didn’t know whom to trust.

I, too, offered a large amount, sight unseen.  If she wanted more I would have to see the diamond in person. She flew in to Los Angeles to show it to me.  Turns out that it had a chip on the girdle and a couple of bruises on the visible part of the stone. These issues devalued the diamond, and I couldn’t offer her more because of the damage. She said she had other higher offers in the L.A. area, and if I could raise my offer to her, then she would sell to me.

I advised her to take the other higher offer if she felt more comfortable with it.  But I also warned her that unscrupulous jewelers often offer a high amount but want to see the diamond in person.  When the seller brings the diamond in, that jeweler might suddenly claim that there are flaws in it, and then lower their offer.  It’s a bait and switch that happens ALL THE TIME.  The difference between them and me is that I gave her an offer and didn’t renege when I saw the damage to the diamond.

I’ve said it before.  Make sure you trust who is buying and selling you jewelry.  If you’re uncomfortable, then walk away and find someone else.

Have a great weekend!

Gerald