4 Ways to Sell A Diamond

Sometimes it makes sense to sell your diamond. Maybe it's a family heirloom that just doesn't hold any special value to you. Maybe it was given to you by someone no longer in your life. Maybe you were going to give it to someone, but it didn't work out. Or maybe you really just need the money. Whatever the reason, it's important to be smart about selling your diamond.

If you've spent any time with our diamond value calculator, you'll quickly realize what you've heard to be true - the retail price of diamonds is much, much higher than the secondary market. If you bought your diamond retail, you'll likely find that your diamond isn't worth nearly as much as you paid for it. That can obviously be frustrating.

Diamond buyers can't match the retail price for which the consumer had paid since retailers often charge more than double what a diamond is worth in order to stay in business. Retailers have fixed costs like rent, labor, and inventory so they mark up their prices significantly. Some retailers even charge 3 or 4 times their purchase price in order to make an even bigger profit.

What does this mean for the consumer who finds themselves in the situation of trying to sell a diamond? Most of the time, they go back to the person they bought the diamond from for advice and are hit with a tough reality. People giving them a quote for their diamond are usually trying to buy it or profit off the transaction somehow, so the advice they're getting isn't exactly neutral.

So what should you do?

Just like selling a car, to get the most money out of your diamond you should try to sell to a private party (aka a person). This isn't for everyone, because you'll have to place an ad on Craigslist (or another P2P platform), deal with people directly, and barter. There are dangers and risks that are involved with that too, so many people avoid doing such a thing for very good reason. So if you aren't going to sell directly to a person, who should you sell it to?

Our advice is to use an online diamond buyer. Buyers listed on our website are vetted based on online reviews and their reputations, and we believe they provide a great balance of ease and price when selling a diamond.

TIP: DO NOT SELL TO A PAWN SHOP! Pawn shops give you the worst price for your diamond. Pawn shops are typically not trained in evaluating gemstones, so they'll offer very low prices to earn a higher profit and put themselves at less risk.

Selling diamonds online has become more and more popular in recent years. It's convenient, saves time, increases your payout, and prevents you from sitting in traffic or dealing with untrustworthy salesmen. Online selling allows you to complete the process easily from the comfort of your own home.

While selling your diamond is easy, it doesn't mean that you should just accept the first offer you get. Getting the best price for your diamond is also very important. Bringing a diamond to a jewelry or cash for jewelry shop can be dangerous, plus you may be low-balled or taken advantage of by an unscrupulous jeweler. But if you'd like a baseline, get a quote from a local jeweler first to make sure you're getting more elsewhere!

Online shops operate higher volumes on lower margins, and engaging in poor buying practices would quickly destroy their reputation online.

That's how we do our research to see if diamond buying companies are legit. There are so many diamond buyers online, you don't always know who can be trusted. Our team has extensively researched many companies and spoken to customers, developing a list of trusted diamond buyers that we've provided here. We recommend contacting these companies for a quote for your diamond (get multiple quotes if you can!), and let us know how your experience was dealing with these diamond buyers.