There might be a lot of different reasons to sell jewelry, which you no longer wear; this is definitely reasonable. If you don’t want them anymore, you can consider selling or trading in.
You may have a diamond ring you wish to wear, inherited to you from the family, but you want to exchange the center diamond with a bigger one or with a different quality. Or, you wish to keep the diamond but change the bent of the ring. Or, an engagement ring that you wear for years, and now you want to upgrade it just to have a bigger and flashy diamond. Couples often tend to trade in their engagement diamond ring when they fill their anniversary of 20 years to feel the excitement of getting engaged all over again. Maybe, you had a low budget and bought a cluster ring, now there are some loose diamonds, or in a halo setting diamond ring, there could be some loose diamonds. If you wish to repair that kind of rings or even trading in for another ring, then do so.
Also, there is a syndrome, which is Diamond Shrinkage Syndrome (DSS). That is not a physical shrink, but over time, as you wear your ring, it feels like your diamond appears looking smaller. So, if you feel like your diamond ring feels smaller, that is an actual phycological issue. Don’t hesitate to make a change.
The first question is, do you want to upgrade (restore) your diamond or sell it and buy a new one instead. That is the very first decision you need to make before getting into this. If you are sentimental about your engagement ring, you may consider restoring it. But, if you want a different ring, then you will need to trade in your ring.
What are the steps of the diamond exchanging process and how to accomplish it on a budget?
Read the Exchange policy of your diamond
When you buy a diamond, there is also a certificate or documentation that comes with it. Before exchanging your diamond for another one, read your diamond’s documentation. There might be special policies to trade in your diamond from the store you bought your diamond. If there is a special time interval for exchanging your diamond, after selling time, you can take advantage of that kind of choice. After a given time interval, you may not be able to exchange your diamond, or you can do it at a lower price.
If you have a loose diamond in your ring, most vendors offer to upgrade it. That is by far the easiest way. Take back your ring to the store and upgrade your original diamond ring. Therefore, you can get a brand-new diamond for a 100% exchange price. There is a disadvantage of this choice, and if that is the ring of your first engagement and you are sentimental about it, your new ring setting may feel strange and changed.
Select a Reliable Store
The most crucial step you should take is to look for the store where you bought the ring in the first place. For instance, if you purchased your diamond ring from Blue Nile, Jared, James Allen or Brian Gavin Diamonds, you can use their particular upgrade policies. Their programs let you trade in your old diamond and upgrade it to a new diamond, without extra charges.
Life-time diamond Exchange services
Jared
At Jared stores, you can exchange and upgrade your Jared ring by using their services you don’t wear anymore and take a new diamond. You can take your diamond for an exchange evaluation to the nearest Jared store to you. For Jared diamonds, you can trade-in your diamond for the full price of the original sale price, which is a great option. However, you need to know that the upgraded gem price should be at least double the original price of the original diamond. Another downside is that jewelers such as pearls, emeralds, sapphires, or lab-created diamonds are not included for trade-in services.
Abe Mor Diamonds
Abe Mor Diamonds’ trade in services is quite suggested. They allow secure shipping to send your diamond from anywhere around the world. Abe Mor jewelers examine your diamond and make an exchange price offer, which the amount will probably higher than most other options you can get.
Blue Nile
The Blue Nile Diamond Upgrade Program allows you to upgrade any AGSL and GIA certified diamond, which is a great option even if your diamond is not bought from the Blue Nile. They have the largest online inventory of diamonds and quality. You can trust that Blue Nile Upgrading Program will offer you a nice price.
James Allen
James Allen Lifetime Upgrade program allows you to exchange a diamond of at least twice the value of original purchase value. James Allen store is also known for its helpful customer service and average prices. You can see images of the diamonds with the well quality so that you can choose your diamond without hesitation of a different diamond you will get than the diamond you choose.
Brian Gavin Diamonds
If your diamond is bought from Brian Gavin, Brian Gavin Lifetime Upgrade Policy helps you more with upgrade pricing. They have a collection of ideal cuts such as 3 carat, 4 carat, and 5-carat diamonds.
Now, if you checked the first store that you bought your diamond, and there is no exchange policy as you are looking for. Then, you need to research to find a reliable store to trade in your diamond.
It could be useful to know that small stores with independent jewelers may be more easygoing and helpful in terms of making a discount on price or any other terms of an exchange deal. Whereas, big stores with known brands will not give you a chance of negotiation.
Find out your diamond’s worth
Before getting a trade deal for your diamond, it is essential to know the value of your diamond, so that you can negotiate on price and understand how good a deal you take. So, if you don’t know how valuable your diamond is, you can make it to a professional so that they can appraise it.
But you should also know that if the appraised value is made on the market price of the diamond, the exchange value will be lower. What this means is, you probably won’t be able to trade in your diamond close to its original market price.
Exchange price
Generally, an exchange price is around 50% or even less of the original market price. For example, if you want to exchange a diamond, which you paid for $2000, a jeweler might offer $1000 for trading it in. So, if you want to trade your diamond with a price of higher than $1000, you have to pay the difference.
How to determine the value of your diamond
Firstly, contact a trust worthy jeweler to get a professional assessment. Do the research and choose your new diamond and find its cost. To see how much extra cost you will pay, from the price of a new diamond, subtract the price of your new ring. This will be your net cost. Try to choose your new diamond from the store where you will trade in your diamond to get an extra discount. Lastly, I recommend you get an offering from Abe Mor store since it is well known with customer-friendly offerings and then compare with other trade-in offers from other stores.
Selling out
If an upgrade policy does not cover your diamond, you can sell your diamond to your original store of purchase. Some jewelers can buy back your diamond in a time interval after the purchase time. You can get up to 70% of the original price so that you can buy a diamond from another diamond from a store and upgrade it on a budget.
Lastly, remember that you should clean your diamond and the setting before starting this exchange negotiation process, before going to the store. A well-cleaned sparkling will help you out to sell it easier and will help to get a higher exchange price. If you want to clean it yourself at home, you can use a soap water mixture and a piece of cloth to clean your diamond. Make sure you rub it off gently so that you won’t scratch it. Or you can get your diamond cleaned by a professional jeweler if you wish, but it would be a more expensive choice.
Diamond upgrading: what can you do?
Larger diamond
The most common upgrading reason is to wish for having a larger diamond. A more significant center gem will give your ring a brand-new look and a beautiful sparkling. For example, a larger center diamond of 2 carat or 3-carat center gems will change your diamond ring’s mood.
Change diamond shape
Maybe you bought a trendy diamond shape, a popular style of that time, and now you want a more traditional way or vice versa. Diamonds have a lot of cut and shape types, from brilliant round cut to popular fancy shapes. You can consider altering your center diamond shape to a different shape for a change.
Add extra diamonds
If you feel like your diamond’s sparkle is not enough for some time, you can add a halo setting or side stones to have more brilliance. Especially if your diamond ring is a single stone ring and your center stone is relatively smaller, this will give your diamond a completely new overall sparkle and an appearance of a more massive ring.
Change the setting
Besides halo, pave, and side stone settings, there are lots of different setting possibilities you can check. Some of them are prong, the tiffany, bezel, tension style, channel, bar, three-stone, vintage, cluster, and infinity setting.
Change the metal band
If you get bored of your ring’s metal band color, you can consider having a different colored metal band. Rose gold, platinum, and white metal colored bands are great options. Also, a white-colored metal will help to increase the sparkle of your diamond by reflecting off the light.
Reuse your original diamond
If you want to keep the diamond of your ring, but don’t want to keep the ring anymore, you can also upgrade your diamond to a necklace or use the gems for diamond earrings so that you can still wear them without an exchange process.
How to choose the next diamond?
This is the part that you have been waiting for—choosing your next diamond. Our aim is to find your next diamond with a beautiful taste, sparkling, shape, and size. Remember that there is a 4C rule for determining the quality of the diamond, which stands for cut, color, clarity, and carat.
Diamond cut
Firstly, decide on the diamond cut in terms of the GIA scale. The cut grade is the most important factor for the sparkling of your diamond. Make sure your diamond is certificated by GIA (Gemological Institute of America) or AGSL (American Gem Society Laboratories). Extremely brilliant and very brilliant cuts are the best choices for maximum brilliance and fire.
Categorization from most sparkling to least sparkling cut grades according to GIA:
Extremely Brilliant
Round brilliant cut
The brilliant round cut is the most popular diamond shape due to its classy and timeless look. It is the most sparkling diamond-cut type because its cut is perfect for reflecting, refracting, and dispersing the sunlight. A great advantage of this brilliance is that round brilliant cut hides color and clarity flaws.
Marquise cut
The marquise cut has elongated pointed ends, and due to that shape, it is a unique type and looks more significant on the finger. Comparing with other same carat weight diamonds, the marquise cut type has the largest surface area. Also, due to pointed ends, this type can separate white light into colors, because of this, if you want a marquise cut type, you should choose from high color grade.
Oval cut
Oval cut diamond is basically elongated round cut diamond type. Since it is oval, it is shiny as round brilliant, and since it is elongated, it looks bigger than round bright cut type. Unfortunately, elongated cut types can have a dark area problem, called the bow-tie effect. So, you should examine elongated cut types under sunlight at every angle.
Pear cut
The pear cut type is actually between round cut and marquise cut types. Due to its elongated tips, it appears to look bigger, and the pear cut looks like a teardrop.
Very Brilliant
Heart cut
A heart-shaped diamond is a romantic type, and it is important that the cut is made by a talented jeweler so that it would be symmetrical and not rounded too much.
Princess cut
The princess cut is the second most brilliant cut type and is feminine. Due to its brilliance, it can hide flaws. A bezel setting is highly suggested for a princess cut since it has sharp corners. Plus, due to its long diagonal length, it looks bigger when wearing it on a finger.
Brilliant
Cushion cut
The cushion-cut type is a square-shaped diamond with rounded corners. It is less expensive compared to other diamond cut types, but it also has low brilliance.
Emerald cut
The emerald cut type has low brilliance but also has a depth cut step by step. And the corner facets sparkle too. Since the emerald cut has a depth, any flaws can be seen easily.
Asscher cut
The Asscher cut is also a step-cut type. Again, it has a depth like the emerald cut, and it can show any flaw easily. The Asscher cut has a small low surface are.
Radiant cut
The radiant cut can be described as a princess cut with smooth edges. It could be rectangular or square-shaped. It is more expensive compared to the princess cut.
Less Brilliant
Baguette-cut
The baguette cut is also a step-cut diamond, and it should be flawless. Since the facet number is the lowest among the other cut types, it has the lowest brilliance. The baguette diamond cut type is long and rectangular.
Carat weight
Carat weight tells about the diamond size, and the price of a diamond increases as its weight and size increase. If any other comparing factors are the same, higher carat means a higher rate. Whether the carat weight high or low, don’t forget to examine your possible diamonds in terms of cut, color, and clarity.
Clarity
For a diamond to have high clarity, it should not have any internal or external flaws. As clarity grade gets higher, the price of the diamond also increases. Make sure you look for a clarity scale. VS1 and VS2 clarity grades are the diamonds with the most excellent clarity.
Color
A less colored is more valuable than multiple colored diamonds. During the formation of diamonds, nitrogen traces can stay inside of the stone, causing a brown color and affect the diamond’s color. I recommend you choose a high color graded diamond to have the most sparkling. You can look for G to I range of diamonds to have an almost colorless diamond.
Ring selection
A metal band of white color will make your diamond look larger since it will help to reflect off light besides diamonds. It will make a mirror effect and the illusion of a larger diamond.
If you choose a bar of rose gold or yellow gold ring metal, you can select a lower color grade diamond since the color of the metal band will make a diamond less colored.
Where can you exchange it?
Some diamond exchange centers:
- Investment Diamond Exchange (IDX), a diamond exchange center in L.A. California
- Israel Diamond Exchange, the diamond exchange center of Israel
- Diamond Exchange District, a diamond district center in Ramat Gan
Also, if you do not want to exchange your diamond from a diamond store, then you can sell it by yourself online. There are web sites you can sell out your diamond, but again, you may not get original purchase value. An advantage of this choice is, you can control the whole process and set the price you wish.
Do diamonds have resale value?
Yes, diamonds have a resale value depending on the quality of the diamond. The price of diamonds doesn’t change dramatically and rapidly in small time periods. But it is known that as the size gets larger, selling the diamond gets easier. But for small size diamonds, there are not many chances.
Can you trade in your engagement ring for a new one?
You can exchange a diamond ring for a new diamond ring, a diamond bracelet, or any other unique diamond jewelry as you wish. Commonly, one crucial factor is the price of new jewelry should be double the trade-in price.
All in all, there could be many reasons to exchange your diamond ring. Whether you should sell or trade your jewelry or repair and restore it is a decision you need to make. If you are sentimental about your ring, you can repair it. Or, if you wish to keep the center diamond, you can also upgrade your diamond to a necklace or use the gems for diamond earrings so that you can still wear them without an exchange process. You can change the setting of the ring, add smaller diamonds, a halo, bezel, or pave setting. Change the center diamond with a different shape of the diamond.
And of course, you can sell your diamond and buy a new one. To do so, make sure you pick a reliable and recommended store, which is an essential step, and check for trade-in programs. Also, you need to learn well how to find your diamond’s trade-in value to make sure you get a good offering.
Your engagement ring is a piece of personal jewelry, and there is no right or standard way to upgrade a ring. Choose as how to wish a change, and in the end, you will have a piece of unique, beautiful diamond jewelry.
DIAMOND MANSION Natural Round Cut Twisted Pave Diamond Engagement Ring – GIA Certified (Price: $49,950.00)
DIAMOND MANSION Dazzling Genuine Round Halo Pave Diamond Engagement Bridal Set – GIA Certified (Price: $49,950.00)
4ct Fine Jewelry Stud Diamond Earrings Platinum Unique Round Cut H SI (Price: $45,780.00)
DIAMOND MANSION Classy Cushion Cut Split Shank Micro-Pave Diamond Engagement Ring – GIA Certified (Price: $31,260.00)
3.5 Ctw 14K White Gold Three 3 Stone Princess Cut Channel Set Emerald Cut GIA Certified Diamond Engagement Ring (3 Ct J Color VS2 Clarity Center Stone) (Price: $24,840.00)
