Best way to sell diamond rings?

[BeachGirlG]

What is the best way to sell?
Loupe Troop?
Diamond Bistro?
Ebay?
Consignment?
Which is the safest? Which has the lowest fees?
I signed up for Loop Troop and their TOS says they "may" charge a fee...I can't find it anywhere else if they do or don't.

 

[TC1987]

ebay is going to grab about 12% - 15% of the total with the shipping included, so you have to charge a handling fee to regain that fee that they take on shipping. Plus ebay shoppers still expect a give-away price.

Consignment might be the best option. People are just expecting unrealistically low prices on diamonds from private sellers. Maybe having a big name PS vendor or Pearlman's will wind up putting more money in your pocket.

 

[BeachGirlG]

I think consignment fees are 15%, right? If that's the case, then eBay really doesn't make sense.

 

[CharmyPoo]

It depends how fast you need to sell and what the item actually is. eBay has a broad reach and if you do auction style starting at a low price - you are pretty much guaranteed to sell it. Consignment can take a while - I would say almost as long as posting on LT or DB.

There are obviously tons of other factors here. Congsignment is the safest route in that you don't have to deal with the customers, worry about shipping, answering questions, etc.

 

[TC1987]

Be careful with ebay. If you are going to list on ebay, definitely take time to read the buyer & seller protection policies of ebay and PayPal. Also read the Trust & Safety and Seller Central discussion forums under Community. The buyer has all of the power in the world, and the seller has none. Buyer has 45 days to file "not as described" and their credit card company may allow them 90 days to do a chargeback. There have been instances where the buyer returns an empty box or a box with something other than the real item in it, with delivery conf or signature tracking, and PayPal refunded the buyer. Seller lost both the item and the merchandise. Or, the buyer did a chargeback and also kept the item. PayPal is the problem. There are other electronic payment services that you can sign up for, but I don't know anything more about them.

eta: Also read [URL='https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/selling-diamond-s-locally-need-advice.186909/']https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/selling-diamond-s-locally-need-advice.186909/[/URL]

Another thing: Lots of people won't want a "used" diamond ring. Sometimes it's better to sell the center stone separately, and sell the setting as a semi-mount. People will buy a used semi mount to put a gemstone or a diamond stimulant in. A small percent might buy a used semi mount to mount their own center stone into. And people will buy a loose diamond and put it in a new ring or a pendant or whatever.

 

[TC1987]

idonowidont.com is another site you can look at, too.

 

[denverappraiser]

Consignment fees do not exist in isolation. They vary with the merchandise but, more importantly, they vary with the services you want. The place that offers the cheapest fee is not necessarily the place that can get the highest prices or that will do the best job of promoting your item to the appropriate customers. In fact they probably aren’t. Sotheby’s charges 40% for example (25% ‘buyer premium’ and 15% listing fee). On the scale of such things, that’s HUGE. People put up with it because they generally get pretty good prices and they’re good at selling terribly expensive and exotic things. The major auction houses are all pretty similar. It’s easy to find someone cheaper, and in fact it would be hard to find someone who charges more, but that doesn’t make the competition better. It boils down to what you want and what they're offering to do for their money.

There’s a new section in the tutorials here about this topic. It’s discussed in the thread pinned to the top of this forum.