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Do jewelers accept old setting towards cost of new setting?

champagnepear

Rough_Rock
Joined
Feb 24, 2016
Messages
40
I have a ring that I'm considering having reset. The current setting is new and high quality, it was custom, but since it's from an old relationship I feel uncomfortable wearing it as-is. I'd like to take the center stone out of it and mount it in something else. Obviously it will vary from jeweler to jeweler but do you think it's likely I could find one who would accept the old setting as partial payment?

It is a really lovely setting and I hate to think of selling it for scrap, there also diamonds in it, but I'd prefer to have something that doesn't have the bad memories attached.

Has anyone done this?
 

denverappraiser

Ideal_Rock
Trade
Joined
Jul 21, 2004
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9,150
Re: Do jewelers accept old setting towards cost of new setti

Most jewelers will be happy to do it for scrap but few will be interested in taking in a custom mount for inventory. The exception may be the jeweler who made it in the first place. That said, it never hurts to ask.
 

bcavitt

Shiny_Rock
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Mar 6, 2012
Messages
199
Re: Do jewelers accept old setting towards cost of new setti

denverappraiser|1459454345|4013843 said:
Most jewelers will be happy to do it for scrap but few will be interested in taking in a custom mount for inventory. The exception may be the jeweler who made it in the first place. That said, it never hurts to ask.

x2. A jeweler, especially a custom jeweler, would be hesitant to buy it at jewelry wholesale prices as it competes with his own goods.
 

Winks_Elf

Brilliant_Rock
Trade
Joined
Nov 28, 2008
Messages
1,675
Re: Do jewelers accept old setting towards cost of new setti

You may want to consider consignment, or listing it for sale yourself on a site like diamondbistro.com as a semi-mount. You'd need to give the measurements of what size center stone fits in there. Selling as a semi-mount instead of scrapping it would give you more money as when a piece is scrapped you'll never get what you paid out of it since the labor costs are not recoverable. Scrap pays only for the metal, and on a piece that has small accent diamonds such as a halo most jewelers are not concerned about reclaiming them.
 

Diamond_Hawk

Brilliant_Rock
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Joined
Apr 8, 2014
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1,229
Re: Do jewelers accept old setting towards cost of new setti

Good advice in this thread. Sorry about your bad experiences.
 

Rockdiamond

Ideal_Rock
Trade
Joined
Jan 7, 2009
Messages
9,711
Re: Do jewelers accept old setting towards cost of new setti

+1- great advice so far.

Another possibility- maybe find a "fun stone" to set into it- smokey topaz is relatively inexpensive for example.
If it looked totally different might you want to wear it?
 
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