Realistic Sales Price

[Rockdiamond]

IMO, for a 70% number the seller needs a near ideal situation and should expect to hustle, hustle, hustle! This is the scenario where you have a highly desirable stone, found your own private buyer and can avoid commission fees, listing fees, transaction fees (VISA, PayPal), etc.

This is an area where a forum like PriceScope has tremendous value for the regular members.
Part of the reason the "sharks" exist is the difficulty in selling high value items.

If I was selling a $25k item as a consumer, there are serious considerations I'd face.
The buyer sure ain't gonna another consumer pay in advance, so I'm forced to find a way to get paid $25k.
Do I meet the buyer with my $25,000 item and get paid in cash? If so, how do a do it and feel safe?
That's why as I walk down 47th street every day, there's hawkers asking "You selling??" In itself, that's weird- these guys have seen me so many times....but the desperation leads to very aggressive techniques.
I feel terrible for the poor people forced to deal with these bottom feeders....As far as the OP- one of my mentors, Sam Spade, has a saying- "Your first loss is your best loss"

 

[sledge]

This is an area where a forum like PriceScope has tremendous value for the regular members.
Part of the reason the "sharks" exist is the difficulty in selling high value items.

If I was selling a $25k item as a consumer, there are serious considerations I'd face.
The buyer sure ain't gonna another consumer pay in advance, so I'm forced to find a way to get paid $25k.
Do I meet the buyer with my $25,000 item and get paid in cash? If so, how do a do it and feel safe?
That's why as I walk down 47th street every day, there's hawkers asking "You selling??" In itself, that's weird- these guys have seen me so many times....but the desperation leads to very aggressive techniques.
I feel terrible for the poor people forced to deal with these bottom feeders....As far as the OP- one of my mentors, Sam Spade, has a saying- "Your first loss is your best loss"

Haha, you never know. While $25k sounds like a lot, it's not like a bag full of cash. If using $100 bills, you can squeeze into 3 letter sized envelopes, which is fairly easy to conceal.

Oddly enough, a few months back I sold an RV camper that I owned free & clear. The guy called me out of the blue, insisted on looking that evening, did one of the most thorough inspections ever and proceeded to pay me in cash!

Most people utilize cashiers checks, bank drafts, etc for large purchases like that. It's more secure and much easier to conceal. But it slows the process for out of town buyers who show up after 6pm (which he was). Also, I've used a personal check to buy my first Corvette. Although looking back, that was kind of stupid on the seller's part. It was an out of state transaction too. Good thing I'm an honest guy. I've wrote personal checks to dealerships as well, but normally they call the bank and verify the funds.

Honestly, I was pretty nervous about getting the RV cash into my bank. But I have a small arsenal at the house so I was prepared like I am every night, lol. Of course nothing exciting happened. But it was a pain transferring cash to my USAA account. I keep a local account for cash deposits, and due to size restrictions that USAA places on outside transfers, I had to split them up and spread the deposits over a week or so.

Of course, that is my happy ending story. I had lots of flakes and bottom feeders between when I initially listed and actually sold. Lots of no-shows, etc. I had it listed for about a year, but was actively trying to sell for about 3 months when it finally happened.

Like I said -- hustle, hustle, hustle! Lots of little nuances to consider. While I like to maximize my profits, there is a reason that I sometimes do trade deals, etc as it's close enough to not make the hassle and wasted time worth my effort to sell privately. If I would have had an easy button process for the RV it would have been gone months before it was, lol.

 

[bludiva]

omg off topic but that reminds me i was selling my car a few years ago and a guy wanted to see it before the weekend b/c he was leaving on a business trip. it was going to be evening so i suggested the local grocery store parking lot with its bright lights. i thought he was going to be a tire kicker but he looks over the car for about 10 minutes and proceeds to take out bundles of cash still wrapped from the bank. he was short $300 from the asking price. i said nope, sorry, and he proceeded to go to the atm to get the last $300. i also insisted we go inside the store and randomly test the bundled cash with those markers the cashiers have, plus getting photos of his driver's license & passport & business card. maybe i went overboard? it was so weird though! i called my partner to take me to my bank where i deposited it all in the atm that night. the buyer & car lived happily every after as far as i know.

 

[Rockdiamond]

Amazing stories both!
After all these years, I've seen pretty much everything- including forged Cashiers checks.
One time a guy paid with two personal checks- split payment totaling about $7k
We held the item about 10 days- both checks looked to be clear the day after we got them....but thankfully, we waited those 10 days because one of the checks bounced the day we planned to ship.
Given the buyers lack of response at that point I knew the second check was bad.
I called Chase to let them know- "no, it's a good check" they told me.
It took them about a month IIRC to finally bounce the other check and take the funds out of our account.....

But the truth is- both of the stories reinforce the fact that high dollar transactions between individuals are far higher risk than transactions to a store, or an established website.

 

[denverappraiser]

‘
I have also been dreaming of quitting my job and going into the diamond business, lol. Maybe it would be the fast track to poverty, but I would still die with a smile on my face. I think.

Hmmm. I quit the diamond business to get into my job.

 

[Rockdiamond]

I've been thinking about retirement myself....my accountant told me I can retire....ten yeares after I die....

 

[coda72]

I have no real advice that hasn’t already been covered by everyone, just good luck on your sale. I managed to sell my diamond about 6-7 years ago and got 70% of what I originally paid for it.

 

[GabeC90]

The diamond was a gift to my mother in law and she finally decided to sell it. She asked if I could help and I said yes (as if I knew what I was doing ). I took the diamond to an appraiser who suggested sending the diamond off to GIA to get certified before he did the appraisal. At this point the diamond was still in its setting so he stated we should get it taken out of the setting before sending it to GIA and recommended a jeweler he uses. I didn't like the idea of mailing the stone so my mother in law agreed to pay for my wife and I to go to NY and drop it off ourselves. We made the trip to NY and took the diamond to GIA to get certified and picked it up the next day.

When we returned home we took it back to the appraiser who appraised it at 56k for insurance purposes and that's when we inquired about selling it. He looked at some similar stones and stated retail was around 36k for similar stones.. Stated he would probably be able to sell in the low 30's but his cut was gonna be 3-4k for making the sale happen. At this point we took the diamond back to the jeweler and we asked for his opinion. He stated that a private buyer might pay as much as 30k and he would try to find a buyer and said his cut would be $200-$300.

We received an offer of 24.5k and my mother in law was stubborn about selling it hoping she could get closer to 30k for it . Time went by and we never received another offer until now. I asked for 26k and dropped off the stone with the jeweler so the buyers could look at it. Right now I'm just waiting to hear back and see what they say.

We thought about selling it while we were in NY but I did not feel safe walking around with it and showing it to buyers around the GIA institute. Not sure if I should have sold it there or not lol. I will update as soon as I hear something

 

[sledge]

Thanks for the update @GabeC90, it sounds like it's been quite an exciting journey.

I'm not sure if you and/or your mom realize this, but the way most jewelry insurance policies work is that you pay a premium based on the insured value. Many times a sales receipt, or appraisal is used to determine insured value.

Right or wrong, insurance companies will pay out the MARKET value of a SIMILAR AND LIKE kind stone, assuming market value doesn't exceed the insured value amount. If insured value was $30k and market value was $36k, then they'd only pay out a maximum of $30k. On the flip side, if you insure for $56k but market is only $36k then they only pay up to $36k to replace.

The caveat being if you have a policy written in a manner that guarantees payout of the insured value, regardless of market value. These are very rare and more costly than a standard policy. Many insurance companies won't even write such a policy.

The kick in the nuts is that not only do normal insurance policies cap maximum payouts to market value or insured value, whichever is less, but the yearly premiums are based on that inflated $56k (assuming that is the insured value). So now, as the consumer you paying a higher yearly premium to insure a stone that (in theory) you will only get $36k to replace.

It is wise to insure for about 10% above market value to include inflation, volatility, etc. Plus most people don't update their policy values yearly. So it gives you a little cushion without being over the top.

 

[sledge]

I might add that peddling a $30k stone on the street corner in NYC seems like a bad idea to me. Not only is it dangerous and susceptible to so many forms of fraud, robbery, etc. but how many times do you find someone walking down the street that will just on the whim offer you $30k+/-? Very doubtful someone is going to impulse buy a stone of that dollar amount.

As far as the appraiser wanting a $3-4k cut to sell the stone, that sounds about right to me. If he got you a buyer @ $32k and you paid him $4k, you still put $28k in your pocket which I think is fantastic.

The jeweler offering to hustle for you for $200-300 seems unrealistic. Unless this jeweler is a close friend or family member, I seriously question his honesty. That's not really worth his effort, which makes me think he may not hustle hard for a sale, or worst yet do some sham offer to you for $20-24k and buy the diamond himself, who will then turn around and market for $30k+ in his store and make it worth his effort.

A final thought -- those values I pulled from RareCarat is a REAL number that I could go right now and buy a 3.4 to 3.6 carat stone of similar (or better) properties that yours. So $33k is a real market value IMO for a brand new stone with trade-in policies, security & ease of using a credit card, etc.