Selling diamond(s) locally, need advice

[Zeya]

Hi,

I wanted to post here and get any specific advice that I can glean off you all; thank you in advance.

I have one large diamond, 4 small diamonds (sidestones), and a bit of gold to sell. It's jointly owned by my sister and I. She feels strongly about selling in-person, and thus eBay and similar sites are out of the question. I pretty much have to sell locally and to a reputable buyer, essentially a shop. I know that's less than ideal for the best price, but my hands are tied. I'm in San Jose by the way. I could drive a reasonable distance, theoretically. Emphasis on in-person and safety.

That all being said... here's what I have to sell (small stuff first).

-Two gold rings, one of which has very small diamonds pressed in it (gotta be less than 0.3 carats). Basically a chunk of gold here.

-4 nearly identical diamonds, loose and clean, that used to be one of the ring as side stones. They are right at half a carat each, 0.5 +/- 0.02 carats each. I have Saran reports for all of them that were done by a certified gemologist at a shop. (Was thinking of a GIA lab cert for them, but turned out not to be recommendable given the quality/probable value.) I haven't read the reports thoroughly, but they're not perfectly symmetrical or the higher quality of cuts or clarity. The jeweler that was helping us said any given shop may or may not even give an offer on these, fwiw.

-The most important piece is the large diamond (loose). There was an HRD report and I insisted on getting a GIA report for it, which surprisingly turned out better than the HRD (clarity one tick better). Here are the GIA stats on it:
Round Brilliant
8.19-8.26x5.01mm
2.07 carat
Color: I
Clarity: VS2
Cut: Very Good
Polish: Very Good
Symmetry: Very Good
Fluorescence: Medium Blue
The diagram has one little area on the table of cloud or crystal, and then way on the edge is "Natural".

(Sorry about the quality. Note the inclusion at the edge is green in color, meaning "Natural".)

I did a run on the diamond search here. I use all the constrained stats and a carat weight of 2.01-2.09 and came up with about 15 diamonds:
http://www.pricescope.com/diamond-search-results?depth__gte=0&depth__lte=99&table__gte=0&table__lte=99&h_GIA=on&h_AGS=on&h_other=on&price__gte=100&price__lte=999999&hca_index__gte=&hca_index__lte=&lab=null&all=0&hearts_arrows=&ags_cut_grade=&vendor__brick_and_mortar__contains=&shape=BR&size__gte=2&size__lte=2.99&color__gte=I&color__lte=I&clarity__gte=16&clarity__lte=18
Hopefully that link works. The prices on those similar stones seem to be in the $17k range. That would be retail pricing. I've read that I can expect more like 80% of retail pricing by selling to a shop. So I could expect maybe to sell this diamond for $14.4k on the high end to $13.4k on the low end. Sound about right?

Also does anyone know about sales tax? I'm in California. I assume I have to pay the sales tax, since I'm the seller. Can I tack on the sales tax beyond our negotiated price (is that understood)? And how do I pay that sales tax? Sheesh.

My plan is to make nice scans of my documents (GIA report, 4 saran reports), photos of the items (I'm an amateur photographer and have a tabletop system), and then I'll send out an email to various shops I found, asking if they would be interested and if they can give me an offer. Hopefully that will get me started. Again, I can't sell on eBay, online, or craigslist, etc. Has to be a shop.

I'm mostly soliciting advice here. Feel free to comment. Thank you.

 

[denverappraiser]

I've read that I can expect more like 80% of retail pricing by selling to a shop. So I could expect maybe to sell this diamond for $14.4k on the high end to $13.4k on the low end. Sound about right?

80% of retail is pretty hard to get, especially if you're planning on selling to a dealer. Even if you sell it at retail yourself this can be tricky but it'll depend on your own selling skills. Dealers can bid whatever they want but don't be surprised if it's lower than that. The bright side is that bids are generally free so it doesn't hurt to ask. Be aware of the difference between a dealer offering to buy it and a dealer offering to consign it.

 

[Zeya]

80% of retail is pretty hard to get, especially if you're planning on selling to a dealer.

What would be more realistic, then?

 

[SMC]

Have you read this? https://www.pricescope.com/wiki/diamonds/how-to-sell-your-diamonds

Look at Option 3 - there's a link there where you can get a quote from professional diamond buyers. The quotes will probably be in line with what you'll get offered in San Jose.

 

[denverappraiser]

What would be more realistic, then?

The tutorial I think will be helpful. I cant really give a straight answer without more details but I find dealers are at about 50%-75% on cash deals for popular things that they think will move decently quickly for them. They offer more on consignment goods where you are carrying the inventory risk, less on things that they think will be hard to sell or that are going to require repair, recutting, recerting or other sorts of work and/or expenses.

 

[Zeya]

Have you read this? https://www.pricescope.com/wiki/diamonds/how-to-sell-your-diamonds

Look at Option 3 - there's a link there where you can get a quote from professional diamond buyers. The quotes will probably be in line with what you'll get offered in San Jose.

Yes, thank you. I also filled out that form in the hopes of getting offers or at least to test the water.

What would be more realistic, then?

The tutorial I think will be helpful. I cant really give a straight answer without more details but I find dealers are at about 50%-75% on cash deals for popular things that they think will move decently quickly for them. They offer more on consignment goods where you are carrying the inventory risk, less on things that they think will be hard to sell or that are going to require repair, recutting, recerting or other sorts of work and/or expenses.

Thanks for the advice. I'm disappointed to hear it's more like %50-75 of retail. By the way, I did give all the details on the large diamond in my first post: everything from the GIA report except the report ID (not sure if sharing that is bad form).

 

[denverappraiser]

. By the way, I did give all the details on the large diamond in my first post: everything from the GIA report except the report ID (not sure if sharing that is bad form)

The biggest missing variables have to do with YOU, not the diamonds. Not everyone is equally skilled at selling. Not everyone has equal patience. Not everyone has equal access to the relevant marketplace. Not everyone is equally skilled at choosing a dealer/partner/buyer. Sometimes it’s just plain luck, either good or bad. Diamonds are not a commodity and selling them is a lot harder than buying them. Just like everything else you buy. That’s just the way it goes. You can ask $15k if you like, and you might even get it, but whether or not this happens is not primarily about what GIA had to say.

 

[Zeya]

Just in case anyone is interested in the future, I ended up getting $12k for the large diamond and $400 for each of the half carats, and $500 for 18.8g of scrap 14k gold. The offers went like this (in order):

Shop 1 (very small space, signage for "buy/sell gold"):
Large diamond: $9k
Small diamonds: No offer (said "put these in some earrings for the kids to play with" - thanks jerk)
Scrap gold: $375

Shop 2 (downtown area shop in swanky neighborhood):
Large diamond: $9.5k immediate or sell on consignment with 20% cut
Small diamonds: $400 each
Scrap gold: $420

Shop 3 (very modern two storey dedicated building, very high end):
Large diamond: $12k
Small diamonds: $500 for all (not really interested though)
Scrap gold: $500

By the time I visited shop 3, I was ready to play a little hardball. I asked for 13k and we settled on 12. I don't think visiting other shops would have a good chance of bringing in higher offers. Maybe querying more shops about their rate on 14k gold would have netted a few more bucks though.

If I wasn't constrained by the co-owner of this stuff, I would probably have tried for a full-on private sale for the large diamond. But alas, we had to sell soon and in-person so that's how it ended up.

Thanks for the help everyone.

 

[TC1987]

Thanks for the update. It's nice to have a case study.