What have I done?

[Livvy]

Well, to give you a bit of a background story, I was having a look at an online auction selling off jewelry starting at $20 but being appraised at much higher value, and of course being sold off for much more than the starting value.
As I don't have much money, I was getting a bit of a kick just bidding up to a few hundred dollars because they always seemed to go at least to around 700 or more often than not over 1000.
I however bid on a ring and ended up winning the auction for that item and now I'm somewhat of a miss as to what to do.
It's a 14 carat blue topaz encircled by 32 diamonds set in 14 carat white gold.
I ended up spending $550 on the ring and although I think it is genuinely quite nice I can't quite justify keeping it, as I was going to sell anything I managed to get in the auction.
I have now snapped out of what ever trance I was in and realized that I have no idea what to do with it now that I've bought it or how to sell it.
I've been reading about it a bit and have seen that a lot of people think that the best way of selling something like this is by going to a reputable jeweler, so just to be sure I'm just wondering if anyone has any ideas or advice that I could use.
I'll attach the pictures to you can get a sense of what it looks like.
Thanks

 

[distracts]

It's a very pretty ring, but I doubt you'll be able to sell it for much more than you paid for it. You have about a $100 topaz, 4 grams of 14k gold (about $92 scrap value at today's gold price), and maybe $150-200 of little diamonds. Given that a jeweler probably won't pay you for the topaz, you have about a $300 scrap value there. If you want to sell it, I think ebay or other second-hand selling as an individual is probably your best bet at realizing the purchase price (maybe consigning, if someone was willing to take it on for that, though you'd still have to pay consignment fees and for that I'm not sure it's worth it).

You can certainly shop it around to jewelers and see what they say they'll give you.

In general, flipping jewelry for profit is really hard to do, and impossible if you don't thoroughly understand the market and have a path to sell your goods.

eta: The appraised retail replacement value is not what you may sell it for. Usually jewelry sells for close to scrap value, while if you buy new you are also having to pay for labor costs and store overhead, which make up the bulk of the price of an item like this. While you can charge over scrap if selling it on your own, a jeweler certainly won't buy it from you for much above scrap, as he'll have to count store overhead in the cost of reselling, and a pawn shop will probably only buy it for under scrap value.

 

[arkieb1]

A jeweller will probably give you less than what you paid for it. Another vote for ebay, loupetroop or perhaps consigning it if you are willing to lose money.

 

[diamondseeker2006]

Buying to resell is very risky, because really, if no one bid higher than you, then I doubt you could sell it for more than you paid, either. Be prepared to take a loss. Relist on ebay and see what happens.

 

[yssie]

It sucks when people "bid for kicks" 'cause it drives the price up unnecessarily for the rest of us. Perhaps someone who *really* wanted that ring could've had it for $450 or $500 if you hadn't?
Well, anyway, I recognise the photo style and I'm pretty sure I know where you got that from - I lurk occasionally looking for signed pieces. It's just like eBay - there's a TON of crap to wade through and a ton of re-sellers, and I've never seen any truly great deals on there until you start getting into the higher-ticket items (~5k+)...
I don't think you're going to have much luck with the PS/niche market, unfortunately. EBay's probably your best bet, but take it to a few local jewellers and see what they say! I think aiming for $300 or so like distracts outlined is reasonable.

Good luck! Please beware the second-hand jewellery market - it's a minefield for anyone who doesn't have a very good handle on what he's doing! If you're looking for something specific the PS community is wonderfully helpful

 

[VRBeauty]

Livvy: I'm sorry that you're finding yourself in this situation. It's hard to judge the quality of the ring from the photos, but I don't think you paid too terribly much for what you're getting. The problem is that you're probably not going to be able to sell it for more than scrap, or about half of what the ring would go for at retail prices. As Distracts suggested, take it to a few jewelers and pawn shops, and see if they're interested, but be prepared to take quite a bit less than you paid. Many PS'ers also sell (or buy) jewelry on two secondary internet sites - diamondbistro.com and loupetroup.com, but... you'd be marketing to a pretty small group of potential buyers, and I suspect that they're mostly pretty savvy shoppers to begin with, and they'd be looking for a very good price before they'd be interested. If you have any friends who sell on ebay, you might see if they'll help you list and sell your ring there.

I'm assuming you've already paid for and taken possession of the item. If not... just don't pay for it. (Of course you also wouldn't take possession of it if you don't pay!) You might be barred from bidding on that site in the future, but that might also not be such a bad thing.