Sell Your Old Jewelry and Put The Money Towards Something That Gives You Joy

If 2016 has a running theme it is all about “De-cluttering.” I have read about it, written about it and spent months doing it!

Recently I rented out the family home of 30 years, which catapulted me into an Olympian de-cluttering frenzy. The process was grueling but incredibly rewarding, just as Marie Condo predicted in her #1 New York Times best selling book, “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up.”

Late one night in the midst of my de-clutter marathon, I sat with my jewelry box. I examined each piece.   And what I found, when I truly gave it some thought, was surprising. There was some great bling and a few expensive pieces that no longer gave me any joy.

I put aside a few items that I could never give away (my nana’s necklace) but I was still left with a pile of old jewelry, including a diamond ring, that fell into one or more of the following categories:

1. jewelry that is truly ugly and garish;
2. jewelry that I have never worn and never will;
3. jewelry that does not hold any sentimental value; or
4. jewelry that holds memories that I would rather forget.

Why was I holding on to these items of jewelry, deep in the recesses of my closet? Guilt about selling them? Really, at our age?

I decided that it was ridiculous to keep these pieces of jewelry. That selling them, and putting the money to good use (like taking my family on vacation, perhaps?) would give me more joy than having this jewelry sit in a box in my closet tarnishing.

I decided to sell my old jewelry. But how?

A friend whom I trust told me about Worthy.com, an on-line auction site that is incredibly user friendly- she had used Worthy to sell her diamond jewelry and was incredibly satisfied. So I looked into it.

What I learned was that:

1. You can get a very good idea whether Worthy will work for you before you commit to working with them;

2. They have an A+ Better Business Bureau rating;

3. Their website is extremely user friendly;

4. Worthy pays for all shipping and insures the item for up to $1 million;

5. Worthy puts your item up to at least 100 potential buyers worldwide, who can then bid on your item;

6. They are very transparent: If they don’t sell your item for at least the reserve price, they return it to you, free of charge, no questions asked.

7. Worthy will pay you $100 if you successfully sell your item that was auctioned on Worthy, for a price higher than the auction offered, with an independent jeweler.

To find out how to sell your jewelry, CLICK HERE.

So I took the plunge and tried it, and I am so happy I did. I have de-cluttered. I have purged. I have extra cash.

Selling your old jewelry, here’s how it is done:

Not really knowing the kind of diamond I had, just me eyeballing it, I felt pretty clueless on how to describe my ring. So after inputting the obvious information like the setting and the cut, the rest was going to be pure guessing on my part. I did not have any idea on the carat weight, the clarity, the color.   I needed help, so I called their help line at 888-222-0208 and spoke to Jay one of their Customer Success agents.

Jay was very professional and responsive to my questions and helped me every step of the way. I inputted the mid range to get a market analysis of my diamond. Within a few seconds, the Worthy calculated the sum total of the center stone, the metal and the surrounding diamonds, and gave me a range between $9041 – $11,507 for what I inputted as a 2.5 ct round, H, SI1 diamond. This was like the Kelley Blue book for diamonds.

I had nothing to loose, Jay helped coordinate the Fed Ex shipping for me and organized my pick-up, which made it very easy and convenient and safe. I was anxious to see what I would get when it went up for their private auction to buyers. Jay kept me informed along the way telling me that my diamond would get more unmounted for a GIA report. I ok’d doing that and in a few days I heard back that the stone had a decent report card, so I put a reserve price of $10,500, that meant I would accept that or more, but not less. I was ready to go. My auction ran for 3 days and I was pleased with the result, I said yes! Ka-ching!