Quote:
Originally Posted by POS
I have a friend in the jewelry business, and I asked him about selling a large diamond that my wife bought at an estate auction. He said, "You can't sell used diamonds - no market for it."
If I were you, I'd have the diamond taken out and made into something that the wife can enjoy.
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Well, for one thing, my wife hates diamonds. For another, it's not a modern ring, those truly don't have resale value compared to new. This sucker was hand-made around 1870-1880. You don't just dissect such things. As a diamond ring, it's not worth much. As an antique, it has some hard-to-nail-down value that I can't even begin to determine.
On the other side of the fence, a lot of jewelers will take old mine cut diamonds, and re-cut them to be brilliant cut diamonds. For loose stones, that's fine, I suppose. It gives you a nice "new" diamond, but it strips away its warm, hand-crafted charm. That's maybe not so bad for a loose stone, or one in a setting that's beyond reasonable repair. This ring, however, is in fine condition, and just screams quality. It's worth preserving to a lot of folks, but probably not ones in the new jewelry business. The question is, where do I begin?