I found a local place that buys diamonds today...but..

I took a couple of chains to a local gold buyer, one of which was good and one of which turned out to be "Flea Market Gold" (gold stamp on brass). Anyway, while I was there, a guy came in with a nice diamond ring. The store offered him $600 for the stone. He turned them down and walked. The guy at the store was really disappointed he didn't sell it. He told me that was a really nice diamond.

So I asked the guy about selling diamonds and he told me he only buys the rocks, not the babies. So I at least have a buyer for rocks. Now if I could find a buyer for all the "baby" diamonds I have I'd be doing good.

Need to go find a "rock".

HH
Mike



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/26/2012 11:33PM by Mike Hillis.

Mike,

Glad you brought this topic up. I found a really nice heart pendant with about 50-60 small diamonds in it. Some round, some baugettes. When I was at the local jewelers the other day to scrap some gold to buy my wife a diamond wedding band ( I know, I should have sent it in to the refineries but it was a spur of the moment thing), I asked the guy across the counter how much was one of the gold heart pendants he had for sale. The one I inquired was smaller with less diamonds than the one I found. The guy told me about a thousand bucks. I told him I found one on the beach that was bigger and had a lot more diamonds in it, and asked him how much he thought it could be worth. He told me just the scrap gold. He stated he didnt' buy the small diamonds too, and that if he tried to take them out for me to keep, some may break.

So now I wonder what the heck to do with this piece, as well as all the very small pieces of jewelry or small rings with 1/8 carat stones in them. If they are only worth the gold content, that stinks.

therover61 said...

"So now I wonder what the heck to do with this piece, as well as all the very small pieces of jewelry or small rings with 1/8 carat stones in them. If they are only worth the gold content, that stinks."

Clean it up... get a written appraisal from a reputable jeweler... and sell it. You may not make a killing (maybe you will?) but the only thing you will have into the ring is your time, a little effort and the appraisal costs... what ever you sell it for above the price of scrap gold and the jeweler's appraisal fee is profit.

I agree with Beachcomber. Sell it on Ebay/local ads.....and offer to provide a copy of the jeweler's appraisal to the buyer...so they have peace of mind that its real gold & diamonds. You'll do better than scrap...........plus Valentines Day is coming up. It is a heart shaped pendant !!!



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/27/2012 06:10AM by TerraDigger.

If you use ARA. They Chemically melt your gold. In turn leaving any good stones un touched. Any CZs will be frosted. Like others said you can clean it and sell too.

Unfortunately there are diamonds with various clarity and worth but to the average detectorists and many gold buyers also same situation..

I like the idea of selling them outright to the public as in the long run even if you found a jeweler that buys diamonds big or small would you know the worth. Big markup on jewelry or diamonds for that matter so find a similiar ring or chain and price accordingly in your ad and in the long run probably the right way to go.

Just take an diamond item piece to a jeweler that you bought for the wife or daughter or girlfriend knowing what you paid for it and you will be floored at what another jeweler will offer you for it.

With the influx of the price of gold not the same for non diamond items as right now they are bringing high prices
even at melt value.

Certainly not going to get rich at this hobby but know more than one fellow that has paid for his equipment plus with finds so in the long run better than hitting a white ball or throwing a 16 pound ball down the alley to name a few bucks wise.

My X owned a jewelry store & I can give you an idea just how much those small diamonds are worth . The reason they are hard to sell is because a store can buy them so cheaply. As low as $2 per pt. [ 1/100 ct. ] A lot of small diamonds in rings are just 1-2 pts. & it cost the jeweler more in time & labor to remove these , than to buy new ones . They are almost always poor quality. Once the stones get up to 10pts.,[ 1/10 ct. ] they can bring more . The larger size is more visible & the cheaper , poorer quality stones are more to be rejected in some settings.
Clean, polish & sell the ring. If you don't know how, a pawn shop can clean & polish it for a very reasonable price.

Mike.... ARA does have a buyer for larger stones as well. Im with everyone elce, if it appraise well have it cleaned properly and sell it out right. The more you get over melt the better. On gold jewerly ARA removes the stones and will return them... not so on silver. Thats another way you know there wasnt a mix up with your package.... and there has been a couple i know about. Which were quickly resolved. Im still finding it hard to believe on some of those items that they dont have buyers standing in line to purchase jewelry from them which they know is WELL over melt.

Dew

Hi folks,

I am a semi retired 30 year veteran of the pawn shop business and at one time owned and ran 5 stores. I can't resist putting in my two cents about the removal and value of small stones and diamonds.... =)

First off let me say that ARA are good folks. I had some dealings with them over the years. One of which included the loss of a BIG BIG dollar registered shipment by our lovely screw'd up Postal Service. All worked out fine but I was a gin soaked mess while it was happening... lol

FYI.. Jewelers and pawnbrokers are always at odds as to who is the biggest shyster. BTW.. its the jewelers. lol The jewelers cheat the customer up front by selling them an item at a 500% markup. All those sparkling lights are VERY expensive. Or us pawnbrokers for paying 10 cents on the dollar. Which in reality is about half of the scrap value. Not much different than Wally World that buys an item for a dollar and sells it for two. Enough of this.

A couple of terms used in the biz we should all know:

Melee: Is what we call not just diamonds but any small accent stone cz, sapphire... Generally 18 points or less in size. Can be full or single cut. Full cuts are worth more. 100 points = 1carat

Drop(s), dropping: The act of and final result of separated stones from their mountings by an acid process.

Knockouts: The most common term for drops.

Removing stones from mountings. It is not cost effective for any jeweler to remove melee from mountings. My bench guys would charge me ~$4 per stone for a simple mount or remove. On the wholesale market I can buy 1-2 pt melee for $100-150 per carat or $1-3 ea. To spend $4 to remove it and another $4 to mount it I am better off to just use a new unmounted stone. The cost is all labor. Times how many stones.... Hence I manufactured most of my melee jewelry in china from stones I supplied them. That's another story...

Commercially all small stones in recycled jewelry are removed (dropped) by the acid process. The gold alloy is dissolved in aqua regia (a combination of nitric and hydrochloric acids) creating a pregnant solution. The aqua regia will not hurt the stones except for pearls, opals and possibly some emeralds. However any of these types of stones you are having to remove in this manner are not worth anything anyway. The dropped stones are then filtered out, washed, and sometimes cleaned in hydrofluoric acid. Very nasty stuff, don't try it at home. Hydrofluoric acid cleans any natural crystal but will etch or dissolve any oxide compound. What you get from this washing are nice clean natural stones and frosty fakes. This is what ARA uses.

The term "knockout" comes from the more forceful manner in which diamond stones are removed on a small scale by using a hammer, steel punch and by placing the mounting on a leather covered surface and smacking the stone from behind through the little cleaning holes. Success is about 70/30. some break and chip, others come out clean. Diamonds are the hardest thing there is... they pop right out. It's not always pretty but it is fast and cost effective but not what you want to use on grandmas ring. So some mounting methods don't allow for this knockout method and you resort to the labor intensive (read expensive method) metal chisel or "graver" as it is known in the industry. Or use acid.

I can sell knockouts/drops for around $75-125 a carat to wholesalers AND ONLY after I grade them to color size clarity cut yada yada yada..... That's .75 to $1.25 per stone after all that work. In my business they are a nuisance. Almost like recycling cans and bottles. However my customer paid $500 for this piece of junk that I can't scrap out for $45. Damn jewelers.... I think the last batch I sold was around 120 carats total. About 2 years of collecting cleaning sorting ....

Regarding the gold in the acid... it is selectively precipitated out, melted, weighed, assayed and you are paid on the findings.

Silver is handled different. Generally there are no stones worth recovering that you didn't already remove with pliers. lol It is all melted and refined electronically.

Being the propeller head that I am I eventually started refining on my own.

I agree with selling the goods on Ebay. I don't agree with getting an appraisal. Appraisals are too subjective, inflated (as everyone knows) and eats into your profits. DO clean up the item. DO verify the contents, weight size diamonds clarity etc... DO compare it to others on the market and prices. DO guaranty without question the satisfaction of the buyer. Be honest about how you acquired it. Provenance is important and your item has a story. If you have a jewelry mart type place in your town get to know one of the bench guys that do the work in the back. They will polish and clean your item for a couple bucks in their palm. They also know what it is you have and what it is worth. About the only time I get any type of outside documentation is if a diamond is over a half a carat and nice. Then I will get it certified by EGL.

Learn how to measure the size of diamonds and other stones using a caliper. Now calculate the weight... it is done all the time. Do you think your appraiser is removing all those stones and weighing them? not.

I also make up little packets of what I like to call "lost diamonds" for sale on Ebay. I would weigh out around .20-.25 carats of little diamonds of all sizes. Tell folks these are the left behinds of other lost diamonds taken from rings etc.. Great for repairs etc. I sold a ton of these. Started at .99 cents.

The 2 cent meter is running out...

I will be happy anytime to help or answer any questions about jewelry, testing, identification, refining etc..

/PB

Bob, now thats the kind of info we expect to see on here... and continually get. Very informative. Ive read bits and pieces of it but you put it all together for us thanks.

Dew

Wow!
Thanks a lot for the educational post Bob.
Makes me sick all $$$ I spent on jewelers for my Ex over the years.
Thanks

I validate PB's post for accuracy. And thanks for taking the time to share.

Thank you for the kudos Gents!

If Tom gives me his blessing I will post some other informative topics...

Would you all be interested in the proper method of testing gold? Basically the procedures I teach all my counter employees?

Small scale refining? Or doing your own drops?

Bob

I'd be interested knowing that info.
Hey Bob do you watch that Pawn Stars show on History Channel? I dont have cable nor do I watch much TV but I find that show really interesting. You can learn some really good history tidbits there.
Thanks



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/29/2012 11:45PM by Aaron.

Sure, I'd be interested.

Hi Aaron,

Yes I have seen Pawn Stars a few times. It is a little too dramatic for me. All pawnbrokers have similar stories and experiences. I have met all those guys on Pawn Stars... a lot of things are embellished for tv.

I do enjoy getting merchandise that has history behind it. As I mentioned earlier about selling on Ebay... tell a story about the item you are selling and where you found it.. You in fact are selling real buried treasure!

/PB

Down side to that Bob might be if someone says i lost that there and its mine??? I used to sell/buy antiques so a lot of this is good info for me too. History does sell.... people love information about what they have and where it came from.

Dew

Pawnbroker Bob.....

Please, Please, Please continue to post this kind of information. It is very helpful.

Thank you!
Mike