Buying Diamond Jewelry: Know What To Look For

Q: My mother-in-law gave me an old ring (platinum setting with four diamonds) as an engagement present, with the understanding that I'd sell it. It was appraised at $5K back in the early 80s, but the paperwork has been lost. It's not a particularly attractive piece, to me it looks like the stones (different shapes) were just haphazardly put on one rng. How should I go about selling this? I know *nothing* about this process. Do I just bring it to a number of jewellers who handle estate jewelry and go for the highest price? Do I get an appraisal (if so, from whom)? Should I eBay it?

A:They can sell diamond jewelry, whether wholesaler or retailer (there are no different laws for wholesalers than retailers) without stating the diamond weight, or anything else about the diamonds for that matter, if they don't wish to. What IS in the law is how accurate any statements made must be. IF the seller, either wholesaler or retailer, states a weight of an individual stone, or the total weight of a bunch of stones in a piece of jewelry, the statement's accuracy must be within FTC mandates. I'll give you a practical example. Take the case of a pawn shop selling estate jewelry. With the stones already set, the seller (the shop) may not know, or be able to accurately tell, the exact weight of the diamonds. They can estimate it, and the estimate has to be reasonable, but often they simply won't estimate it at all, if it's too hard to be exact. A wholesaler of imported jewelry may be in a similar situation, especially with low end jewelry set with lower quality diamonds. Exact weights may simply not always be provided to the wholesaler from the importer or manufacturer. While one can question the business wisdom of doing business this way, it is not illegal, so long as nobody then makes inaccurate claims about the weights of the diamonds

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