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How to sell Tiffany Jewelry

Make sure you get the best price when selling Tiffany Jewelry

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Tiffany and Co. is some of the most beautifully designed and crafted jewelry in the world.

But tastes and circumstances change and we don’t need to hold on to our Tiffany jewelry forever.

If you are looking to sell Tiffany jewelry and want to make sure that you get the price, this blog will show you how.

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Why selling Tiffany jewelry is different to selling most jewelry

Tiffany & Co. jewelry belongs to a small group of elite jewelers whose craftsmanship and brand lifts them above others. These elite jewelers often sign their pieces with the name of the jewelry house or maker with an engraving on the underside of the piece or the inside of a ring.

In fact, jewelery signed with a maker’s name is simply called ‘signed jewelry’.

Jewelers began signing their pieces in the ‘Arts & Crafts’ and ‘Art Nouveau periods, from about 1860 onwards, and it’s a tradition that continues today. The ring below dates from 1872 and the Tiffany & Co. engraving can still be seen despite nearly 150 years of wear: 

Tiffany & Co. jewelry is worth more than the sum of its parts

One thing that many people don’t realise when learning how to sell jewelry is that it is often worth more due to the value of the precious metals it contains than it might he as a pre-owned diamond ring or other piece of jewelry.

If a person is looking to sell a generic gold engagement ring then it is likely that the diamond and the ring setting will be separated from each other. The gold melted will be melted down while the diamond is reused in a new piece of jewelry:

Start with gold jewelry
The gold is taken to a refinery
The gold is melted and repoured
Gold is produced, ready to be reused

With Tiffany & co. jewelry, this doesn’t happen. The strength of the brand and the quality of the workmanship means Tiffany jewelry is worth significantly more as jewelry than it would be in its individual parts.

When selling your Tiffany & Co. jewelry, it’s a reassuring feeling to know that it will live on as jewelry and continue its story.

How to maximise the amount you receive for your Tiffany & Co. jewelry

Part of buying any Tiffany jewelry is the experience, and with that comes the immaculate presentation of the jewelry in the signature Tiffany Blue box.

Including the blue box with the sale goes a long way to proving that your jewelry is genuine and also ensures that the new buyer is able to feel some of the Tiffany and Co. magic that is associated with the box.

Even better is being able to include all of the elements that came with the jewelry originally:

  • Tiffany presentation box
  • Tiffany bag
  • Original receipt
  • The warranty card
  • A certificate of authenticity
  • An information booklet

It can also be a good idea to have an appraisal of your jewelry performed before you sell it. This involves an expert reviewing the jewelry, the materials used and its condition and assigning a value to it.

A ‘fair market’ appraisal is important to understand the value that is realistic for your jewelry, and this is likely to be lower than the ‘replacement value’ appraisal that you may already have for insurance purposes.

What if you don’t have the Tiffany & Co. box, papers etc?

If you don’t have the box and accompanying documentation then all is not lost. If you were the original purchaser of a diamond ring, you can contact Tiffany & Co. to request the official paperwork. If this isn’t possible, then a jewelry appraiser will be able to confirm that the item is genuine and assign a value to it.

It should be noted though, that not including the box and papers with a sale can reduce the sale price by as much as 10%.

The Diamond Oak
Top choice

The Diamond Oak

The Diamond Oak is a business founded by a third generation dealer and operating out of the heart of New York's Diamond District.

Specializing in buying and selling pre-owned and vintage Tiffany jewelry allows them to offer more for all types of Tiffany as they always know they will be able to find an interested buyer.

In mystery shopping tests, we have consistently found that The Diamond Oak offers more for Tiffany jewelry, plus the personalized experience of dealing directly with Alon, the business's founder, is second to none.

Pros:

  • Tiffany specialist means high prices can be offered
  • Highest prices paid in mystery shops
  • Direct communication with the founder results in a smooth process

Cons:

  • Doesn't have the reach of an online marketplace
  • Smaller company so may not be able to make as many offers as a large marketplace
Worthy
Most buyers to sell to

Worthy

Worthy.com is a marketplace which connects jewelry seller directly to a network of nearly 1,000 professional jewelry buyers across the US who bid on their items.

The huge benefit of this is that the competition that is created can result in higher prices paid. What does need to be considered though is that Worthy's commission needs to be taken into account. This varies depending on the value of your item.

It's definitely worth clicking through to see recent purchases to understand how much the final sale price is likely to be.

Pros:

  • Reach can result in higher prices paid
  • Easy to see previous purchase pricesGreat reviews and smooth process

 

Cons:

  • Need to allow for Worthy's fees when understanding how much you will receive
  • Don't always accept low value items
  • Some reports that Worthy encourages buyers to set a low reserve price
Have You Seen the Ring

Have You Seen the Ring

Have You Seen The Ring is another marketplace which matches jewelry sellers with potential customers.

Commission varies from a very steep 30% for items up to $1,500 to 10% for sales over $10,000.

While the concept is a good one, auctions aren't a defined limit, unlike some competitors, which means that sellers need to hope that a buyer looking for their exact ring sees the auction, which could take a while.

Pros:

  • Links sellers directly with end buyers, rather than a jewelry trade buyers means cutting out a middle man
  • Good reviews and smooth user experience

Cons:

  • Smaller platform means that rings seem to take longer to sell
  • Steep commissions for smaller transactions
Louped (Formerly I Do Now I Don't)

Louped (Formerly I Do Now I Don't)

Louped has just rebranded from 'I do now I don’t', and is a marketplace that allows people to list their jewelry for sale.

Sellers are charged a commission, depending on the value of the item they’re selling - this varies from 20% for items under $5,000 to 10% for items over $50,000.

Unlike Worthy, where the people buying the rings are jewelry professionals, buyers on Louped are regular consumers.

While the idea is a good one and they do appear to have happy customers, 30% of reviews on Trustpilot are 1 star, while the BBB rating is currently 'F'.

While it’s always a good idea to take online reviews with a pinch of salt, this is higher than I would be comfortable with for such a significant transaction as selling high value jewelry.

While there are also a number of good reviews, common complaints are of poor communication from the team there, and delays in sending payment.

Pros:

  • Appears to have good reach with reasonably quick sell-through
  • Dealing directly with end customers cuts out one layer
  • Commissions are reasonable

Cons:

  • Currently scores an F on the Better Business Bureau website
  • Significant number of unhappy reviews on Trustpilot, although some of these are older

Tiffany jewelry resale value


It can be hard to know how much you can expect to receive when selling jewelry, especially a premium brand like Tiffany.

While you may have an appraisal that says what it’s worth, this details what it would cost to replace with a new item, rather than how much someone would be willing to pay for a used item.

The best way to understand how much your Tiffany jewelry is likely to be worth is to look at recent sale prices.

Reselling a Tiffany Engagement Ring

To make it easy to understand roughly what can be achieved when selling Tiffany jewelry, we’ll look at how much a diamond engagement ring can be sold for.

The ring that we’ll look at has the following specifications:

  • 1 carat
  • VS2 clarity
  • G color
  • Excellent cut quality

Bought new from the Tiffany & Co. store, a diamond ring with these specs would cost $14,200:

1 carat tiffany engagement ring

Checking Tiffany diamond ring resale prices on Worthy

Worthy.com has. a fantastic resource where they share the recent sale prices of auctions for rings, necklaces, earrings and eery other type of jewelry.

Reviewing recent auctions, we can find a similar ring to our 1 carat, G color, VS2 example. The diamond in this ring is slightly larger at 1.06 carats and the clarity grade is slightly higher at VS1, but it’s close enough to use here. 

139 jewelry buyers indicated that they were interested in the piece and the average bid was $4,887. The final price achieved was $6,500:

Worthy.com tiffany and co diamond engagement ring price

So, the jeweler will pay $6,500 for the ring and will then polish it up and resell it – possibly through 1stDibs, or through their own store.

The resale value of this Tiffany diamond ring is therefore 45%:

Original Tiffany ring price$14,200
Resale price$6,500
Resale %45%

The advantage of Worthy is that the number of people bidding on a ring can push the price up. The disadvantage is that as a marketplace, Worthy takes a % of every sale made:

Worthy fees

As this sale was between $5,001 and $15,000, a 14% commission would have been charged. On the $6,500 sale price, this works out at $910. The seller of this ring would therefore have received $5,590.

You can check Worthy’s recent sales out here – it’s definitely worth looking at.

Selling Tiffany & Co. earrings

Next up, we’ll look at some diamond stud earrings.

A paid of 0.28 carat diamond studs currently costs $2,150 on the Tiffany website:

tiffany and co earrings

If we look at recent sales on Worthy, a similar set of earrings recently sold for $1,200:

tiffany and co resale price

The resale value of these Tiffany diamond earrings are therefore 55% of the original sale price:

Original Tiffany earrings price$2,150
Resale price$1,200
Resale %55%

Selling Tiffany & Co. necklace

Lastly, we’ll take a look at the price that can be achieved for a Tiffany necklace. Tiffany sells a huge variety or necklaces, from simple sterling silver to lavish diamond-encrusted affairs.

This “Diamond by the Yard” necklace is currently for sale on the Tiffany website for $39,000:

Tiffany and co necklace

It’s a beautiful piece, containing over 6 carats of diamonds, and we can find the same necklace was recently sold for : $10,073:

tiffany and co necklace resale

The resale value of this Tiffany necklace is therefore 25% of the original sale price:

Original price of Tiffany necklace$39,000
Resale price$10,073
Resale %25%

We can see from these three examples that there can be a significant variation in how much of the original selling price can be recouped when selling Tiffany jewelry. The best way to understand how much you are likely to receive is to find an item similar to yours:

Selling Tiffany & Co. jewelry directly to a buyer

If you want to avoid the middleman fee, a good way to get the most money for your Tiffany & co. jewelry is to eliminate as many layers between you and the person buying it as possible.

In essence, to talk directly to the type of people who are buying through worthy.com, but without having to pay Worthy the commission and reduce the amount you make.

Our recommendation here is The Diamond Oak

The Diamond Oak is a family run business with multiple generations in the diamond industry, based out of the Diamond District in New York. We’ve seen hundreds of people successfully sell their jewelry to The Diamond Oak and feel that they currently offer the best balance of best price and service quality.

Recommended buyer
The Diamond Oak

The Diamond Oak is a family run business with multiple generations in the diamond industry, based out of the Diamond District in New York.

We’ve seen hundreds of people successfully sell their jewelry to The Diamond Oak and feel that they currently offer the best balance of best price and service quality.

  • Attentive, personalised service
  • Great prices paid
  • Smooth transaction