Sell your diamond.

Two things move offers: a certificate and clear photos. A GIA or IGI report lets a buyer price the stone without hedging. Without one, buyers assume the worst and discount accordingly — this site puts the no-certificate discount at 25-30%. Above about a carat, a GIA report costs roughly $150-200 and takes 4-6 weeks, and on a serious stone it usually pays for itself in the first offer you receive.

Photos: five is plenty. Top-down on a white background, one side profile, one of the setting metal and any hallmarks inside the band, one of the certificate if it exists. Clean the stone first — ten minutes in warm soapy water — and do not polish it, because polishing compound leaves a residue buyers notice under a loupe. Put the metal (14k, 18k, platinum) in the notes field: the setting has scrap value on top of the stone, and a buyer who knows it upfront will say so in the offer rather than deducting it later.

1. You submit the form. It arrives with your photos attached. Nothing is published: there is no listing, no bidding, and no public page with your ring on it.

2. It is routed to buyers in your city. Independent jewelers and direct diamond buyers in our network — not pawn shops, not mall chains, not cash-for-gold kiosks.

3. Offers come back, normally within 48 hours. Stones with a certificate and clear photos come back first and closest to the top of the band, because the buyer has less to hedge against.

4. You compare. Ask three things of every number you receive: is it firm, is it cash, and will they put it in writing before you travel to them. A quote that drops when you arrive with paperwork is not a quote.

5. You close in person. The buyer inspects and verifies the stone in front of you, and payment happens at that table — cash or transfer, before the stone leaves your hand.

Every offer is a fraction of retail, never a share of it. The bands this site documents: private buyers and auction-style services land around 35-50% of retail; a diamond-district or independent jeweler 20-40%; a pawn shop 10-25%. Lab-grown sits far below all of those — typically 5-15% of what you paid — because the wholesale market for lab stones keeps falling as production expands.

Those fractions are not a scam, they are margin, holding cost and risk. A jeweler buying your stone has to resell it, hold it for months, and absorb the stones that turn out to be different from what the seller represented. Getting to the top of the band is boring and repeatable: three written offers, cash rather than trade credit (store credit is worth roughly half, because their markup is built into the credit value), and a buyer who inspects the stone in front of you instead of dropping the price the moment the paperwork appears.

First responses typically within 48 hours when photos and a certificate are attached. A local jeweler can usually go from first contact to cash in 1-3 days, which is the normal path for most stones submitted here. A pawn shop pays the same day and at the lowest rate — that trade is speed for money.

Auction-style services sit at the top of the payout band and take 4-8 weeks, because the stone has to be listed, bid on and cleared. If you need money this week, take the local route and negotiate hard. If you can wait a month and the stone is over 1.5ct with a GIA report, that is where the extra percentage lives.

Accepting the first number. Jewelers expect to negotiate, and most will price-match an honest competing offer once they see it in writing.

Taking trade credit instead of cash. It is worth around 50 cents on the dollar to you, because the store markup is already inside the credit amount — only take it if you were going to buy there anyway.

Skipping certification on a carat-plus stone. Buyers discount uncertified diamonds 25-30% by default, so a $150-200 report is usually the best-returning money you will spend on the transaction.

Bringing a mall appraisal. An "appraised value" from a shop with a financial relationship to a buyer is not grading and is not a price anyone will pay you. And expecting retail, or expecting lab-grown to behave like natural — it does not, and every buyer you meet will know the difference.