Broken Eternity Ring what would you do with it?

MidlandsGlory

My wife's eternity ring of 24 years marriage broke, a diamond was lost and its pretty worn generally, she was understandably quite distressed about it. A repair quote was ludicrous and as its her birthday soon I have bought a new one which see loves.
But what to do with the old one? As mentioned the repair quotes were out of the question, I see there are places that buy Gold but the ring still has several diamonds in, do I try and remove them myself and sell the Gold, does anyone buy diamonds as well?
Wife is OK with selling the old one as a financial contribution to the new one, I suspect she probably unnecessarily blames herself for the damage to the old one, which is certainly not my view!
Or would you not be able to part with it and keep it for sentimental value?
Could the Gold be melted down into some other keep sake?

strawb_shortcake

I'm not sure of the answer but interested in other responses. I lost then found the stone to my engagement ring, never got it repaired as I was worried it would get lost. 
Since then, I've got fat and my Husband had to cut my wedding ring off.
I did make some initial enquiries about reusing and was told that you lose some gold when melting it down, the jeweller did not seem so keen on incorporating it into making a new piece with additional gold, I'm sure they said that combining different golds even same carat might not come out so well. I wasn't entirely convinced on this so am going to seek further opinion. My plan at the moment is to go to the jewellery quarter in Birmingham and see what can be done, if it isn't possible then we'll buy new. 
I'm not a terribly sentimental person but I'm not sure what I'll do with my original rings if they  can't be incorporated. I feel I should keep them but it doesn't make much sense in practical terms 

Pollycat

MidlandsGlory said:

My wife's eternity ring of 24 years marriage broke, a diamond was lost and its pretty worn generally, she was understandably quite distressed about it. A repair quote was ludicrous and as its her birthday soon I have bought a new one which see loves.
But what to do with the old one? As mentioned the repair quotes were out of the question, I see there are places that buy Gold but the ring still has several diamonds in, do I try and remove them myself and sell the Gold, does anyone buy diamonds as well?
Wife is OK with selling the old one as a financial contribution to the new one, I suspect she probably unnecessarily blames herself for the damage to the old one, which is certainly not my view!
Or would you not be able to part with it and keep it for sentimental value?
Could the Gold be melted down into some other keep sake?

If it wasn't a very expensive ring when you bought it and isn't set with excellent quality diamonds, I don't think small diamonds would be worth much on their own.

Maybe worth a Google.

For example on one website I looked, a colour J SI2 .3 (just under 1/3 carat) diamond would cost £113.

That's a reasonable size stone and I doubt an eternity ring would have 4 diamonds of that size.

Colour D IF (internally flawless) stones would be exponentially more expensive.

annabanana82 said:

I'm not sure of the answer but interested in other responses. I lost then found the stone to my engagement ring, never got it repaired as I was worried it would get lost. 
Since then, I've got fat and my Husband had to cut my wedding ring off.
I did make some initial enquiries about reusing and was told that you lose some gold when melting it down, the jeweller did not seem so keen on incorporating it into making a new piece with additional gold, I'm sure they said that combining different golds even same carat might not come out so well. I wasn't entirely convinced on this so am going to seek further opinion. My plan at the moment is to go to the jewellery quarter in Birmingham and see what can be done, if it isn't possible then we'll buy new. 
I'm not a terribly sentimental person but I'm not sure what I'll do with my original rings if they  can't be incorporated. I feel I should keep them but it doesn't make much sense in practical terms 

9 carat gold is just over 1/3 pure gold (actually 37.5% which is why you might see some 9 ct gold items stamped '375') so is mixed with other things to a greater extent than 18 carat (750 or 75% gold) or 22 carat.  Even 9 carat gold items will have different percentages of other elements. That may be what the jeweller meant. I'm not sure if that makes a difference when melting stuff down to repurpose.

If you both Google gold prices, it will give you an idea of how much your things are worth in scrap.

Re having things redesigned, I've done this in India by taking unwanted/broken items but I used a trusted jeweller and of course the labour costs there are much lower than here.

Jewellery Quarter in Birmingham is a good idea or a manufacturing jeweller if you can find one.

I've found that high street jewellers can be pricey for repairs/alterations.

gettingtheresometime

The shaft of my engagement ring broke many moons ago & I've never got it repaired but have kept it in my jewellery box.
Perhaps it's me but it only holds sentimental value, which is probably why I haven't got rid of it.
My wedding ring, however, would be a different story.

Lavender13

Could you have it repurposed into something else, like a charm for a new necklace perhaps? An independent jeweler maybe able to help with suggestions.

Slinky

If you do decide to go to Birmingham, avoid RJ Turley like the plague, unless you like a really stressful experience.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2567409/rj-turley-jewellers-in-birmingham-do-not-use/p1

ETA, I have small diamonds in my wedding ring, probably about 1.5mm-2mm across. When the ring was made in 2009 the stones were £30 each, so I'm guessing the jeweller probably pays about a tenner for them.

MovingForwards

I'm on my 4th engagement ring, the other 3 are in a box. Personally, I wouldn't be able to scrap any of them.

Maybe leave it a while, when it's not as raw and see what your wife wants to do.

AskAsk

jewellery has very low resale value but it would be better to sell the ring to a jeweller than selling for the gold and stone.

Pollycat

AskAsk said:

jewellery has very low resale value but it would be better to sell the ring to a jeweller than selling for the gold and stone.

I guess it depends on how valuable the ring is and if it's actually worth any jeweller repairing it for resale.

Otherwise they'll just offer scrap value.

MidlandsGlory

Its 18k with half a carat of stones, we were poor back then but it seemed a lot.  We had quotes of around £550 to repair as allegedly all the stones needed resetting as well as one replaced. That much was the best part of the cost of a new one in the sales. So got a new one..
Perhaps will just keep it for now.

HampshireH

Would it not just be nicer for her to keep it than to try and offset it against the cost of a new one?

If £550 was the best part of a new one, it was a great price for a replacement especially if it also lasts 24 years