Selling valuable rings on ebay

Bowey123

I am wondering whether to sell some valuable rings on eBay and would like peoples opinion on how to protect myself. 

I was thinking about making them collection only to prevent anyone saying eg “one of the stones is missing”
I have insurance valuations on them which I will be including and will send the items registered post but am wondering if there is anything else I could do?

DullGreyGuy

What are "valuable" rings? £1,000? £50,000 each? Is brand part of the value or just the materials?

Insurance valuations will be retail price, hopefully you arent expecting to get close to that on the secondhand market. 

Collection Only is one option, but you naturally limit your potential customer base. Not as much of a problem if you live in London, a much more significant one if you live in Uig,  Skye. 

soolin

I concur with DullGreyGuy , how expensive are we taking? If they are old and potentially not fashionable but hallmarked gold they might make scrap value, but thats always difficult where there are stones as well. If they are potentially still fashionable then the prices will obviously be higher. Ignore insurance valuations though they tend to be excessively high.

If posting then it needs to be special delivery only with the correct amount of insurance if the basic is insufficient. There are also a couple of excellent facebook groups I can recommend that has a good sell through rate for old jewellery (it must pre date 1979) but that would require posting and new users won’t sell anything g without PayPal goods and services. If interested drop me a pm and I’ll give you the name of the group, but I may take a while to answer as I’m currently abroad and not getting online as much. 

Bowey123

The insurance valuations are about £1.5k. This is expensive to me. 

I know I would get 10% at auction. 

They are not branded and old. But they are very wearable today. 

FlorayG

If your insurance valuation is £1.5k then expect a return of about £500
Lots of stuff that sort of value is sold all the time and especially if it isn't one item
Be aware of a scam if doing collection only; person will say they are on the way, turn up, pay via PayPal, take the goods then message you to say they are delayed sorry will be another hour. When you say no, you've collected, they say that wasn't me and put in a claim against you for return of their money. If doing collection only you ask for cash

DullGreyGuy

Bowey123 said:

The insurance valuations are about £1.5k. This is expensive to me. 

I know I would get 10% at auction. 

They are not branded and old. But they are very wearable today. 

So realistically all the rings together are going to sell for £500 if you're lucky, but maybe below that. You dont say how many rings make up that sum? Are there 3 at just over £150 each or 10 at £50 each? Presumably selling them individually rather than as a set?

Personally, at that level I would just follow normal precautions and consider Special Delivery for anything over £100. There are scammers on eBay but the majority are just normal folk and most transactions dont have problems despite the horror stories. Have sold various things at or above those sums and not had any problems (though that doesn't guarantee no problem on the next one.

Bowey123

There are three.  Bottom insurance value 1500 top £2000

GabbaGabbaHey

FlorayG said:

Be aware of a scam if doing collection only; person will say they are on the way, turn up, pay via PayPal, take the goods then message you to say they are delayed sorry will be another hour. When you say no, you've collected, they say that wasn't me and put in a claim against you for return of their money.

Doesn't eBay now give the buyer a QR code (or numeric code) which they have to provide to the seller on collection? I understood it was brought in to prevent these types of scams.

theoretica

GabbaGabbaHey said:

FlorayG said:

Be aware of a scam if doing collection only; person will say they are on the way, turn up, pay via PayPal, take the goods then message you to say they are delayed sorry will be another hour. When you say no, you've collected, they say that wasn't me and put in a claim against you for return of their money.

Doesn't eBay now give the buyer a QR code (or numeric code) which they have to provide to the seller on collection? I understood it was brought in to prevent these types of scams.

Yes - and ebay now won't let you ask for cash.  I suspect also too many cases also of buyers paying cash and then the transaction being cancelled to avoid ebay fees.

Grumpelstiltskin

Personally I would take them to your local proper jeweller who buys gold and see what they offer you, you get the money, no hassle, no one saying they haven't arrived etc.

Bowey123

I bought a bundle of baby clothes from eBay a few weeks ago. I wasn’t happy and messaged the seller who would not accept them as a return.  I raised a dispute with eBay who refunded my money.  I don’t think I should have had my money back, I just wanted to return them.  So I was shocked at how easily eBay gave me a refund.  I did also return them at my own expense I would add.   But I could easily have been a scammer. 

Just concerned that this could happen to me.