What do you do with an engagement ring that you no longer need? Regardless of the story behind it, it's an expensive item that you no longer have a purpose for. Unfortunately, diamonds lose much of their value during their purchase. You'll need to do some work to get the most you can.
Try to Find a Reputable Company
You don't want to just pawn the ring at the first place you stop by, and classified sales are also likely to be a bust. Instead, you want to get a little creative. Find a reputable jewelry buying service: these services are often looking for unique or high quality pieces and understand their worth. You can also consider more creative methods, like an auction house.
The more time you put into finding the right buyer, the more money you're going to get. However, there are diminishing returns there, because your time is money, too. A jewelry buying service can speed up the process.
Find All Your Documentation
You'll want information on how much the ring initially cost and what the quality of the diamond is. Diamonds have many quality metrics, based on the color, cut, clarity, and so forth of the gem itself. You may also want to provide a certificate of authenticity, if you received it. Modern synthetic diamonds are so good that they often can't be detected; a certificate is what will show that you have a real, natural diamond.
If you have an appraisal, you should include this with your documentation. However, don't expect to get anywhere near the appraised value.
Be Ready to Compromise
Ultimately, you're probably going to need to compromise at some point. Once you've talked to all of the buyers you can, you'll have to make the decision to sell. This may require taking any sentimentality you have out of the process. Since a ring is naturally going to sell for much less than it was purchased for, you may find yourself feeling reluctant.
However, keep in mind that this diamond ring is not likely to go up in value over time. Most diamonds will stay relatively static in value.
Diamond engagement rings are not going to be worth close to what they were sold for, but that doesn't mean you can't recover some of your costs. A jewelry buying service will give you an overview of what you can expect when you go into a store.
Contact a company like Rich's Pawn Shop for more information.
