Before you ask anyone how much your diamond ring is worth, you can learn a surprising amount on your own, at a kitchen table, in about half an hour. You will not end up with a price, because only a buyer who knows the ring can make an offer. But you will know what you own, and that makes every conversation afterwards shorter and calmer.
Read the report, if there is one
Look for a grading report from GIA, IGI or another laboratory that issues diamond reports. It may be a document, a small card, or a number on the receipt. If it is a GIA report, GIA offers a Report Check on its website where the number can be looked up. Note down four things:
| On the report | What to note |
|---|---|
| Carat weight | The weight. A carat is 200 milligrams; 0.75 carat is 75 points. |
| Color | A letter on GIA’s D-to-Z scale. |
| Clarity | The grade. Flawless is the top one. |
| Natural or laboratory-grown | Under the FTC’s guides a lab-grown stone should be clearly described as laboratory-grown or similar. |
If there is no report, note what the receipt or an appraisal says about the stone. If there is nothing at all, that is fine. Write down the shape and roughly how large the stone looks, and leave the rest to a buyer.
Find the stamp
Look inside the band with a bright light, or a phone camera zoomed in. You may see a karat stamp such as 14K or 18K, a platinum mark, or a maker’s name. Gold’s karat divided by 24 gives the gold share: 10K is 41.7%, 14K is 58.3%, 18K is 75% and 22K is 91.7%. Under the FTC’s guides, 14 karat should not be called solid gold, and plated metal is not solid gold at all. If the stamp is worn away, note that too.
Weigh it, carefully
If you have a small scale that reads in grams, weigh the ring. A kitchen scale is usually too coarse for a ring, and remember that a troy ounce, the unit metals are priced in, is 31.10348 grams, while a kitchen ounce is 28.34952 grams. Jewelers often weigh in pennyweight, which is 1.555174 grams. Your figure is only a rough guide, because it includes the stones. In New York City a licensed buyer must use an approved scale reading to 0.01 troy ounce or finer and tell you the troy weight.
Do the metal sum
Melt value is the weight in troy ounces times the fineness times the spot price per troy ounce. With placeholders: a 14K ring whose metal weighs G grams, with gold at X dollars per troy ounce, holds G divided by 31.10348, times 0.583, troy ounces of gold, worth that times X. Look up the day’s spot price yourself; it changes daily, which is why this article gives none.
Treat the result as the ceiling for the metal, not a forecast of an offer. Melt value is the value of the pure metal only, and an offer for metal is usually below it, because the buyer pays to refine it and needs a margin.
What the sum leaves out
The metal is only part of a diamond ring, and often the smaller part. The center stone, valued by its carat, color, clarity and cut, and any side stones are what a buyer looks at most closely. There is no home sum for that, because two stones of the same weight can be valued very differently. That is the part to leave to a buyer, with your notes in hand.
Two figures that are not the answer
- What it cost in a store. A retail price includes the store’s costs and margin. A buyer pays what the ring is worth to them to resell, so an offer will be lower.
- The appraisal. An insurance appraisal is a useful description, not an offer.
Then ask, with your notes
With the report details, the stamp, a rough weight and the metal sum, you can ask a buyer about your ring knowing what they are looking at. Ask for a written offer that says what is being bought, and ask two buyers if you can. Our page on how to sell a diamond ring explains how stones and metal are weighed against each other, and the page on where to sell a diamond engagement ring compares the places that buy rings of every kind.
Ready to ask what your diamond ring is worth? Ask privately, and an independent New York buyer can make a written offer.
Questions people ask
Can I find out what my diamond ring is worth online?
You can look up a GIA report number and work out the metal’s melt value with the day’s spot price. The stones need a buyer’s look.
Why does my ring weigh more than the metal sum suggests?
A home weighing includes the stones, so it overstates the metal.
Is the price I paid a guide to what it is worth now?
Not to an offer. A retail price includes the store’s costs and margin, so a buyer’s offer will be lower.