Worthy helps people trying to sell engagement rings

After her six-year marriage ended in divorce two years ago, Ingrid Renberg gradually lost all emotional attachment to the one-carat diamond engagement ring she was left with.

As it had stopped being a symbol of love and happiness, she started to wonder how much money she could get selling it. She thought that letting go of the ring would give her a fresh start.

"The feeling hit me a couple of weeks ago that I was ready," said Renberg, 34, a forensic psychiatrist who lives in Pittsburgh. "I had grieved appropriately and was ready to move forward. I would not have been able to sell it right after the divorce. But I felt the time had come."

She took the ring to a local jeweler, who offered her $1,500, which she declined because she thought the offer was too low. The jeweler suggested she advertise the ring on Craigslist. But Renberg feared that would be too dangerous, with the possibility of being robbed or stuck with a bad check.

Then she found an internet company that seemed to be exactly what she was looking for. Worthy specializes in matching people trying to sell unwanted engagement rings with professional buyers.

"The engagement ring is one of the most valuable assets a divorced woman has in her possession that can now be put to better use," said Judy Herbst, director of public relations for Worthy, an online marketplace for diamonds that is based in both New York and Tel Aviv, Israel.

Auctions run all day, every day of the year, similar to the method used by eBay. All of the bidders are part of a closed community of jewelry-industry professionals, ranging from independent jewelry stores to dealers and wholesalers throughout the United States. Ordinary retail buyers cannot use the Worthy site.

Worthy never purchases the rings but instead acts as a facilitator.

Other companies in the diamond-resale marketplace - such as New York-based White Pine Diamond Sales and I Do Now I Don't, also based in New York - will buy items directly from sellers or will consign items.

When members of the country-club set want to unload their jewelry, they turn to high-end auction houses, such as Sotheby's and Christie's, which operate quarterly auctions and deal only with items valued at $10,000 or more.

Most rings sold on Worthy's platform sell for $5,000 or less. The average sale price is about $3,500. The company receives a seller fee of 20 percent on rings selling for $5,000 or less.

Worthy representatives did not want to disclose how many diamonds it has sold. But the company did say it has reviewed and estimated more than 100,000 diamond rings in the last 18 months.

Sellers have the confidence of knowing their diamond ring is insured from the very start of the selling process, according to the company. The ring is collected by a FedEx courier free of charge. Worthy emails sellers FedEx labels they can print out. Packages are tracked from the moment they leave the seller's door to the moment Worthy gets them.

Once Worthy receives a ring, the company gives it a value estimate based on a professional opinion, which considers the number of carats, its shape, clarity, and other factors. The website also has rings rated by the Gemological Institute of America, before they go to auction.

"If the auction is not successful - which means either it did not get the seller's minimum bid or the seller wants the ring back - we send it back along with the GIA report, and there is no charge," Herbst said.

Stephen Morisseau, director of corporate communications at the GIA's world headquarters in Carlsbad, Calif., said he is familiar with Worthy and its system of auctioning diamond rings. He said that for anyone making a gemstone jewelry transaction - buying or selling - having a GIA report, which scientifically describes the characteristics of the gems, can give customers a lot more confidence.

"GIA's mission is to ensure the public's trust in gems and jewelry," Morisseau said. "Any company that takes that step to use a GIA report is helping to ensure that all-important public trust."

The company's founder, Benny De Kalo, launched Worthy in the spring of 2015 as a platform for selling all jewelry. But the company reached a pivot point in 2016, when managers realized their clients were overwhelmingly divorced single mothers restarting and redesigning their lives.

"We have heard from women who told us they used the money from the sale of the rings for education, rent, vacations, piano lessons, and rainy day funds," De Kalo said

Renberg said she set the minimum bid for her ring at $2,500. Four days after it went to auction, it sold for $2,555. After Worthy collected a 20 percent seller's fee, she received a check for $2,044.

The buyer also received a story that she wrote about the many places the ring had been during her marriage.

She wrote of how it went diving in Belize and climbed the Tikkal ruins of Guatemala on her honeymoon. It hiked on the Great Wall of China. It spent the night in the freezing cold of the Ice Hotel in Quebec City. It viewed the beautiful mountain ranges in Patagonia in Chile. It saw the sunset over the Grand Canyon. It went swimming in the Blue Lagoon in Iceland, and sparkled under the Northern Lights. And more

"I wanted whoever gets this ring to know where it has been, what it has meant, and to tell them I hope . . . that they will write their own chapter of love and adventure," she said.