Hi, my main character is selling a diamond, or some type of jewel like a diamond. I'd like for him to get a couple thousand for it, but I'm not sure where or how or what. I thought of pawn shops...but after googling I learned that they don't exactly buy items...they trade them for loans or something. So I tried just a normal jewelry shop...but I don't know if a jewelry shop would actually do that. So the main criteria here is: Able to walk in and sell it for maybe about 2000-3000 dollars. Not too big a jewel. Buyer found in a big city. What do you think is worth that much? Google is doing nothing but confusing me with this. Thanks
What about a shady street vendor who wants to pass it off as more than it's worth and sell it for like 10K, so he buys it for 2-3K?
Yeah I'm leaning toward that now...it's a good idea and it works for something else too, but the problem is how does he find the vendor? So far he's basically found the shop through directory...I imagine he can't exactly do the same thing and look up "Shady Street Vendor" XD So most likely, for the moment, since I have to write this daily, I'll go with the implausible shop, and change it and weave the vendor into the story when I'm allowed to edit what I've already put my character into.
Maybe he's in the pawn shop and he doesn't know the stuff you know about the shop not buying his diamond. So he's at the counter, desperately begging this dude to buy it from him because he's stuck in a rut, etc. And then maybe some random guy who's kind of shady overhears and pulls him aside and gives him a tip on the shady guy.
You can pawn an item and not go back for it. (pawn it and consider it sold) I think that in order to get 2000 for a item from a pawn broker the item would have to be worth a lot more that 2000. (pawn broking is a profit making business)
Unsure of how the character got the gem here's what you could do: 1. Go to a jeweler. They will buy gems, stones, diamonds, anything as long as you got it a legal way. 2. The pawn shop. They will purchase things from you, sometimes if its shady, NEVER if it is outright stolen. 3. Ebay. Sounds crazy, but anything can be sold on Ebay or other online sites from pencils to islands. 4. In the newspaper. Big enough city, somebody might take a look at it. 5. Downtown street vendors. Set up a shop, or just hang out next to a jewelry one and wait for some richy rich to come along.
i've had diamonds that cost that much and more and to get that much for your character's, it would have to be sizable [over 4 carats and/or of the highest grade], worth at least 3x that much in resale value, for a pawn shop to take it... for a jeweler to buy it, i'd think it would have to be worth at least twice what they'd pay for it... old rule of thumb we went by in my long ago major jewelry-owning days was you could sell it for only 1/3 of it's purchase/appraisal price... don't know if that's changed any in the last 20-30 years... also, any reputable jeweller or pawn shop owner who doesn't want to risk a receiving stolen goods charge will ask for proof of ownership before considering buying or loaning money on the stone... email me if you want details on how to go about buying/selling jewelry, as i've done plenty of that, along with trading some pieces/stones for new ones... love and hugs, maia maia3maia@hotmail.com
