They say diamonds are forever, but the fact of the matter is sometimes they aren’t. It’s a nice thought that you pay thousands of dollars for this piece of sentiment and march into the sunset with it as a memorial of love and affection. But what more and more people have been finding, is that these diamonds aren’t often worth nearly what they are paying for them.

It’s a job well done by whoever is marketing diamonds out there, as the mark-down is worse than the new car you drive off the lot. People needing to sell their diamonds are met with a very soft second-hand market, needing to accept a fraction of the original purchase price. Diamonds are worth considerably less than retail, and they don’t have much of a chance to appreciate like something like gold does.

This is detailed by the now-famous piece from The Atlantic published all the way back in 1982. But it’s still just as true today.

But sometimes you just need to sell a diamond, right? The most popular reason to sell is due to a divorce or break-up. When a diamond loses its sentimental attachment and meaning, it’s almost painful to keep it around. Better to sell it for what you can and move on with your life.

The other popular reason to sell is when a diamond is received through an inheritance or estate. Maybe someone in your family has accumulated a few diamonds over the years as gifts from a husband or wife, and in the end these are left without significant enough value to be stowed with them forever. This leaves you with jewelry that doesn’t really hold much significance for the people getting with them.

Whatever you decide to do, it’s best to education yourself first. Study up on how diamonds are graded and come prepared when negotiating.

So how to sell? There are a few different options.

1) Local Diamond Buyers

The easiest way to get rid of your diamond is going to a local diamond buyer, most likely either a pawn shop or a jeweler. Pawn shops, however, might not know how to properly value your diamond and may give you a much lower than (the already low) market price for the diamond. Jewelers will know how to properly value it, but with their high markups and more professional business model, they’ll offer you pennies on the dollar for your diamonds. So while it’s the easiest way to sell, it may not be the best.

If you want to find trustworthy diamond buyers in your area, you can read reviews on sites like sell your diamond locations to compare your options.

2) Online Diamond Buyers

While not quite as easy as running down to the corner store and selling a diamond, using an online diamond buyer might make a lot more sense. They don’t have the same overhead and price pressures as jewelry stores, and they are much more knowledgeable than pawn shops when it comes to diamond grading. They’ve gotten the process to be pretty safe and secure at this point, and because they operate on scale they’re typically able to offer you more cash than any other type of business for your unwanted diamonds.

The downside, is it can take a couple days to process and get you payment. But as long as you don’t need the money tomorrow, this is probably the best bet if you want to sell quickly, easily, and keep your sanity. Leverage multiple offers of course, but they’ll likely be better than any pawn shop.

If you’re looking for an online diamond buyer, Diamond Karma lists several reputable online diamond buyers.

3) Craigslist / Peer-to-peer

If you’re trying to get the absolute most cash, then selling on craigslist or finding someone else who is shopping for a diamond is the best way to go. Of course, this can be a little bit scary. You’re talking about dealing with another individual you’ve met on the Internet, meeting up, and exchanging potentially thousands of dollars. It has us feeling a little uneasy, and you never know when you could get ripped off.

That said, if you can find another trustworthy person in this crazy world in need of a diamond, then you can skip all the middlemen and get yourself a good deal. But the other downside here is it takes time and effort to find someone interested in buying your diamond, so it’s certainly more work than the other methods.

4) Online Marketplaces

An online marketplace like eBay is another way you could sell your diamond. Similar to diamond buyers, eBay is going to take their cut of the sale, but at least you’ll be satisfied your diamond was sold at a fair market price. Such is the nature of bidding.

If you don’t have a well-established eBay profile, you may get less for your diamond than you might deserve because of the trust factor. Using an eBay seller service might help you get top dollar, but that could be offset by their commission fees. Which is why, at a certain point, we prefer just negotiating a great offer with an online diamond buyer.