What: Circa Jewels is a site that offers to buy your luxury rings, bracelets, necklaces, earrings and watches for resale

Commissions & Fees: Not applicable 

Husl$core: $$$

Where: Nationwide by mail or you can bring jewelry to Circa offices in Beverly Hills, Calif: Boca Raton, Florida; Chicago; Greenwich, Conn; New York City; Palm Beach, Fla; San Francisco, Calif.; Short Hills, NY; and Washington, D.C. (They also have two offices in Spain and one in Hong Kong)

Review:

Circa Jewels offers to buy your luxury watches, diamond rings, bracelets, brooches, etc. The company is buying these items for resale, so they don’t take a fee or commission, but are going to offer you less than they expect to receive.

Buying used jewelry is dicey for anyone because retail prices are often double the wholesale price. And, if you’re the middle-man, you’re going offer even less than half-price so that you can re-sell that piece at a profit.

Most complaints about Circa focus on low-ball offers and, in some cases, offers that change from one day to the next. That said, if you bring your jewelry into a store, you get an immediate appraisal and can easily walk away if it’s not to your satisfaction. If you mail in the jewelry, Circa pays postage both ways, so you’re out nothing if they low-ball and you want your jewelry back.

Unlike Worthy, which users complain sometimes damages jewelry in the appraisal process, Circa appears to handle items gently but not necessarily generously. 

What their users say: (From Yelp)

I sent my jewelry in twice – wasn’t sure I would sell it. The second time my quote for one piece was $1300 less than the first. I was offered less for all of the pieces. It seemed dishonest, I wouldn’t use Circa again.

I had a few pieces I was selling and made appointments with with several buyers. I had an appointment earlier in the day with another buyer on Wilshire that starts with an R and ends with and E. That appointment left me rather offended to say the least as I could have received a better offer from a Pawnshop on sunset.

I come from a family of jewelers, I know the business and I knew the value of my items. I called CIRCA since I was in the area and they gladly accommodated my last minute appointment. When Wes made his assessment of my jewelry, his offer was absolutely fair and and up to 40% better than previous offers I have received. I liked Wes and Circa so much I made a deal right then. I didn’t need to waste my time anywhere else for a lesser offer.

I have had my items appraised with Gia certificates, and I was offered 5 cents to a dollar value (maybe even less). If you are in distress and want to sell your $30k jewelry for $2k, then this is the place for you. They were also willing to pay $2k for a $9k item.. so clearly no logic went into the offer, seemed like she was just decided what number to write in the offer. Towards the end there was no explanation whatsoever of how the numbers were derived. I would not recommend this place to anyone..

As another reviewer has noted (and I wish I would have taken heed) it’s a glorified pawn shop..

I recently went to the New York office to consider selling several Estate pieces that I no longer wear. I met with one of their staff. While polite, there certainly was an edge to their politeness….either take an offer or leave. Let’s put it this way. Gold prices are low – about $1260 on that day, I had a 23/24k gold chain weighing in at 3.95oz, a heavy Bulgari type 18k gold with 140 diamonds necklace and a sweet diamond tiger pin with 372 diamonds set in 18k gold and small emerald eyes. I do know the actual value of each.Their offer on the chain = $4,000. when it was absolutely worth $4,977. based on that days’ gold price.Their offer on the Bulgari type necklace = $4,200., when it was worth $6,000 in gold weight alone, not including good sized 140 diamonds, so about $8,000. Their offer on the lovely little diamond tiger with black jade stripes and w 372 diamonds was $2,000. = actual value $4,000.The young woman brought in her ‘manager’ to review her ‘offer’ – reminded me of a car dealership, for heaven’s sake! He concurred with her ‘pricing offer’ of approx $10,200. for all the pieces vs the actual pricing of $16,977.00, which I received from another buyer in full.So they would have picked up about $6,777.00 of profit in a 15 min appointment!!!

First the good news.  The staff at Circa is very helpful and courteous.  I liked that. Then the other news.  Omigosh, I was so shocked at the price they offered me for my 6.72 carat tanzanite ring with 1.5 carats of diamonds set in 18k gold.  I certainly wasn’t expecting to receive the appraised value of close to $11k, but $1500 was all they could come up with. YIKES!!!! I got a higher price in a pawn shop. 

If you look for reviews of Circa Jewels, you’ll find some mighty unhappy customers who were insulted by their low offers to buy. The thing to remember at the outset if you are going to sell your jewels is that (a) you aren’t in an empowered position when it comes to wholesale and (b) the price they offer you will be a tiny fraction of the likely retail price. We went in to have a vintage piece evaluated. The price the appraiser offered to pay was about 1/8th of what he thought the likely retail price would be. It was far less than we ever would sell the piece for but it was  a fun experience. The offices were nice; the receptionist offered us water while we waited and we actually learned a few things about the piece that we wouldn’t otherwise know. Having sold jewelry before, I have no ego about these sorts of transactions. If you want to make the most money from your sale, find an individual who wants to buy your item. If you are looking for a bit of super-quick cash and can sell with no regrets, consider Circa.

Not even close to being a Trusted anything. Went to the NYC office today with 3 pieces of Hermes jewelry and a diamond Tiffany necklace. The young lady told us how happy she was that we had the original boxes and we were selling brand jewelry.  She looked, examined with a loop made notes etc. All part of the setup. I actually don’t think she had the foggiest idea of the worth of the items. She they proceeded to tell us the pieces were really not popular any more even though the Tiffany piece is still sold worldwide. Just more of the setup. She offered us less then 10% of the retail price. Don’t believe the ads. These people are out to beat you if they can.

Try Circa Jewels