Circa Jewels

Circa Jewels 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 they are going to offer you considerably less than they expect to receive when they resell these items.

How it works

If you are near one of Circa’s 21 locations worldwide, the best option is to make an appointment to have your jewelry appraised in person. The Circa representative will examine your jewelry, writing down notes about the gems, settings, maker, condition, quality and style. Assuming it’s the type of jewelry the site wants, the Circa representative will make a written offer to buy it right there.

If you accept the offer, you are paid immediately by check, bank transfer or gift card. Don’t like the offer? Take your jewelry and go home.

Selling online

The process is similar when selling online. However, the offer you get when describing your jewelry this way is only an estimate contingent on verifying the weight and condition of the pieces in person.

If you like the estimate, the site will send you shipping materials, including a label for insured postage. You send the package; the site evaluates the jewelry in person. And, if all is well, sends you payment. If you don’t like the final offer, the site will return your jewelry to you in an insured, postage-paid package.

Not for everybody

Notably, this site is only interested in very costly pieces — those likely to sell for thousands, not hundreds, of dollars. If you have less expensive jewelry that you want to sell, your best bet is a site like Poshmark, eBay or Amazon.

Complaints

Most complaints about Circa focus on low-ball offers. When selling here, you have to realize that Circa is planning to resell your jewelry and a site that has 21 offices in locations like Beverly Hills and Hong Kong has a high overhead. In other words, they’re going to offer a fraction of the resale value.

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.

Recommendations

If you happen to be near a Circa Jewelry location, we see no downside to bringing in the items you’re interested in selling for an evaluation. However, we don’t recommend sending them through the online process. We think you’re unlikely to get the best price here. Why take the risk of mailing expensive jewelry unless you think there’s a decent chance that the sale will work out?

When you’re not near a Circa location, we’d recommend you consider Worthy. While Worthy is also reselling your diamonds and luxury jewelry, it’s a fully online operation and takes just a 10% to 18% commission. That means you’re more likely to walk away with a better price.

What their users say: (from TrustPilot)

Overly disappointed, I used the on-line process and they refused to make an offer at all. My jewelry is all in perfect condition and has been appraised so I know it has at least some value. Maybe because it is just traditionally styled non-designer jewelry and all custom pieces? They should identify on their website if their only interest is in specific brands/pieces.

I had emailed pictures of the items I was thinking of selling, and before our appointment he emailed that some of my items did not have resale value, and explained why. When we met he examined each of my jewelry pieces and explained a little about each one. He gave me an estimate, in writing, for the lot of 7 pieces. In the end it turned out that my adult daughter wanted the jewelry, which had belonged to me, my mother and grandmother. So although I didn’t end up selling my jewelry, Jeffery helped me conclude that my items had the most value as sentimental family heirlooms. His expertise enabled me to reach this happy conclusion

Happy customer

My situation was/ is a challenging one & Israel made it seamless & was so comforting.
Also, Israel demonstrated completed professionalism & exceeded my expectations in jewelry that I had to sell!

I was initially apprehensive about selling jewelry via the internet but Circa had many layers of security and a very professional way of handling the transaction. It took a week from start to finish and I felt like I got a fair price compared to anywhere else. I would do business with them again!

Low-ball offer

Absurd lowball offer. I get it, they need a profit. I found another outfit that I already put it on auction with, they are far more WORTHY of my time. Disappointed with CIRCA and even more disappointed in Blue Nile where I purchased the diamond recommending them as their “go to” outfit. Yeah, if you want to be offered 1/6th of what you paid, literally. This diamond alone is worth far more and I already found someone who will get that to me.

I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised by their lowball offer. They’re in business to make money but offering 30% below FMV seems a bit usurious to me. There’s no doubt in my mind they’d put it in a ring and sell it for more than double or triple what they paid for it. Process itself was fine and who knows what other ridiculous offers you’ll have to endure when trying to sell jewelry. If you’re not looking for top dollar then this may be the easiest option.

From Yelp

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.

She offered us less than 10% of the retail price.

Updated 2/16/2023