Lately I have been getting great traffic and lots of people have sent me diamonds to buy and jewelry to buy through the contact forms on this site. Here’s the problem with that; I have to give them ‘blind offers’. That wouldn’t be such a huge problem, but what I’ve started to notice is that many of you will get my offer and even after you are told it is a blind offer, I never hear from you again, which leads me to believe one of two things:
- I smell really bad
- You might not understand blind offers
Hope Springs Eternal
I happen to know that I have excellent hygiene, so it must mean that you don’t understand blind offers.
What are Blind Offers
Blind offers are essentially a promise to buy your piece, whether it is a diamond or a piece of jewelry based on a picture or a certification without actually seeing it. I can’t offer an exact price because I haven’t seen it, so it depends on what you can provide to me.
For example, the more you provide to me, the more exact I can be with the offer I can give you for your piece before seeing it. The less you have the wider the spread.
The GIA Certificate
There is no question that this is when a GIA Certification comes in handy. There is NO OTHER lab that is as trusted in their grading system than the GIA, and if you have a stone that you are selling that has a GIA certification, and you can show that to me, then I can be fairly precise in the blind offer. I leave room to spare in case the stone is chipped, cracked or damaged in some way once I do examine it.
No Certificate or Paperwork
If all I have is a picture and what you vaguely recall as to what you think, then I will give you a pretty wide range on what the piece is worth. I have had customers try to pin me down to an exact number with just a description on the phone. No matter how many times I try to explain that the offer is a blind offer, they want an exact number. When I can’t give one, they move on to someone who will, and you will ALWAYS be able to find someone who is unethical who will give you a price over the phone without laying eyes on your piece at all.
Trust me, when I tell you they don’t know what they are doing. You want the person who is going to be buying your jewelry to look at it before buying it. What if they are low on their blind offers? I can tell you that often times, I actually end up giving my customers more money when they come back to me and show me the pieces.
The Benefit of Blind Offers
There is a benefit of blind offers. First, you know that the diamond buyer you are dealing with is at least responding to your emails and is interested in your piece. I know that if I weren’t interested, I wouldn’t respond. After all, I have thousands of emails a day to respond to, so you know that if I take the time to put a price, blind offer or not on your piece, then I am interested in buying it. And, if I’m interested in buying it, I hope you will be interested in selling it for some price that falls within that blind offer!
