Why You Can't Sell Your Tungsten Ring

When it comes to getting rid of old gold or silver jewelry, most people know it is quite simple. There are jewelry stores, pawn shops, and even stores that solely exist to buy people’s unwanted gold items. However, people are often surprised to find out it is quite difficult to sell or pawn their tungsten or titanium jewelry. In fact, it is probably easier to find someone that buys cardboard boxes or an old plastic bottle, than it is to find someone that wants one’s old tungsten jewelry.

Gold is Liquid

The biggest reason why it is so easy to exchange gold for cash is because it is liquid. This means there is a huge market for gold and it is traded every day on the world’s commodities exchanges. You can look at any newspaper’s business section to get the current price of gold. This is because gold has traditionally been used as cash. In fact, the use of gold as a currency has been common practice for most of human history. The amount of time we have used paper money is quite short in comparison to how long gold and silver has been used as money. Tungsten has never been used as a type of currency and never will be. Although it has value and can be used to make many things, it is not traded as widely as gold is, not even close. Hardly anyone even knows what the value of tungsten is. Even if someone has no use for a piece of gold, they want it because they know the value of it and they know they can exchange it for cash immediately. In other words, they know gold is liquid and it is valuable to others, even though they have no use for it themselves, they want it. Tungsten is not liquid. Few people have a use for it, so that means few people will give you money for your tungsten rings.

Gold is a Type of Currency

Let’s take away the fact that gold is treated as a type of currency. One could argue that even if you could not use it for anything else except to make jewelry, there are still people who want an old gold wedding ring to wear. How come one cannot sell an unwanted tungsten wedding band as easily as a gold one? One reason is people’s finger sizes are not all the same. Since tungsten rings cannot be resized, one would have to find another person that not only wants the exact same ring style, but also has the exact same finger size. Since gold is a soft metal, and can be easily re-sized, it is theoretically easier to find another buyer because that person only has to want that ring style. The ring can then be resized to fit the new owner. By the way, most people do not want to wear other people’s old gold jewelry even if sizing was not an issue. The only reason there are people who want other people’s old gold jewelry is because they can melt it down for the gold and sell it, which goes back to the liquidity factor.

Why Not Tungsten?

Finally, let’s say that one was able to find a buyer that wants his old tungsten ring, and that buyer has the same size finger. Here is why the buyer would still be hesitant to buy it, unless it was offered at a steep discount. The lifetime warranty of the ring, if the ring comes with one, is non-transferable. This means the designer of the tungsten ring will only exchange the ring for a different size during the lifetime of the original purchaser. The new buyer of the ring will not be able to get the ring exchanged for a different size if his finger size ever changes, and it will. People’s finger sizes will change as they gain or lose weight over the course of their lifetime. Without the lifetime warranty, one would have to buy a new ring every time his finger size changes, which could get quite expensive. So, most people would rather just buy a new tungsten ring that comes with a lifetime warranty, than buy someone’s unwanted tungsten ring, which does not have a warranty.

Knowing how difficult it is to sell an unwanted tungsten ring, shoppers should choose to buy their tungsten rings from reputable retailers that have an excellent return and exchange policy. In case, one changes his or her mind and want a different style, then it can be done. Having a lifetime warranty that does not charge for size exchanges is also important, so one does not have to buy another ring just because their finger size changes.

Larson Jewelers is the largest tungsten wedding bands retailer online. Find out more about our excellent lifetime warranty.