Selling your diamonds, gold, silver, and platinum in Kansas City

Richard Dolgin Private Jeweler buys gold, diamonds, silver, and platinum.

Of late, my clients are always asking me what to do with their gold. With gold well over $1,600 an ounce, and other metals at extreme highs, it seems like you should melt whatever precious metals you have just sitting around in outdated jewelry. The Atlantic recently asked if there is a bubble going on now. I’m not one to try and predict metal markets. I’m just along for the ride like everyone else.

But I can say if you decide to cash in on some gold, diamonds, silver flatware, or other precious metals, please do be careful. With a 75% increase in price over the last three years, the scammers have come to prey. There are many horror stories about selling your valuables, but what’s less understood is exactly why a few old rings don’t add up to that much cash. Most rings are 14 karat (58.5% pure gold) or 18 karat (75% pure gold). The refinery is only paying you for the pure gold not the alloy. Also the original jewelry has the labor and profit which you lose at scrap prices.

Be careful if you decide to sell your old scrap metal. It has value and you want to get the highest price possible. Richard Dolgin Private Jeweler promises to be discreet and treat you with courtesy and integrity.

Remember, Richard Dolgin Private Jeweler has been repairing, selling, and creating custom jewelry as well as buying gold and other precious metals for over 30 years.

Call or stop by the studio at 4901 West 119th Street, Suite 200 in Overland Park to discuss selling your diamonds, gold, silver, or platinum.

 

Services Offered at Richard Dolgin Private Jeweler

Our Specialties

When you come to visit Richard Dolgin at his Overland Park Kansas studio, you can expect the highest level of professionalism, the benefit of years of experience, integrity, and the best value for your money. What you can't expect is a showroom full of many display cases.  I focus on the following areas of expertise:

 

Jewelry Repair 

In our state of the art jewelry repair shop we can do everything from the simplest repair to the most detailed restoration of your worn out treasures.

 

Custom Jewelry

Our Master Jeweler, Marsha, can work wonders taking your old worn out items and turning them into something new to be enjoyed. We can also duplicate an existing wedding band or heirloom from the past.

 

Selling Diamonds

I sell diamonds of every size and quality. Working in my diamond laboratory I will give you an education about the 4 C's and recommend how it is best to spend your hard earned money for this most important purchase.

 

Appraisals & Estate Evaluation

We can work with you to appraise your valuable jewelry for insurance and estate purposes. We provide you with the documentation needed for your insurance or estate needs. 

 

 

 

We Buy Gold, Diamonds, Platinum, and Silver

In our discreet office environment we will work with you to evaluate the items that you want to sell. Using our years of experience we can help make sure you are getting the optimum return. In some cases we may suggest that you don't sell an item because of its historic or heirloom value. We will always use our best judgement to asess your jewelry depending on your individual situation.

 

Come See Our Handmade Inventory

We do carry a selection of beautiful handmade items including wedding rings, fashion jewelry, and estate and antique items - all very competitively priced.

 

Come by and visit so you can take advantage of our years of experience and integrity for your next jewelry adventure.

New Jewelry Repair Shop

Service has been at the heart of every jewelry store I’ve run and owned. It’s nearly impossible to serve jewelry clients without having a top notch shop. No matter how much technology moves forward, the craft of creating, maintaining and repairing jewelry is still largely a manual process and one we perform with pride. If a piece of jewelry is important enough to wear every day (or for a special occasion), it deserves that special touch that only a craftsman can deliver.

I have been working hard to set up the new on premise custom and repair jewelry shop. This is the seventh jewelry repair shop I have assembled in my career. I kept much of the equipment in storage from Dolgin’s Diamond Center while taking time off. Setting up a new state of the art jewelry shop has taken more time and money than I ever expected, but it’s been worth every minute and penny. These tools are critical to do the best custom jewelry and repair in the area. I invite you to come by and see how jewelry repair and custom work are done the right way to last for years.

Clean and Check Your Jewelry

Last week, as I perused the fruit aisle at Whole Foods, I ran into an old friend and longtime client. After exchanging the normal compliments, I was drawn to her jewelry. She wore the wedding set that her husband had bought so many years ago along with a pair of diamond earrings that were a more recent purchase.

Instead of smiling at how nice the pieces looked, I cringed inside. The diamonds appeared drab, and the bands were scuffed and smudged. Throughout my career, this encounter has happened too many times, and it devastates me.

Jewelry, like so many expensive items that we purchase, needs to be cleaned and checked often. Jewelry is similar to a car. Weather, oil, bugs, etc. all accumulate on cars and make them lose that shine from the day we bought it. A ring has different culprits (hand lotion and cooking ingredients are two I commonly see) but will lose the shine, the brilliance exactly the same way.

So here is a challenge for the New Year. Don’t be like the friend I saw in the grocery store last week. Keep your jewelry, especially your ring and bracelets,  cleaned and checked (at least twice a year) as you do your car.

New Years Resolution

It is that time of year: the first few weeks of January when we go through the motions of keeping our New Year’s resolution.  One everyone should make this year is to get their jewelry cleaned and checked at least once a year (or better every 6 months).  Trust me, it’s a painless way to keep your jewelry looking its best and to be sure all of your gem stones are tight and secure.

Personally, my resolution is to make regular posts here at my blog.  Several clients surprised me when they commented on my posts during this holiday season.  I am extremely happy and humbled to have people reading it and stopping in to see us.  Admittedly, I was skeptical and often wondered why someone would read what a private jeweler had to say, but it turns out people have lots of questions about jewelry.

So I have my sons to thank for pushing me to share my thoughts, stories and photos.  Though I still keep up with more traditional sources like trade magazines, periodicals, and evening news, they’ve even inspired me to follow a few great blogs, like Seth Godin’s.  I look forward to keeping my New Year’s resolution.

Stay tuned and send me any questions you have about jewelry!

What is a Private Jeweler?

Finding the right piece of jewelry is a personal process. For over 30 years, I’ve helped people in the greater Kansas City area and Overland Park trust that they found their perfect piece. I’m really excited to continue helping people by taking a new approach than my previous store, Dolgin’s Diamond Center.

Our new studio shop is setup to do two things really well: have a one-on-one conversation with clients and take care of their jewelry on premise. If you’d like to make appointment, give us a call today. I’ll write more about our shop and taking care of your jewelry, but now I want to focus on how we are helping people like you to buy jewelry.

One of the first things you’ll notice about our shop is that we don’t have showcases filled with jewelry under bright lights. Don’t worry. I can still get anything you need. With over 30 years in the industry, I have access to anything you could want within a matter of days. Loose diamonds? Dangle earrings? Engagement rings? Pendants? Rare Gem stones? Men’s rings? No problem. Think of us as your personal jewelry concierge.

While having less on hand will make random, spontaneous purchases tough, I think it fixes a struggle many jewelry stores have. First, no matter how big our inventory was at Dolgins, many clients still couldn’t find that perfect piece. We would have to order or custom make it.

Now, rather than worrying about selling what I have on hand, carrying much fewer pieces allows me to focus on service rather than selling. One-on-one conversations with clients like you will give me the opportunity to discuss your preferences and what may complement your collection or occasion. Through conversations, rather than selling, we can comfortably find you the perfect piece.

Still wondering what we’re all about? Give us a call at (913) 696-1003 or poke around the site.

Reasons for Change

As we are now “officially” open, I wanted to talk about what a private jeweler is and why our new business model makes a lot of sense for clients.

There’s a trend quietly happening among small jewelry stores: they are closing. Since 1999, over 3,000 main street jewelry stores have closed and the trend is accelerating with this recession. In 2008 alone, 1300 stores closed.

As many clients can tell you, I should know because I have operated a successful jewelry store in the Kansas City area for over 30 years. Similar to other jewelry stores, I closed my retail operation in 2008 and moved away from the retail lifestyle. This change gave me time to rest, recuperate, and reflect. Here are three important reasons for changing business models.

1. The Internet’s growth. The Internet has changed the economics of many businesses and jewelry is no different. Websites offer a convenience that is fun and popular. Wholesale diamond houses love selling to these sites in bulk, and clients looking for diamond jewelry love avoiding lines, side-stepping pushy sales people, and driving around town to compare prices.
2. Jewelry inventory is expensive to own. Most people have no concept of how expensive it is to run a jewelry store. Or maybe they do once they see the prices In addition to the upfront cost of buying thousands of jewelry items, there are other less obvious expenses like lighting, displays, equipment, security and insurance. Even packing and unpacking the jewelry for daily display becomes an onerous expense.
3. Traditional advertising no longer works. When we first started our store advertising was a relatively simple exercise. We worked with an agency to write and place simple, thoughtful radio ads. When we ran ads people came to our store and bought jewelry. What a world it was. Now with the traditional advertising channels like radio, television and newspaper having much less impact, marketing a small jewelry store is a real challenge.

The trend of smaller independent stores closing is likely to continue given our nation’s recent recession and the rationale above. In their place I think you are likely to see more private jewelers like us open up.

The Next Step – Richard Dolgin Private Jeweler

For those of you who know Mary and I either as jewelry clients or personal friends, you already know that we closed down Dolgins Diamond Center in early 2009. We were sad to say goodbye to our clients, colleagues and friends we had made over the past 20 years. All of the engagement rings, pairs of diamond earrings and repair work kept us in touch with many clients that become friends.

During our time off from retail, we have been able to get healthier, visit friends in other cities and even spend some time in our garden. We were truly humbled by numerous people who continued to contact us for their jewelry needs. Now with our three boys out of school and settled in their respective jobs, we think it’s a good time to open the doors to our new project: Richard Dolgin Private Jeweler.

I’ll explain what we plan to do over the next couple of weeks in separate posts. Our sole focus will be working with clients one-on-one to take care of their jewelry needs – new diamonds, repairs, appraisals, insurance replacements and, of course, regular clean and checks.

Hello world - Overland Park Jeweler Is Back!

We’re back!

What was Diamond Expressions then Dolgins Diamond Center is now Richard Dolgin – Private Jeweler. We’ve been in the proverbial shop cooking up a whole new look and are just about to open a new studio in Overland Park, Kansas. Expect more news soon!