Diamond buyers in Manhattan: selling in the borough of the district

Diamond Buyers NYC is an independent referral service, not a buyer, pawnshop or dealer. When you call or send the form, your details go to an independent buyer in New York, who makes any offer.

Manhattan’s diamond trade, from Maiden Lane to 47th Street

The 47th Street Business Improvement District tells the story as a slow move uptown. New York’s jewelry trade began around 1790 on Maiden Lane in lower Manhattan. In the 1920s jewelers moved to Canal Street and the Bowery. In 1923 the real estate broker Fenimore Goode began building for the diamond trade on West 47th Street between Fifth and Sixth, and the move to Midtown grew in the 1940s, when European Jewish refugees, among them diamond merchants and artisans, opened businesses on the block. Today the BID describes the district as the place with the largest concentration of diamond and jewelry related companies and retailers.

Getting to the district from around Manhattan

The BID lists the B, D, F or M to 47-50 Streets Rockefeller Center, the 6 to 51st Street, the 1 to 50th Street, and the N, Q or R to 49th Street. Buses M1 to M5 run on Fifth and Madison Avenues, the M50 on 49th and 50th Streets and the M7 on Broadway. Whether you start on the Upper East Side, the Upper West Side, in Harlem, Chelsea or Lower Manhattan, one of those will bring you close.

Using the block to compare offers

The advantage of selling in Manhattan is simple: a second and third opinion are a few doors apart. Use that. Describe the diamond the same way to each buyer, ask what each offer assumes, and get each one in writing with the business’s name and its DCWP licence number. For a ring, ask for the stone and the setting separately. Then leave with the piece and compare at home. The guide to the Diamond District NYC has a fuller plan for the visit.

• A loose stone with a report is the quickest to price. GIA offers a Report Check on its website where the number can be looked up. See how to sell loose diamonds.
• An engagement ring is two valuations: the stone on the four Cs and the metal on its weight.
• Gold and diamond jewelry is sorted by karat and weighed. See how to sell gold in NYC.

What every Manhattan buyer must do

Manhattan has no rules of its own for diamond buyers; the city’s rules apply in every borough. They come from the NYC Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP).

• Hold a Secondhand Dealer General licence, posted where you can see it with DCWP’s complaint sign, with the licence number on receipts.
• Check your official photo ID, record its type and number, and have you sign in front of the dealer.
• Weigh any gold, silver or other precious metal on a scale of an approved type and tell you the troy weight.
• Record the sale, keep the record for three years, and not resell used items for 15 days.
• Not buy from a minor.

Lending against jewelry is a different business, licensed separately as a pawnbroker. A pawn is a loan; a sale is final.

Starting with a call

You do not have to walk into a store to begin. Call the line, describe the diamond and whether it has a report, and an independent buyer in New York comes back to you. The full sale, step by step, is on the page on how to sell diamonds in NYC.

Questions people ask