Diamond News
Study: “Tainted” Engagements Rings Sell for Less Online
Israeli Diamond Institute
Diamond engagement ring (Image: Andrey Popov/Shutterstock)
A study recently published in the journal “Advances in Strategic Management” and quoted by JCK, takes a fascinating look on the social and monetary value we attach to things sold online; specifically – engagements rings sold by a divorcee on eBay.
Anne Bowers, an associate professor of strategy at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management and the author of the study, looked at a year’s worth of diamond sales data from eBay, taking into account the cut, color and clarity. She begins by telling JCK that most rings listed on eBay – and there are about 1.5 million of them – rarely sell. The second finding is that when divorce is mentioned by the seller, the rings are less likely to sell; and if they do, they are generally sold for less money.
Bowers made an experiment with an Amazon subject pool. She put three identical rings to sell, with identical text except for one thing. One said that she’s selling the ring following a divorce (sold for $557), the other said she was selling because she works with her hands (sold for $780), and the third said that the jewelry store she works in has an excess of rings (sold for $820).
The reasons for this huge discrepancy are purely social. According to Bowers, people thought it was inappropriate to accept a “tainted” ring from a divorce. In other words, when all things are equal, the “story” of the object becomes just as important as its objective qualities.
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