Four years ago, Josh Opperman came home from work to find his apartment empty and the ring he had purchased for the love of his life lying on the kitchen table. His heart broke. For more reasons than one. “I spend my life savings on that ring,” said the now-30-year old Manhattanite. “When I tried to sell the ring back to the jewelry store, they wanted to give me 35 percent of what I paid for it.”   

Opperman declined to say how much he did pay, but like most jilted fiancés, the ring that once represented love now was a source of pain. “I wanted nothing to do with it, so I stuck it in a drawer,” he said. It wasn’t long after that when the wheels started to turn, and Opperman with the help of his sister Mara, 27, came up with the idea of starting an online auction for misfit engagement rings and wedding bands.

By January of 2007, www.idonowidont.com (I do, now I don’t) was up and running, which the siblings say has been a ful-ltime job for them. “I think it is popular just because a lot of people in the same situation as was and are not sure what to do with the ring,” he said. “The difference between our site and e-Bay is that we verify the rings before they are shipped out and any money is exchanged. We have an in-house jeweler.”   

Opperman's Web site has been featured on The Rachel Ray Show. (To see the video click here.) For newly divorced Dana Shapiro, 28, the Web site was the answer to a dilemma. “I went to two places in Westchester and two places in Manhattan, and either the jeweler didn’t want the ring, or would take it and not give me any money until it sold. One jeweler wanted to recut it. The best offer I got was like $3,000 and I just got fed up,” said the Manhattan school teacher, who said she believed the one-carat diamond set on a platinum band was purchased for $8,000.   

After reading about the Web site, Shapiro contacted the site and posted a profile, took a digital photo of the ring and a price of $5,000. “Within two weeks, it sold for $5,000 and I am really happy about that,” she said.    

The Web site acts as a clearinghouse, holding the rings and authenticating them before sending to the buyer said Mara Opperman. The company takes 5 percent commission on the sale. As for Opperman, he says he doesn’t know what his ex is doing, or if she knows about the web site. But the first thing he did once it was online, was post his ring. “It sold very quickly, for a lot more than I would have gotten from my jewelry store,” he said.      

Click here for a story on what the law says about who gets the ring.
Click here for a story about how to pick a new ring in remarriage.
Click here for a story about what to do with the ring after divorce.
Click here for a blog about what to do with the ring after divorce.
Click here for advice from the community about what to do with the ring after divorce.

Lenore Skomal is a career journalist with 25 years of professional writing experience. The author of nine books and columnist of an award-winning weekly column in the Erie, Pa., Times-News, she also teaches college journalism in Pennsylvania.