Another woman, Petra Skoric, is selling her $20,000 engagement ring. "It does have a bit of an airing-dirty-laundry-in-public taste to it but Trade Me is a relatively anonymous place to sell something like that," she says. "And to be honest, I rely on the internet so much in both my professional and personal life that I can't even think of where else I'd sell it."
Skoric accepts that other people will cast judgment on what had been, for her, a very personal possession.
"I don't mind strangers evaluating it - after all, it is just a material commodity when I take myself out of the picture, and it has a retail value. I'm probably more precious about selling off some of my shoes because the ring to me now is just a symbol of something that no longer exists and wasted potential money sitting around."
* * *
Before the internet became popular, says psychologist Sara Chatwin, people would have put ads for unwanted engagement rings and possessions left over from a marital split in the local newspaper, or taken them to second-hand shops.
The anonymity of selling online helps people feel more free. It also gives buyers the courage to look at things they otherwise wouldn't because they could not be seen doing it. But she said people should not be too surprised at the backlash.
How is selling a now redundant engagement ring "airing dirty laundry"?
I don't get it.
I only took off my wedding and engagement rings about 6 months ago. My hand still kinda feels weird without them but the T insisted that they go - which was totally fair enough - so they went.
I don't know why they were so hard to take off, for so long - but they were.
Anyway - i now have a one carat princess cut diamond ring, set in white gold that retailed for 5 grand that really only dredges up memories of pain if i look at it - sitting on my dresser collecting dust.
If anyone wants it - it's yours - for a grand.
Who cares about dirty laundry?
We all have it.
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5 comments:
Hey, just thought I'd comment on the dirty laundry part as that's my quote - the writer asked a question that insinuated it was a bit like that. I think she was fishing/hoping for a more dramatic story than it actually is. As you said, it's redundant and I'm getting rid of it, that's all there is to it. Good luck with selling yours :)
I think the writer would have been a bit disappointed that you didn't have anything juicier to give her.
I don't see anything wrong at all with selling an engagemennt ring on Trademe - if the engagement is no longer.
It's not like an engagement break up would be some big dark secret that you don't want anyone to know about.
I hadn't really thought about selling mine until i read this story - but i don't see why not. It doesn't make me happy to see it, look at it, or think about it so why keep it?
All the best with selling yours!
Yeah I think the way the story is framed with the "making asses of ourselves" headline is pretty poorly done and puts a negative spin on the story even though it doesn't seem relevant to most of it. I guess it started with the tattoo bum girl so "asses" was word play but the end result is just ill suited. Obviously I wasn't aware of this framing, she just said she was writing about people's motivations for selling things on Trademe. I'm the same, don't see anything wrong with it. Thanks!
Tricky tricky media. Gotta be careful of them!
The tattoo / ass auction is a totally different thing and a bit on the tacky side. I don't see how they could draw a comparison to selling space on your ass for a tattoo to selling a 20 thousand dollar ring.
The woman selling GPS co-ordinates for fishing trips was funny too - anyone would think she was selling photos of his wing wang or something - the way they wrote about it!
Between this story and the attention blanketman received - i think it has been a slow news week!
So true, on all counts!
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