Vault: Is She Wrong For Selling Her Wedding Rings?

Summary

The Bert Show — "Vault: Is She Wrong For Selling Her Wedding Rings?"

Date: February 9, 2026
Hosts: Burt, Jeff, Jen, Kelly, (guest) Ashley, listeners
Episode Focus: Ethical, emotional, and practical dilemmas surrounding the resale of engagement and wedding rings after a marriage ends—with a lively debate over whether it's acceptable to buy or sell rings or jewelry store credit tied to failed relationships.

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Episode Overview

This episode centers on a real-life scenario: Ashley, a listener, wants to sell her engagement and wedding ring set after her marriage ended. Unable to sell directly, she considers exchanging the set for store credit and then selling that credit (for less than its value) to someone shopping for a ring. The cast debates whether buying jewelry associated with a failed marriage carries bad luck or negative energy, or if it’s simply a smart deal. They invite listeners to weigh in, sparking a spirited back-and-forth about superstition, practicality, and the meaning behind jewelry traditions.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Ashley’s Dilemma: Selling Her Rings (00:00–02:10)

• Ashley explains she's been trying to sell her engagement ring and band set for months—via eBay, Craigslist, and word of mouth—with no luck, only scam attempts.
• She reveals the jewelry store will let her return the rings for a full store credit (worth about $5,000), which she’d then sell to someone needing an affordable engagement ring. She'd accept less than the full value to help someone else and get some cash.

2. The Gift Certificate Plan: Superstition or Smart Deal? (02:10–03:41)

• Jeff breaks down Ashley’s plan: She trades her rings for a $5,000 store credit, then sells it for $4,000. The buyer gets a $5,000 ring for $4,000; Ashley gets cash.
• Jeff highlights potential objections: “I fully believe there are women out there who would be upset if their engagement ring was purchased using a gift certificate that’s tied to another engagement ring where the marriage failed.” (03:17 — Jeff)
• Kelly suggests some might see any connection to failed love as “bad luck,” while Burt questions if anyone would care “if you didn’t know the history.”

3. Do Stores Re-Sell Divorce Jewelry? (03:43–05:21)

• The group wonders if stores resell returned rings, and whether shoppers can unknowingly buy rings/diamonds from past relationships:
  • “So now it makes me wonder... how do you know you don’t already have a diamond that was part of a marriage that didn’t work?” (06:07 — Jen)
• Kelly explains that stores typically reset diamonds, so a buyer wouldn’t know the diamond's history.

4. Listener Calls: Bargain Hunters vs. Superstitious Shoppers (05:21–10:12)

• First caller is all for the deal: “I would definitely push him to take the gift certificate and go. It’s not like you’re buying somebody’s old ring... it’s free money.” (05:23 — Listener Kelly)
• Jeff wants a more controversial opinion: “I want the woman who’s like: No way... I’ll take a smaller ring rather than take a ring connected to a marriage that didn’t work out.” (05:48 — Jeff)
• Another caller, Rachel, shares her fiancé traded his ex’s ring toward hers: “I was totally fine with that because hers was a $5,000 ring, and I now have an $8,000 ring on my skirt.” (06:31 — Listener Rachel)
• Next caller is torn: “I was all for it until I heard... it was from another marriage. I’m too superstitious for that.” (07:17 — Listener Ashley)
• Ken shares a personal (and costly) story: He gave his divorced sister $19,000 for store credit, topped it up to buy a massive ring. His wife was furious for three weeks after discovering the bargain, despite saving over $10,000: “I have no idea why. She can’t validate that...I haven’t figured it out yet.” (08:08 — Listener Ken)

5. Are Most Rings “Jinxed” Anyway? (09:24–10:28)

• Some jewelers confirm they do resell ring sets, sometimes with only minor cleaning or adjustments.
• Jen observes: “There are plenty of women in Atlanta who are wearing a jinx ring and have no idea.” (09:41 — Jen)
• Another caller: Ok with credit for non-romantic jewelry (like earrings or pendants), but “anything but engagement or wedding ring, because that’s a symbol of your love... you don’t want to just sit there and pass on your love from another relationship.” (10:14 — Listener Elaine)

6. Final Thoughts: Is Money or Meaning More Important? (10:30–End)

• Burt wonders if knowing the truth would change buyers’ attitudes, and if sellers must disclose a ring’s “history.”
• Jeff speculates: If you showed buyers a larger diamond for the same money—with the “jinxed” credit—they’d likely take the better deal:
  • “My guess is she’s wrapping her arms around the 20 stacks and the big stone and running the hell out of there.” (11:00 — Jeff)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Jeff: “I fully believe there are women out there who would be upset if their engagement ring was purchased using a gift certificate that's tied to another engagement ring where the marriage failed.” (03:17)
• Kelly (caller): “It’s not like you’re buying somebody’s old ring... it’s free money.” (05:23)
• Rachel (caller): “Hers was a $5,000 ring, and I now have that $8,000 ring on my skirt.” (06:31)
• Ken (caller): “Yeah, I was in the doghouse for about three weeks... It saved us over 10 grand. I don’t... I haven’t figured it out yet.” (08:08)
• Jen: “There are plenty of women in Atlanta who are wearing a jinx ring and have no idea.” (09:41)
• Elaine (caller): “[With] any kind of connection to any type of relationship... you just gotta say no. Now if... my significant other wants to use that credit for some beautiful diamond earrings or a pendant, that would be awesome. But anything but engagement or wedding ring.” (10:14)
• Jeff: “My guess is she’s wrapping her arms around the 20 stacks and the big stone and running the hell out of there.” (11:00)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:00–02:10: Ashley explains her situation and plan to sell her rings for store credit.
• 02:10–03:41: Show hosts debate superstitions around buying engagement rings/jewelry linked to failed marriages.
• 03:41–05:21: How do jewelers handle resale of divorce jewelry and do they disclose it?
• 05:21–10:12: Audience calls with opinions ranging from pragmatic to superstitious.
• 10:12–11:06: Final reflections on meaning vs money; would people really turn down a deal for “bad luck”?

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Takeaways

• The cast and callers displayed a blend of practicality and sentimentality—some caring deeply about the symbolic origin of the jewelry, while others emphasized the value and smart shopping.
• Listeners were split: Some focused on the financial sense of using store credit/trading in rings, while others felt strongly that engagement/wedding jewelry should be “untainted.”
• The segment is lively, humorous, and authentic—typical of The Bert Show—offering a real-life glimpse into how traditions, superstitions, and modern thrift can collide in matters of love and marriage.

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For more drama, laughs, and real talk every morning, listen to The Bert Show and join their next on-air debate!

Transcript

[Burt]

The Burt Show. Ashley here has an engagement ring. She needs to sell this then. Good morning, Ashley. You're on the Burt Show.

[Jeff]

Hello.

[Jen]

Hello.

[Burt]

How are you today?

[Ashley]

Good. How are you?

[Burt]

Good. All right, so we're assuming at one point or another you're engaged.

[Ashley]

Yes.

[Burt]

And at one point or another, I'm assuming that he decides that it's off, right?

[Ashley]

No, actually, we were married for two years.

[Burt]

You were married for two years. So this is a wedding ring or an engagement ring?

[Ashley]

An engagement ring. And. And the band.

[Jen]

So it's the whole set?

[Ashley]

It's the whole set.

[Jen]

Okay. All right.

[Burt]

And there's no controversy there, right? Like, you know, sometimes with an engagement ring, when the guy. When the woman breaks it off, there's some controversy there. Like, do you give the ring back? Do you keep it? But with the wedding ring, that's pretty standard stuff, right?

[Ashley]

Yeah, it's online.

[Jen]

Yeah. Oh. I mean, it wasn't heirloom or anything of his family, right?

[Ashley]

No.

[Jen]

Okay.

[Burt]

Okay. You take it from there.

[Ashley]

Well, okay. So I've been trying to sell it for, I guess, the last six or seven months, and I did ebay and I didn't have any luck. I had a lot of people trying to scam me. And then I did Craigslist and I tried just telling people about it, and I didn't have any luck. So what I was hoping was that I could tell you guys about it. See, I can return it to the store that I got it, and I can get a full credit for it towards something else in the store. So I was thinking if maybe you guys had a listener that was hoping to get engaged that maybe didn't have, like, so much money to spend on a ring that they could take my credit and get a better ring, and then I could get, you know, whatever they were going to pay for a ring so that I could have a little extra change in my pocket.

[Jeff]

So you would. You would sell the credit, not the ring?

[Ashley]

Well, I mean, if they like the ring enough that they could, of course, have the ring, but.

[Jeff]

Well, that won't work.

[Ashley]

I kind of assumed that nobody would want my engagement ring in my, you know, my stuff.

[Kelly]

I'm just a little bit confused. So you would take less money than what the credit would be for?

[Ashley]

Yes, so that somebody could get a better ring. I mean, not, like, so less. Not thousands and thousands less, but.

[Kelly]

Gotcha.

[Ashley]

You know, just trying to help somebody out and get extra change in my pocket.

[Burt]

What was your uneasiness about that?

[Jeff]

My problem? Well, it's not my problem. I think there are women who, and hopefully they would be courageous enough to call up. But I think because here to explain again, so we all understand what she's going to do is take her ring into the store. The store is going to offer her. Do you know what the dollar amount is that they would offer you?

[Ashley]

It's around $5,000.

[Jeff]

So they would offer her a gift certificate for $5,000 that she would then sell the gift certificate for $4,000. Right, right. I fully believe that there are women out there who would be upset if their engagement ring was purchased using a gift certificate that's tied to another engagement ring where the marriage failed.

[Burt]

Let's ask 404-741-Q100.

[Kelly]

I think some people are pretty superstitious about that ring.

[Burt]

Really? So it would be like some kind of.

[Jeff]

And that's ridiculous bad luck ring.

[Kelly]

Well, I think so. I mean, I could understand somebody feeling that way if they got her ring specifically, but it's a little bit different because they're trading in for something brand new. So, like the actual ring itself is, isn't going to have like some sort of story attached to it.

[Burt]

So the debate here isn't if you got the ring and didn't know the history, your debate here, Jeff, is would you take the, you know the history. Would you take that ring?

[Jeff]

It has nothing. The ring's gone. This is purely gift certificate, which is even more ridiculous. Like the ring. She's taken the ring back into the store and gotten the $5,000 gift certificate.

[Burt]

So he's turned, he's getting the cash.

[Jeff]

He takes, he, he takes $4,000 of his money and says, let's say it's Jen, take $4,000 of his money and go, here you go. Jen gives him the gift certificate. Now everybody should be happy. Right? Right. Jen's got four grand in her pocket. All's good. Guy's got a $5,000 coupon to go into the store and go, I want this right here, which I couldn't afford before, but I've just essentially found, right. $1,000. So, boom, let's do this transaction. All is good. Everybody's happy. I believe that there are women who, if they found out about that would be annoyed that a, their husband went discount shopping and was doing some weird negotiation transaction or their husband to be.

[Kelly]

In order to get their money financing.

[Jeff]

Yep. And two, I think there are women who would be annoyed that the husband or mad or refuse a ring that had any connection somehow to a ring that was tied to another marriage that failed which brings me to a whole other thought.

[Jen]

Oh, no.

[Jeff]

When she takes that ring back to the store, do they resell it? And if they do resell it, do they label it? Do they disclose?

[Kelly]

Well, I don't know. I would think that they would have to reset the diamond.

[Burt]

Yeah.

[Jen]

And the thing is, most.

[Kelly]

You know, most of the time. I'm sorry, but most of the time when you are shopping, you're getting the ring and the diamond separately, and then they set it together because the ring has to be the right size for that person, and the diamond has to be the one that the guy selects and the site, you know, the shape and all that kind of stuff. So I would assume that they would re. Take the diamond out and re. Redo it.

[Burt]

Hey, Kelly, you're on Q100. Good morning.

[Ashley]

Hey, good morning. No, when my husband and I got married, we were so totally strapped for cash that I would definitely push him to get. Take the gift certificate and go. It's not like you're buying somebody's old ring, and there's something connected, you know, bad karma connected to the ring. It's a gift certificate. It's free money.

[Jeff]

Right. I totally agree with you, but I don't want to talk to you.

[Burt]

The person that's brave enough to say no way.

[Jeff]

The person who's fun to talk to. Like, I'm looking at the phones now, and there's, like, whoever is. If it's Lindell in there, I don't want these people. I want the woman who's like, no way. Even if it puts $1,000 in his pocket, I will take a smaller ring rather than take a ring that is connected to a marriage that didn't work out.

[Jen]

I'm going back just for a second based on what Jen just said, because now it makes me wonder if I went into a jewelry store when you talk about resetting the diamond. So they bought the diamond back, and they're resetting it. How do you know already that you don't have a diamond? It was a part of a marriage that didn't work because you really don't know. You don't know where they got the diamonds from.

[Burt]

Good morning, Erica. You're on Q100.

[Ashley]

Hi. How are y'?

[Ken]

All?

[Burt]

Good. Thank you for calling.

[Ashley]

I was just calling to say that my fiance has recently given me a ring that he traded in. He traded in his ex fiance's ring to buy mine. I was totally fine with that because hers was a $5,000 ring, and I now have that $8,000 ring on my skirt.

[Jen]

Yeah.

[Burt]

And there's no connection really, to it. I mean, it's not like it's the same ring or anything.

[Kelly]

So not even the same diamond.

[Jeff]

Congratulations on being smart, intelligent woman, Rachel.

[Burt]

We're hoping you're not. What's up?

[Ashley]

I'm kind of torn on the subject. I. You know, I tuned in late, so I didn't really hear the initial part of the subject, but I was all for it. I was thinking, yeah, it's going to be a great deal that they got going on until I heard you guys say that it was from another marriage.

[Ken]

And I just.

[Ashley]

I'm too superstitious for that. You know, I'm all for my guy going out there and having a great bargain, but when it was from another woman's ring, I'm not too sure about that.

[Burt]

If the history of the ring has been on a failed. The finger of a failed marriage, then she doesn't want it on there.

[Jeff]

Or even an engagement. Like, maybe it would just be with an engagement ring if the person. Person. The engagement never turned into a wedding. Like, same thing, same jinx.

[Burt]

Hey, Ken.

[Ken]

Hey, good morning, guys. How are you?

[Jeff]

Good.

[Burt]

What's happening?

[Ken]

My sister, a few years back got a divorce. We kind of did the credit thing. Her thing was worth 27, I think. So they gave her the credit for. And I gave her 19,000 for her credit.

[Jeff]

Wow.

[Ken]

Put another 10 on top of it and got a smoking ring. I mean, this thing's huge. You can watch TV on it. Well, you know, it's year or two down the road at a family reunion, talking, whatever my wife finds out. Not anything I was hiding. You know, she got a smoke and rain and I got a good deal. Well, yeah, I was in the doghouse for about three weeks. She wouldn't talk to me. I have no idea why. To this day, she cannot validate that. I don't know. I mean, it saved us over 10 grand. I don't. I haven't figured it out yet.

[Jeff]

See, it doesn't make any sense to guys. It wouldn't make any sense to Clark Howard. I hope it wouldn't make any sense to Jessica Shaw, but I think there's women out there who are. So is it paranoid or.

[Jen]

I could be superstitious.

[Jeff]

Superstitious. So caught up in the whole thing that, like in this guy's case, $10,000, this woman would have had. Rather had a ring that was either $10,000 smaller and unique or it would have had to be a. Well, that was still unique because it was a gift. Certificate exchange. That's the thing. You're not actually physically putting on the jinxed ring. Like, the jinx ring is gone.

[Burt]

It's back in the history of the jinxed ring that produced the cash to get the ring.

[Jeff]

And you'd rather have a $10,000 smaller ring. Save the money. Go ahead.

[Burt]

Hope you'll be the last call. What's up?

[Ashley]

Well, I was just gonna say that we had a jewelry store for years.

[Ken]

And you always resell those sets.

[Ashley]

Sometimes if the set is in good shape, you would just clean up the set and resell it like it is.

[Ken]

Or you, you know, might pull the.

[Ashley]

Diamond out and put it in something else.

[Ken]

But of course they're gonna resell the set.

[Jen]

Yeah. I love the fact that there are plenty of women in Atlanta who are wearing a jinx ring and have no idea.

[Burt]

Elaine, good morning. You're on Q100.

[Ashley]

Good morning. I just want to say, heck, no. That ring, any kind of connection to any type of relationship, whether it was a good thing or a bad thing, you just gotta say no now. But if, you know, my significant other spouse, whatever, wants to use that credit for some beautiful diamond earrings or a pendant, that would be awesome.

[Burt]

But anything but an engagement ring.

[Ashley]

Anything but engagement or wedding ring, because that's a symbol of your love. You don't want to just sit there and pass on your love from another relationship, especially something that's failed.

[Kelly]

But what we just found out is that you might be wearing it anyway.

[Burt]

You don't even know it.

[Jeff]

I wonder if they have let it go. I would love to know if they have to disclose. Disclose that if you ask. And I would also, like. I would be interested to see the. The woman, like, if you took the. If the cash was in front of her. And there's, like, one pile of, like, you know, $20,000, you know, right there, and then another pile with 10,000 and the ring that it would buy in front of each one. You're like, look, here's what. Here's what I have to spend. But if we just put this gift certificate, here's what you could get. My guess is she's wrapping her arms around the 20 stacks and the big stone and running the hell out of there.

[Ken]

You know, it.

[Jeff]

The first show.