This Valentine’s Day, eBay’s ‘For the One’ campaign is offering shoppers great value, selection and exclusive charity auctions, making it easy to celebrate what makes the loved ones in their life unique and special.
As shoppers gear up for this month of love, many make plans to pop the big question. In fact, eBay has noticed a spike in engagement ring purchases from November to February (“proposal season”), with an average increase of 41% in engagement ring purchases since 2008.[1] There are over 800 million listings on eBay – with 80% of sold items in new condition— making the site an ideal destination to find everything from vintage to new and in-season engagement rings, directly from qualified and experienced jewelers and sellers.
“At eBay, we’re always looking to see how our data can help predict the trends that consumers are most interested in. As we looked more closely at this data, eBay has seen an increasing trend in the purchase of vintage rings. Since 2011, popularity of vintage engagement rings has grown over 200%.[2] A likely reason for this change is that as a culture, we are moving more towards “vintage” as a term to describe/market used jewelry”, said eBay’s Vice President of Customer Optimization and Data, Zoher Karu.
However, there is a difference in the meaning of “vintage”, “antique” and even “estate” when describing the age of a piece of jewelry. According to popular estate jewelers and eBay seller Gleem & Co., buyers often have trouble distinguishing between these terms when shopping for stones. It’s important to keep in mind that:
- Vintage describes a piece that is at least 20 years old, yet more specifically to pieces made between the 1940s and 1980s.
- Antique describes jewelry that is at least 100 years old.
- Estate is any piece of jewelry that has been previously owned.
To learn about more ways to describe aged jewelry, visit eBay’s Vintage Jewelry Buying Guide. To take a look at some of the most iconic engagement rings over the years, check out the “Diamonds through the Decades” timeline below.
For those of you not quite ready to pop the question this Valentine’s Day, but still looking for a very special gift, be sure to check out eBay’s Valentine’s Day gift guide For the One… where you can find a gift for all of the loved ones in your life this Valentine’s Day, including 80 percent off 14K White Gold Diamond Stud Earrings and 15 percent off three-bottles of N/V G.H. Mumm Cordon Rouge Champagne.
