You've got to love the Internet as a way to not only make money but solve a problem you didn't even know you had. Take the case of the increasing number of break-ups in this feckless society. If you're a woman and you've been given an engagement ring that's lost its meaning, you certainly don't want to wear it. But what do you do with it?
Enter the web and a growing number of sites designed to help people get rid of jewellery filled with expensive price tags and bad memories. It began when writer-actress Meghan Perry was just getting over a divorce and realized she no longer wanted to wear or see the stuff her ex had bought her.
She thought about eBay but that didn't seem right. A pawn shop wasn't the answer, either. And leaving it in a drawer seemed like a waste. So she researched the market and found the missing link, creating her own slice of bitter heaven called, appropriately enough,
exboyfriendjewelry.com.
The site, which uses the slogan, "You don't want it. He can't have it back," instantly struck a nerve and the listings took off.
"You go through a divorce. What do you do with that ring?" asks Marie Perry, who helped her stepdaughter come up with the concept. "Maybe you have a child you can pass it on to. Maybe you don't. It just sits there. We wanted to create a platform in the community where people can get in contact with others with similar needs."
Three months later, there are 3,000 registered users and listings for rings, watches, jewels, bracelets, charms, pendants, and a category that's called "things that should have been jewellery" - like purses, wedding dresses, clothes, a robot vacuum cleaner, candle holders, laptop computers and even a dog collar.
Each item is accompanied by an agonizing description of its unfortunate origin.
"Studs from a Dud," recounts the tale of a pair of cubic zirconia earrings given to a woman whose now insignificant other dumped her over the phone while she was recovering from brain surgery.
Then there's the men's Gucci cufflinks, accompanied by this terse description: "Fake - just as he was."
Or the ½ carat diamond ring with five smaller diamonds on each side. "We had an amazing small wedding," the accompanying note reads. "And then about 3mths later I found out he was still married to someone else!! She lived in another town so the only way I found out was from a text on his phone. So imagine her surprise when I called her and introduced myself as his wife!!" The price for this priced less gem: $1,500.
The Perrys aren't the only ones making money out of misery. New Orleans students Allison Wasserman and Elizabeth Rothbeind run a site called
Ex-cessories.com, which comes with a similar goal but a different motto: "Don't Get Mad - Break Even."
And no, men aren't barred from displaying their own break-up bargains, although few do. "Some men thought it was going to be another male-bashing site," Perry insists. "But that's not what we're trying to do."
But what of the old unwritten rule that when a break-up occurs whoever gave the jewellery gets it back? "Etiquette says that if the engagement is broken off, you should absolutely give the ring back," Perry agrees. "But sometimes the man says no, and sometimes it depends on circumstances."
Just ask the woman who's asking $3,500 for a diamond-studded band that didn't play on. "Beautiful ring came with the wrong man," she intones. "Decided to sell to regain the money that I spent finishing payments on the ring that my ex didn't."
Because sometime you lose in love. But that doesn't mean your bank account has to feel the pain, too.