necklaces and love gifts lose their emotional sparkle?
Help is just a click away on new websites that provide an outlet for selling jewellery from past
relationships, sharing break-up stories and helping broken hearts heal.
"You go through a divorce. What do you do with that ring? Maybe you have a child you can pass it on to.
Maybe you don't. It just sits there," said Marie Perry, who with her stepdaughter Megahn Perry runs
exboyfriendjewelry.com.
"We wanted to create a platform in the community where people can get in contact with others with
similar needs," Perry said.
Three months after its launch with the slogan "You Don't Want It. He Can't Have It Back," the website has
3,000 registered users and more than 600 postings of rings, bracelets and earrings for sale - all with a personal tale attached.
"Studs from a Dud," writes one woman, selling a pair of cubic zirconia earrings given to her three years
ago.
Six months later, she says, the boyfriend dumped her over the phone - while she was recovering from brain surgery.
"Oops," writes another, selling a white gold wedding band.
"We wanted to keep the tone fun and tongue in cheek. There are some bitter women but most stories
are really light-hearted although a few are about people who have been in an abusive situation. But now they are ready
to move on," said Perry.
The idea was born when Megahn Perry, a Los Angeles actress and writer, was looking for a safe, reliable
place to sell a wedding set after an amicable divorce and realized others might have boyfriend jewellery
languishing in drawers or with attendant memories that make them too painful to wear.
Thelocal pawn shop proved an unattractive option, and Ebay felt too anonymous. So she teamed up with
her stepmother Marie, researched the market and found a gap in it.
New Orleans students, Allison Wasserman and Elizabeth Rothbeind, set up a similar venture, Ex-cessories.com, in April after a teary afternoon sorting out photographs, jewellery and other mementos of
an ex-boyfriend.
With the motto "Don't Get Mad - Break Even," it offers independent appraisals of jewellery, matches buyers with sellers, and provides a
social network.
Although aimed at women, the websites welcome men.
"Some men thought it was going to be another male-bashing site but that's not what we're trying to do," said Perry.
But she admits the "He Can't Have It Back" slogan has rankled some who believe jewellery should be
returned to the giver.
"Etiquette says that if the engagement is broken off, you should absolutely give the ring back. But
sometimes the man says no, and sometimes it depends on circumstances," she said.
As one woman posting a diamond ring for $3,500 wrote:
"Beautiful ring came with the wrong man. Decided to sell to regain the money that I spent finishing
payments on the ring that my ex didn't."
Vocabulary:
pawn shop：典当行
rankle：激怒
