Small to Big: I Do Now I Don't

When celebrities want to unload jewelry from an ex-spouse, they call Christie’s. The rest of the world must settle for pawn shops. To bridge that gap, Josh Opperman and his sister, Mara, launched an online marketplace in 2007 that connects sellers and buyers of gently used engagement and wedding rings. I Do Now I Don’t, as their company is called, holds payments in escrow until independent gemologists have verified the value of an item. The business takes a 15 percent cut of every sale.

I had a broken engagement, so I was left with this expensive ring. When I went to try to sell it, I had lots of issues. The place where I’d bought if would only give me store credit. Other places would give no more than 35 percent of what I paid. On sites like EBay and Craigslist there was lots of fraud. I was saying to myself, “There has to be a better way.”