Chris Del Gatto, founder and CEO of the prestigious jewelry brand Circa, credits the growth of his company to a man he calls a “kindred spirit”—David Cornstein.
Del Gatto, a professionally trained gemologist, met Cornstein, a former jewelry businessman, through a mutual friend some years ago; Del Gatto even worked with Cornstein’s company, supplying it with estate jewelry. In 2001 Cornstein left retirement to join Del Gatto’s board of directors and build the soon-to-beiconic brand, Circa.
Hewing to a business model unique to its industry, Circa takes a two-pronged approach to buying clients’ jewelry and reselling it back into the trade. Primarily, expert buyers in official Circa locations in New York; Chicago; San Francisco; Palm Beach; Washington, DC; and Hong Kong analyze private pieces before pushing them back into the market. (There are plans to expand to LA, Atlanta, and Boston soon.) Additionally, authorized purchasing agents—local jewelry stores bearing Circa’s approved logo—have the ability to service customers nationwide.
CHRIS DEL GATTO
“[David is] like a father to me. I lost my father a year ago, and he was my best friend. Business or not, I love David—truly and dearly. He’s a rare, rare person and a wonderful mentor. And we’re very much alike in the way we think about business. We’re very much big-picture people who think about broad strokes.”
“One of the strengths of Circa is that we have global demand for product. If there’s something that a customer wants to sell because it’s not being worn, even in this market Circa still has strong demand and is paying strong prices.”
“We deal with everything. It could be scrap gold jewelry, a 20-carat flawless diamond, an Art Deco bracelet, a Rolex watch—truly, everything.”
“We write a check on the spot. You can walk into any of our offices, sit with an expert buyer, let them look at your [pieces] for a couple of minutes and tell you what they’ll pay you for it, and accept that offer. And you walk out with a check.”
DAVID CORNSTEIN
“For me it’s a pleasure at this stage of my life to have such a talented person to work with. It keeps me a little young, keeps my mind in the business world. To have a real involvement in an industry that I’ve grown up in is a lot of fun. [Chris is] just a marvelous guy to work with.”
“This isn’t a retail company. It’s a company that buys jewelry from the public and then does not resell it to the public but to the trade. So we’re not having you come up as an individual to look at the merchandise. We turn our goods once a week and sell them to the trade. We give the consumer a check when they sell it and we get a check when we sell it. We have a long list of people who would love to buy the goods that we have in the trade.”
“Fifty percent, unfortunately, of the kids who get married today get a divorce; what do you do with the ring? And people who pass on, leaving an estate—what do you do with the goods? So, it’s from almost birth to death that the customer is there. If you have a piece of jewelry and you love it and you wear it, or if it was left to you by your mom and it’s something that has enormous meaning, pass it on and keep it [in the family]. But if it’s another piece of jewelry that has no meaning and you’re not using it, that’s applicable to all ages of people.”
“There really isn’t an international brand for people to sell their jewelry to, and that’s what we’d like to accomplish.”
