- April 25, 2024
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Tiffany Beverlin divorced after being married for 15 years.
During one of the most stressful nights of the divorce, she had a dream that she couldn’t sell her engagement ring. In the dream, she created a website called dreamsrecycled.com, where she would be able to sell her engagement ring and also sell the other’s rings.
“I woke up in the morning and I thought, ‘Wow, that dream is … specific,’” she said. “I thought I must have seen it somewhere.”
When she searched for Dreams Recycled on the Internet, she saw that the name was unused. She began to investigate divorce statistics, the secondary divorce market and the diamond industry, which led her to believe it would be a viable market.
Divorce is a $50 billion industry. In America each year, there are 1.2 million divorces. That means someone gets divorced every 13 seconds.
“That’s an awful lot of wedding rings and engagement rings and wedding dresses and wedding china, et cetera, floating around America that people don’t know what to do with,” Beverlin said. “And, for the most part, it’s expensive things. You don’t want to throw them away; you don’t want to leave them in your drawer.”
On a whim, Beverlin started the website, unsure of how people would receive it. But Dreams Recycled was a hit.
“I’ve been really fortunate that people love it,” she said.
In the fall of 2013, the website was launched. But it was born out of more than a dream. It was a necessity for Beverlin.
When she divorced at the end of 2012, Beverlin had been a stay-at-home mom for the past 12 years.
“I found out what women …find out every year,” she said. “That really, when you’re a stay-at-home mom, the opportunities to go back to work are … limited.”
While applying for jobs, she heard back from many employers who told her that they liked her, but her 12-year gap in working put her below other candidates.
The situation forced her to get creative and form her own business.
It is free to list things on dreamsrecycled.com. When people sell their items, Beverlin takes a 7% commission.
The site allows sellers to get more for their items than they would at a pawn shop, and buyers can purchase items for their weddings — at 40 to 60% for the item regularly.
But it’s more than a money-making venture for Beverlin.
The site has developed a community of people going through all stages of divorce — from pre-divorce to getting back into dating after the divorce. There are chatrooms that allow people to connect with each other anonymously. Users are nearly an even split between men and women.
People share struggles, make friends and even plan dates.
Beverlin hopes the people on the site can learn from her experience and don’t go through some of the same struggles she had. She also hopes people can find others who are there for them.
“Divorce, really, is one of those things that unless you have been through it, you don’t understand,” she said.
When Beverlin divorced, she needed to connect with others who had the same experience.
The site even includes a directory that businesses related to the divorce industry — such as lawyers and counselors — can pay to advertise on.
Beverlin, however, does her research. If she feels that business would not be helpful to the community, she does not allow it on the site. She wants to make her users’ divorces easier than her own.
Visit DreamsRecycled.com to sell, buy or get involved in the community.
Contact Jennifer Nesslar at [email protected].
