Bob -- not his real name -- is what you'd call a motivated seller. He's desperate to off-load a $16,000 engagement and wedding ring set that once belonged to an ex-wife who cheated on him.

An Ottawa-area man has been advertising a $900 engagement ring, slightly used, for trade: he's convinced a 42-inch (or larger) flat screen TV will help heal his heart.

Then there's the relationship wreckage clearance sale offered on another website by an unnamed Ontarian: furniture, appliances, exercise equipment, crockery, coin collection, a $5,000 white gold engagement ring and a wedding dress -- cheap at $350, if you don't mind buying someone else's bad memories.

All over the Internet, the broken-hearted and betrayed are selling off the trappings of failed relationships. They're hoping to recoup a greater percentage of the appraised value than a store or a pawnshop would offer. But many find that genuine offers are rare, and that the ads are magnets for scam artists and online perverts.

Last year, Pam -- also not her real name -- was living with her fiance on the ranch where he worked. She had fled from her abusive first husband and thought she'd found a kind, gentle man who loved her three kids.

Her fiance also had children from a previous marriage. All of the kids had grown close. Pam had bought decorations for the wedding and had prepared the 100-person guest list.

She got home from work one day to find him gone. Her belongings had been placed in storage. There was no note -- only a message on her cellphone -- "Things aren't working out." Turns out he'd moved to another province while she was out.

She lost the man but kept the 10 karat gold ring, putting it up for sale for $200. "I don't want the ring. I can't do it again. He has no idea how much he hurt me," she said.

Her ad attracted a parade of Internet creeps from around the world: fraudsters, phoney bank pitches from Nigeria. One person repeatedly emailed her with offers of marriage, which quickly turned lewd and threatening.

Ken Paulson, owner of Saskatoon's K.M. Paulson Goldsmith, said it's not realistic to expect anything close to appraisal value for used engagement and wedding rings. Selling rings through online personal ads is ineffective -- and dangerous.

"You'll have to deal with yahoos trying to steal it or mine personal information from you," he said. "And if you do find a buyer, you're going to meet someone who knows you have a $5,000 ring on you."

Paulson said he generally pays 10 to 15 per cent of the appraisal value for used wedding and engagement rings, and dismantles them to salvage the individual components.

"This is supposed to be something important," Paulson said. "You don't want to give someone a second-hand ring."