Selling Jewelry

[Jason McMaster]

I robbed an old lady recently and need to get rid of my ill-gotten gains.

I'm kidding, of course, I inherited some jewelry that isn't particularly special to me but is worth a good bit. I've never been in this situation and don't really want to go the cash-4-gold route or ebay.

Anyone have to deal with this before? What did you find works best?

Danke!

[BennyProfane]

I robbed an old lady recently and need to get rid of my ill-gotten gains.

I'm kidding, of course, I inherited some jewelry that isn't particularly special to me but is worth a good bit. I've never been in this situation and don't really want to go the cash-4-gold route or ebay.

Anyone have to deal with this before? What did you find works best?

Danke!

We went through this last year with my father's estate--he had some jewelry from my mother, who had gotten it over the years from various inheritances. None of us kids wanted it, so we took it around to three different evaluators and they all three told us pretty much the same thing: they buy it for the gold value: unless you are talking really expensive and nice stones, the jewelry buyer are going to melt them all down and recover the jewels (and even offered to return the jewels to us, though we decided to just let them buy those as well), then use the gold to make new stuff. We ended up selling to the one who made us the best offer, which in our case amounted to about $1400 for all of it.

[Clay]

You may want to consider taking it by a mom-and-pop type jeweler (not a big chain) and finding some old crusty jeweler to talk to about it first. S/he may buy it or may be able to tell you more about it as jewelry before you go straight to appraisals. Or you could just trade it for a gun at a pawn shop.

[TheWombat]

Yeah, pretty much the same with us. Despite how nifty it might look to us, apparently most buyers of precious metals only want, well, the metal. I guess if you looked hard enough and put enough leg work into it, and perhaps marketing effort, you might be able to convince some collector to buy it for more, but really, unless you've inherited the Crown Jewels, it's probably not worth it I'm guessing.

[RichVR]

On the up side gold is averaging around $1600 per ounce this year.

[Rightbug]

You may want to consider taking it by a mom-and-pop type jeweler (not a big chain) and finding some old crusty jeweler to talk to about it first. S/he may buy it or may be able to tell you more about it as jewelry before you go straight to appraisals. Or you could just trade it for a gun at a pawn shop.

In our town there's a consignment store. Basically your jewelry goes in their case and they get a cut of the sale.

[Phil_Stein]

I'm no expert in this stuff, but...

From what I understand, a lot of used jewelry is basically worth scrap value. Scrap value is not necessarily bad, as gold is at relatively high prices.

Assuming this jewelry has a relatively high gold content, then you can try to estimate the gold weight, look up the spot value of gold, deduct something from that (i.e. the melter won't pay you 100%), and have a baseline.

On Bogleheads.org, IIRC, there was some discussion about the alternatives for melting scrap jewelry.

[Jason McMaster]

Thanks for the info!

I'm not sure, but one of them is a watch that might be worth something. I don't know. We had the stuff appraised for some reasonable money.

[Jason McMaster]

I dunno though, the rings could probably be sold for weight, but the watch is curious to me. It's Rose Gold and something called 17 Jewel? I'm to understand this has something to do with the internal operation of the watch in the precision department. I don't want to destroy something that might be a collectible.

[Miramon]

The jewelry appraisal business is well known to be a racket. Whatever your appraisal says, no jeweler will pay more than a rather small fraction of the price at which they sell. Unless you have one of a kind gems that can sell at Sotheby's, the return will likely be very low.

Of course, if the value of the jewelry is essentially its gold or platinum, not its gems, then the price should be closer to the value of the metal, but there will still be a rapacious discount applied to the weight.

A rare watch is something else, of course, if it's a collectible item; but merely being old or gold-plated doesn't mean anything in itself. You can look for the manufacturer name on ebay to see what other people are asking. Don't have a collectible watch repaired except by a restoration expert, as I believe completely original parts increase the price.

[Phil_Stein]

Jason, I'm not saying you should run out and get everything melted down.

Rather, try not to be surprised or offended IF some folks make you offers based on scrap value. (Rather, than, say, "Yes, that 14K gold necklace from 1957 is SO stylish that it's worth a ton!") Also, if you can determine the scrap value of the metal in the jewelry, you have a rough idea of the floor of what you should accept is.

And yes, a watch in particular *may* be worth significantly more than the scrap value of the metal. Depends on the brand, among other things. Should be reasonably easy to research on the intertubez, I would think...

[RichVR]

I dunno though, the rings could probably be sold for weight, but the watch is curious to me. It's Rose Gold and something called 17 Jewel? I'm to understand this has something to do with the internal operation of the watch in the precision department. I don't want to destroy something that might be a collectible.

The "jewel" in a watch is a pivot point lined with a synthetic gemstone. Usually sapphire or ruby. It makes a low friction/slow wearing bearing. It doesn't add appreciably to the value of the watch. Except in that the watch will last longer because of it.

[Jason McMaster]

Jason, I'm not saying you should run out and get everything melted down.

Rather, try not to be surprised or offended IF some folks make you offers based on scrap value. (Rather, than, say, "Yes, that 14K gold necklace from 1957 is SO stylish that it's worth a ton!") Also, if you can determine the scrap value of the metal in the jewelry, you have a rough idea of the floor of what you should accept is.

And yes, a watch in particular *may* be worth significantly more than the scrap value of the metal. Depends on the brand, among other things. Should be reasonably easy to research on the intertubez, I would think...

Oh, no, of course. I just have no idea. I think that selling would probably be mostly melt down.

[Jason McMaster]

The "jewel" in a watch is a pivot point lined with a synthetic gemstone. Usually sapphire or ruby. It makes a low friction/slow wearing bearing. It doesn't add appreciably to the value of the watch. Except in that the watch will last longer because of it.

That's cool! I had no idea until the other day.