Valuing/selling jewellery

John_Pierpoint

People are buying solid value items because they are scared about the future value of sterling.

JesaRose

When times are bad jewellery is always a sound investment. I work in antiques & ebay for a charity and my contacts in the trade advise me that the time is right for selling jewellery - the scrap value is great at the moment at about £7.75 per gram for 9ct gold, twice that for 18ct and so on.

People are really interested in quality vintage pieces too - sales are up on second hand items in general so combining jewellery and second hand together at the moment should go well for you.

I have dealt with a few auction houses and have had numerous problems with different ones but Bonhams have provided a consistantly great service. Christies has a wonderful reputation but I have not used them before, worth trying a couple though as its always good to get at least two opinions. You could always be cheeky and get them to compete with each other on commission rates if they both want to sell for you. Its always worth asking, the worse they could say is that they can't do that.

Unless you know exactly what you are selling I would avoid Ebay on this one and stick to the help from experts to maximise the money. Hope you do really well

JayZed

Thanks for your comments, JesaRose. You may well be right about the demand for vintage jewellery. However, having done some further research it appears that polished diamond prices have collapsed and are down by at least 30% on six months ago, and possibly 40%+ for large diamonds.

The diamond market is more relevant to me than the gold price as the most valuable pieces in my collection are a couple of large vintage diamond rings/pendants. I've decided to hold off selling those for a while (i.e. at least a couple of years), though I'll probably still go ahead and sell some of the smaller pieces whose value is more in the vintage style than in a particular stone.

John_Pierpoint

I cannot tell the difference between diamonds and cubic zirconium hanging round a woman's neck, though I think I can tell gold from brass.

http://www.spotcounterfeits.co.uk/recognising-precious-stone-diamond-cubic-zirconium.html

The diamond industry is dominated by De Beers and the Russians but debt, new production and loss of the market to "the masters of the universe" has depressed the price.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/2890879/De-Beers-loses-its-sparkle.html

Come to think of it perhaps cubic zirconium is the bling and the ethical choice, in that it supports fewer dictators and kills fewer Africans?

seraphin_2

I have inherited a very nice ladies gold longings watch was hardly ever worn i'n mint condition and original box, i live near manchester any ideas where to go to i'n a view to selling possibly, i will never wear it and it seems a shame to have it stuck i'n a cupboard !!

Regards
Sarah