Jewellery

Mozette

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LittleVoice

Mozette wrote: »

If buying jewellery partly in hope of it appreciating in value, what is best? Gold chains? is a higher carat better and is there any difference in white or yellow gold? Would diamonds be a girl's best friend after all?

Thank you in anticipation!

If I were wondering about that, I'd find the current scrap value of the weight of a gold chain and compare that with the cost of the chain. I'd assume the difference would represent, in the main, the manufacturing and some retail costs. I would then make a decision based on that differential.

lisyloo

In general buying jewery from a high street shop represents a big mark up on the actually value.
The reason is that your paying for the costs of running the shop plus the design of the jewelry plus profit (of course).

If you wanted to invest in gold then wouldn't you be better off buying coins, krugerands etc.

Personally I'm not sure it's a great time to invest in gold, but that's a different matter to the method of purchase.

I would have thought jewelry is one of the worst ways to purchase.

cavim

Gold prices are currently high so the scrap value of hallmarked gold jewellery bought more than a few years ago makes it a good income option for selling if you need to get your hands on some cash. A fair scrap price currently is about £9-10 per gram for 9ct gold, £14-15 for 14ct, £18-19 for 18 ct). I'd wait till gold prices go down before buying any gold jewellery thinking of it as a (possibly long term) investment, and even then you might only get your money back, or less. Such a waste of all that gorgeous jewellery and the work that's gone into it, being melted down too!!
Currently, the presence of gems in jewellery isn't making much difference - with even diamond jewellery it's hard to get much more than the scrap price of the gold itself! I don't know of anyone who's received even a reasonable amount for selling gem jewellery recently (eg a 5 stone 0.75ct diamond ring in 18ct gold bought in a sale for £700 several years ago only got £200 and that was the highest offer).
It might be worth buying sovereigns, though I'm not sure what the face-value price of those is compared to the gold scrap price. I saw on TV recently that a full sovereign (22ct gold?) would fetch about £120. Buying from a non-trader at somewhere like a boot sale might result in a bargain, but unlikely these days where so many people are trading in scrap gold.

LittleVoice

Personally I would buy what I like and get the value from the pleasure of the things themselves. That's less of a gamble.

shaun_from_Africa

It might be worth buying sovereigns, though I'm not sure what the face-value price of those is compared to the gold scrap price. I saw on TV recently that a full sovereign (22ct gold?) would fetch about £120.

The TV program must have been recorded a fair while ago as the current price of a full sovereign from a dealer is now about £200 to £205, and if you sell to the dealer you will get about £190.

Personally I would buy what I like and get the value from the pleasure of the things themselves. That's less of a gamble.

True, it is less of a gamble doing that, but simply getting pleasure from the goods themselves won't be much of an asset when you need money or want to sell up and retire.

Loughton_Monkey

Jewellery is simply not an investment.

If the pure 'scrap value' of the gold, diamonds, rubies etc. is taken, add on the cost of labour to make the piece up, then at least double it. This is what it will cost you. To sell it, you will get very little more than, say 50% of scrap value. Maybe a bit more if someone just wants to buy it as a piece of jewellery.

All this explains why you would probably need to wait 50 or 100 years before you could get your money back.

Jake'sGran

There have been a lot of unscrupulous companies advertising their good prices for gold. My daughter went to a GOLD party and I dread to think what lovely things she sold to them for less than they were worth.

This subject was mentioned on the Money Box radio show today (BBC4) and you would be able to read about the discussion on the BBC site although the presenter did say it could also be read it on Twitter (I think) under BBC Money Box. The price of gold is still rising so you need to be careful before you decide what to buy.

lisyloo

I appreciate what you are trying to do, but I'm not sure anyone can advise you what is best to buy.
Gold has reecntly tripppled in value, but you would now be buying high.

Any jewelry you buy will have a large mark up, so it will cost a lot more than the value.

I would get things you like to wear.

If you don't actually want to spend it all on yourself then you could stock up on birthday/Xmas presents.

Do you have actual vouchers? or is it simply a personal credit at the shop.
If it's vouchers you could sell them on ebay.
Obviously you would have to take a discount, but if it's a well known chain then people will pay close to the full price on ebay.
After all if they know they are spending the money then any discount is a bonus and you can always set a reserve.

I am afraid I don't think there is any further advice anyone can give you.

Red_Cat

From a jewellery perspective, I know that brooches do not sell well 2nd hand as they are hardly used anymore.

WhiteHorse

To get the most value for the money, particularly if you have to buy new - don't laugh - buy bling. Solid gold (9ct is rubbish, go for 18ct minimum) or Sterling silver. Stones and fancy workmanship all have to be paid for and are rarely reflected in a later selling price.