Jewellery - how best to sell - auction?

longtimelurker54

Hi,

We have some jewellery to sell. Went to one of those "stands" in a shopping centre that say "we buy gold". They priced some rings but one is an engagement ring with stones. The guy told us that the scrap value for the gold would be very minimal and we'd be better off trying to sell it at auction.

No idea where to start with an auction though or the costs involved. We don't even know how valuable he ring is, it's a modern one, not old and we're not sure of the stones. Do auctions charge to give you a value first of all and how do we go about finding one in the area?

Re selling the other plain gold rings does anyone have any advice on how/where to get the best price for these? We only know of high street "we buy gold" type places.

Many thx for any advice.

longtimelurker54

Hi

Sorry, meant to ask as well, are there similar places which will buy silver as well? They all seem to refer to buying gold. We have a couple of silver bracelets which we think are solid silver and have no more use for, so pointless them gathering dust in the jewellery box ...

Many thx.

RFW

I'm by no means an expert in this but if the rings aren't antique you may struggle to find an auction house that would take them and get you a decent price for them.

Some auction houses have free valuation days/mornings, there are also independent valuers who may not charge too much.

As for silver there are some scrap dealers but it isn't worth too much right now so it isn't as in demand as gold.

longtimelurker54

Hi RFW,

Many thanks for your reply. Must admit I was surprised when the guy on the stall suggested taking it to auction as like you said, I would have thought auctions were the place for antiques rather than modern rings. Hey ho!

Thanks for the reply re silver, looks like we may have to hang on to that then... just having a massive clearout at the mo, with the plan being to part with anything we don't actively use/need and make some useful spare cash at the same time.

V. therapeutic and we've sold some old stuff on ebay which we never thought there would be a market for. We could try the ring on ebay but have no idea what the stones are or its worth. We will perhaps try some local independent jewellers and see if they can give us an idea

soolin

Different auction houses now sell different things. Although I go to antique aucctions there are always collectable lots as well so always worth phoning round the local houses to see who offers free valuations. I've seen some fairly modern jwellery achieve extremely good prices, whereas proper antique stuff sometimes sell for scrap (which I think is a shame)

The best prices seem to be achieved on auctioneers that sell live online as well via http://www.the-saleroom.com/en-gb

Always check the fees though before you agree to sell, they can be very high

Pembroke

You could put the plain rings and the bracelets in as a job lot. You need to make sure all the items are hallmarked though as the Auctions won't sell them as gold / silver if they aren't correctly marked.