Selling old jewellery

retireby35

I’ve got some old jewellery I don’t want - some 925 silver, gold and some foreign marked pieces. Where’s the best place to sell? I don’t want to individually sell on eBay- much rather get rid of it in one/two goes then dribs and drabs. Thanks

Grumpelstiltskin

Take it to a local jeweller, not one of the high street chains and see what they say it is worth.

That will give you a starting point.

Brie

Most places, other than a jeweller who specialises in second hand items, will base prices they offer strictly by weight and quality of the metal, not caring about any artistic or historical merit if the piece.

Pollycat

Brie said:

Most places, other than a jeweller who specialises in second hand items, will base prices they offer strictly by weight and quality of the metal, not caring about any artistic or historical merit if the piece.

A friend of mine took some unwanted gold items, some with semi precious stones, to a local gold buyer (who seems to pay a very good price compared to other similar places) and they just crunched the stones up to get to the gold to weigh.

baser999

We’re in much the same boat with a mixed bag of stuff that our mother has. There’s a couple of half sovereigns, pocket watches and three hunter pocket watches with Albert chains and we’ve had values for those from a local jeweller who admitted we’d get better prices from eBay. 

As for the rest I was pointed in the direction of a firm that run a roadshow style business visiting sites in the local area and I’d intended catching one of their dates locally 

Pollycat

baser999 said:

We’re in much the same boat with a mixed bag of stuff that our mother has. There’s a couple of half sovereigns, pocket watches and three hunter pocket watches with Albert chains and we’ve had values for those from a local jeweller who admitted we’d get better prices from eBay. 

As for the rest I was pointed in the direction of a firm that run a roadshow style business visiting sites in the local area and I’d intended catching one of their dates locally 

I went to one of those.
I think they thought I was a little old lady with no sense.
They offered an insulting price for a heavy gold chain, less than half the price the gold buyer/seller I referred to above would pay.
They upped their price.
I told them what I could get and they said it would cost me petrol and time.
I replied that I have a bus pass and as I'm retired, I have all the time in the world.
He came close but I wouldn't sell on principle as I don't like someone trying to pull a fast one.
I still have the chain and the price of gold is even higher.
For reference, the buyer I'm talking about is currently paying £20.19 per gram of 9 carat gold.

greyteam1959

Your local scrap metal merchant may give you a surprisingly good price.

GrubbyGirl_2

I took some old and broken jewelry to a local independent jewelry shop.  Some of it was foreign (which I discovered is usually higher than 9 carat).  because he needed to test it we went away and had lunch.  I was expecting him to say around £200 which I would have been very happy with but when he offered me over £800 I was delighted.  You do have to produce ID and they do a bank transfer which was in my bank immediately

baser999

Pollycat said:

baser999 said:

We’re in much the same boat with a mixed bag of stuff that our mother has. There’s a couple of half sovereigns, pocket watches and three hunter pocket watches with Albert chains and we’ve had values for those from a local jeweller who admitted we’d get better prices from eBay. 

As for the rest I was pointed in the direction of a firm that run a roadshow style business visiting sites in the local area and I’d intended catching one of their dates locally 

I went to one of those.
I think they thought I was a little old lady with no sense.
They offered an insulting price for a heavy gold chain, less than half the price the gold buyer/seller I referred to above would pay.
They upped their price.
I told them what I could get and they said it would cost me petrol and time.
I replied that I have a bus pass and as I'm retired, I have all the time in the world.
He came close but I wouldn't sell on principle as I don't like someone trying to pull a fast one.
I still have the chain and the price of gold is even higher.
For reference, the buyer I'm talking about is currently paying £20.19 per gram of 9 carat gold.

Have known others who’ve had experience of these markets, I wouldn’t take the ‘proper’ pieces along, just the large amounts of costume stuff

Pollycat

baser999 said:

Pollycat said:

baser999 said:

We’re in much the same boat with a mixed bag of stuff that our mother has. There’s a couple of half sovereigns, pocket watches and three hunter pocket watches with Albert chains and we’ve had values for those from a local jeweller who admitted we’d get better prices from eBay. 

As for the rest I was pointed in the direction of a firm that run a roadshow style business visiting sites in the local area and I’d intended catching one of their dates locally 

I went to one of those.
I think they thought I was a little old lady with no sense.
They offered an insulting price for a heavy gold chain, less than half the price the gold buyer/seller I referred to above would pay.
They upped their price.
I told them what I could get and they said it would cost me petrol and time.
I replied that I have a bus pass and as I'm retired, I have all the time in the world.
He came close but I wouldn't sell on principle as I don't like someone trying to pull a fast one.
I still have the chain and the price of gold is even higher.
For reference, the buyer I'm talking about is currently paying £20.19 per gram of 9 carat gold.

Have known others who’ve had experience of these markets, I wouldn’t take the ‘proper’ pieces along, just the large amounts of costume stuff

If it's the same sort of thing I went to, they were only buying gold (maybe silver).
Not costume stuff.

Alfrescodave

baser999 said:

We’re in much the same boat with a mixed bag of stuff that our mother has. There’s a couple of half sovereigns, pocket watches and three hunter pocket watches with Albert chains and we’ve had values for those from a local jeweller who admitted we’d get better prices from eBay. 

As for the rest I was pointed in the direction of a firm that run a roadshow style business visiting sites in the local area and I’d intended catching one of their dates locally 

Its worth trying a local auction house, if you have one. The one I go to does quite well for silver and watches and their charges are reasonable.