Selling old jewellery

Mark7799 · 23 August at 3:39PM

Hi Everyone, hope I've put this on the right Board? We are having a declutter and looking to get rid of a lot of old jewellery. We see that we buy vintage are in our area tomorrow - does anyone have any experience of using them and would you recommend them? If not, any other suggestions on the best way to get rid of unwanted jewellery - there are some gold bands, others are gold signet rings or diamond encrusted, quite a bit of costime jewellery and some sets of pearls, some real, some costume. Would rather do it soon er than later. Thanks in advance for any help offered.

Grumpelstiltskin · 23 August at 6:23PM

Take gold and silver to a proper local jeweller and ask the what they would give you.

then you will have figures to work with.

Depending on where you live your local proper auction house may sell vintage jewellery.

Brie · 23 August at 7:12PM

you'll likely be told that it's only worth the weight of the precious metal unless it's a very particular piece. most of it will simply melted down for reuse rather than being sold as is.

StewedApple · 23 August at 7:34PM

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6680738/selling-old-jewellery

I once asked a local dealer how he valued items - the woman ahead of me in the queue was attempting to raise money against stuff she's bought mostly from shopping channels. Gold chains, he said, were usually between 12-18 carat tops (higher gold content than this and chains tend to break, rings were sometimes higher gold) he paid bullion prices minus his markup. Stones such as garnets etc. were priced according to quality. He told me he picked the stones out of the pieces (unless the jewellery was really good quality) and he simply passed them onto a dealer in Birmingham he knew, gold/silver went for smelting.

He was quite matter of fact and I had no reason to disbelieve him, I got the impression many people were disappointed how little their pieces were really worth. Occasionally, something really worthwhile came along and these items weren't scrapped.

Ms_Chocaholic · 23 August at 10:40PM

I wouldn't recommend them, their business model is to buy cheap and sell on. Just ask them how much they pay per gram for 9ct/18ct gold etc and then compare them against a local jewellers. The vast majority of jewellery is bought for scrap but saying that the price should still be good.

Just for info purposes, my local jeweller currently pays £36 per gram for 9ct gold and £72 per gram for 18ct gold.

Weigh it on your kitchen scales and maybe price it up at 9ct gold to give you a good idea.