Selling unwanted jewelry

Hello - 
     Welcome to the middle of July, the season for family trips, school shopping and possibly earning some extra cash for your unwanted jewelry. Because jewelry is an emotional purchase keep in mind it can be an emotional sale, make sure you really want to sell it. Once it's gone its virtually impossible to get it back.  In trying to determine what you have, I again refer to becoming an "informed seller." The more you know about what you have the better off you will be. If you have paperwork, i.e. appraisals and records of purchases it helps determine the value more readily. Is the item damaged, clean, resell-able as is? Are there any hallmarks on the piece(s)? These are all important things to know before leaving the house. 
       If the item is valuable, it is likely at some point it was appraised, bring the papers with you when selling the item, it helps the buyer and you understand the realistic value of the item.  Please note the value listed is not what you will likely get for the piece unless the stones are of extremely high quality. As a jeweler and purchaser of secondhand jewelry we standardly do not pay for anything beyond the metal value of the item and even at that it is below the cost of the refined value due to the fact we have to sell it ourselves to the refinery. We as most buyers of jewelry will remove the stones at no charge. The key here is provide the paperwork if you have it. You will get more money if you do.
        Look over the items carefully, are they currently wearable? Is the clasp broken or are stones missing or chipped?  These factors can bring down the price too. I would suggest investing in a bottle of Tarnex to clean silver pieces. That and a toothbrush will do wonders for the look of the item. If your item is in good condition you might have a chance at a better price via Ebay or your local craigslist or pennysaver.  If you do not feel comfortable listing the item yourself, maybe a relative can assist you or some jewelers provide consigning options for a small percentage of the sale price as we do. 
        The other point of consideration would be the provenance of the item. If the item is marked with a hallmark ( the manufacturers mark) the item might be valued higher than otherwise. Some Native American items are highly sought after and can bring a much greater price than the stone or metal value alone. These marks can also tell you the metal value, i.e. 14K, 18K and so on. Please verify the metal with a jeweler prior to selling it online as there are fraudulent manufacturers out there that will sell an item as the real deal and come to find out the hallmark is incorrect. 
        To wrap up, if you have paperwork concerning the item(s) bring it with you when trying to sell it; clean and review the item(s) you are trying to sell, you might get a better price; last but not least check for hallmarks and do the research if necessary - in other words being an informed seller may be worth a few extra bucks. Until next week happy selling. We will be reviewing the value of watches, stay tuned!!