Where to sell your jewelry: a useful overview.
For owners of estate jewelry who are considering their options.
An antique opal and diamond pendant sold by the writer.
With this post I am beginning a series of blog posts about where to sell your unwanted jewelry. I have a website page about how I work as a broker to help people do this. Also, I’ve blogged about what sells readily in the estate jewelry market and what doesn’t, whether your jewelry qualifies as an “investment,” and how you might think and feel about deciding to part with your jewelry.
But I have not written about specific marketplaces for selling your jewelry. This series will examine in depth the various kinds of places where estate jewelry is bought and sold. I will discuss the features of each one, as well as its advantages and disadvantages.
Much more informally, I present a lot of this information in the valuation service I call my Broker’s Price Opinion, tailoring it to your specific jewelry and how quickly you want to sell it. ( I charge a fee for this service.) By outlining the options for selling here, I intend to give you some idea of what direction you want to go — and maybe inspire you to do it yourself.
This list is a starting point for describing the kinds of places where you might sell your jewelry. Not all of them apply equally, or at all, to every type of jewelry. But keep in mind that most jewelry can be sold in more than one kind of marketplace.
These are types of businesses that may buy your jewelry. The list is subject to change. I may rename, add, subtract, or combine categories for greater clarity and to reflect anything I”ve forgotten or understand differently. (Continual revision is true of everything I write.)
First, some necessary definitions (with examples):
· What is estate jewelry? It is any jewelry owned by an ultimate consumer (sometimes called an “end user.”) It need not be old, fine, nor valuable.
· At what market level is estate jewelry sold? It is called the “secondary” market, meaning any market after the primary market, which is the original one in which it was sold to an ultimate consumer.
· What is “retail?” Unless it is qualified, this term means the sale of an item when it was new to an ultimate consumer (that is, someone who bought it for personal use and not for re-sale).
· What is “second-hand retail?” This term means the sale of an estate item to an ultimate consumer by a business entity that deals in jewelry.
· What is a “trade” sale? This is a sale of an estate item to a business entity that deals in jewelry and is buying the item for re-sale.
Although the list divides markets into “in-person” and “online,” quite often one business entity works in both venues. In fact, the lines among all these categories are not rigid. Most of us in this field do more than one of them. For instance, a particular business may function at different times as either a seller (on consignment) or an outright buyer of your jewelry.
Here is my initial analysis of the main estate jewelry marketplaces:
· Private sales person-to-person; sometimes called “private treaty” (word-of-mouth)
· Private sales online (e.g., Facebook, Craigs List)
· Second-hand retail sales on consignment through local businesses (e.g., jewelry stores, jewelry consignment shops, antique shops)
· Second-hand retail sales on consignment through online shops (e.g., Worthy, idonowidon’t, etbth)
· Second-hand trade sales to or through local businesses (e.g., jewelry stores, antique shops, pawnshops, gold buyers, jewelry buyers/brokers)
· Second-hand trade sales to or through online buyers/brokers (e.g., Circa)
· Public auction sales at national, regional, or local houses (e.g., Sothebys, Christies)
· Public auction sales online (e.g., Heritage)
· Private auction sales through brokers
I hope this list gives you a methodical way to look at your options for selling your jewelry. Appraising and selling estate jewelry have been the heart of my business for forty-eight years. If you have comments, questions, or criticisms about this attempt, please contact me!