In these hard economic times, selling unused jewelry can be a very welcome event that puts some much-needed extra cash in your pocket. Because of the rising value of gold jewelry, dia-monds and other precious stones, you stand an excellent chance of making a nifty sum – but only if play your cards right.
Increase your chances of getting as much cash for your jewelry as possible by following these vital tips.
How to Identify the Value of Your Jewelry
CHAPTER 1
Last Thing You Want To Do is sell your jewelry for less than it’s worth
What’s the value of your Jewelry
Luckily, it is a relatively straightforward process to find out how much your jewelry is worth, and thus how much you can sell your jewelry for. The things you can do on your own involve measuring the weight and recording it in ounces. Unless your jewelry is a famous-maker piece, ancient, or much-coveted piece, then what buyers really want from it are the gold, silver or diamond content.
If the jewelry is primarily made of gold, then it gets a bit easier to ascertain a rough estimate of the value on your own: 24-karat gold is pure, 14-karat gold is 58% gold, 10-karat gold is 42%. You can then apply these percentages to the weight you measured to find out how many grams or ounces of precious metal are contained in the jewelry.
Value of your jewelry
The First Thing You Should Do is get your jewelry appraised
Professional Jewelry Appraiser
Of course, gold isn’t the only thing that’s valuable about jewelry, so you need other options to determine the value before selling jewelry online. This is where a professional jewelry appraiser comes in handy.
For best results, you’ll have to keep your jewelry with the professional appraiser for a couple of days, so that a complete examination can be done. This will give you the most accurate number for the value of your jewelry, after which you can approach dealers with confidence and try to sell your jewelry online.
Return to get your piece after the time specified by the appraiser, upon which you should make certain to get an official appraisal form stating that the jewelry was put through rigorous chemical, microscopic and physical testing to ascertain its value.
Selling Jewelry Online is really the best place
Get such great prices
Your next step should be to find reputable online jewelry dealers with up-and-running websites. It’s better to go this route because local buyers will probably have different values – if they have any records at all – for what they will buy your jewelry for, given that they have to take into account overhead and profit, and subtract these from the amount they can part with for your jewelry.
An online site, such as Luriya.com out of New York, is based in the central hotspot of gold and jewel trades, which means they have access to far greater clients and resources.
These benefits mean the cost of overhead is spread out over so many sellers and buyers, that it can almost be disregarded. Basically, they can afford to pay you much more for your jewelry than others can.
AVOID GETTING SWINDLED
CHAPTER 2
Selling Jewelry Mistakes to Avoid
There are many different potential traps when you are trying to sell jewelry for cash. As soon as the news outlets alerted the public to the rising prices of gold, diamond and precious metals, everybody from the experienced jewelry buyer to the con artist set up shop to try and get as many people as possible to sell their jewelry to them.
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You shouldn’t only think of swindlers as con men with black coats and sunglasses, however. The forms in which bad deals come can be surprising.
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In fact, the Better Business Bureau and other consumer reporting indices have reported much higher numbers of fraud concerning makeshift jewelry buyers ever since gold began to really rise
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The lesson here is to avoid going to a place that operates another primary business, and only bus jewelry and gold part-time or when there’s a sudden upswing in value – you will be getting swindled.
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These places simply don’t have the customers, knowledge or system in place to help you maximize your earnings on the jewelry you sell.
Don’t Be Tricked Into Selling your Jewelry for Less Money
Don’t allow yourself to be tricked into selling your jewelry for substantially less money just because a dealer tells you that your broken wristwatch, the missing latch on a gold necklace, or the cracked gold ring reduces the value. All of these things are irrelevant, unless you’re selling the jewelry to a buyer who wants in in the original form.
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Because the price of jewelry is so high, it can be tempting for you to jump at the first offer you get
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Instead of pulling the trigger on a jewelry sale so early, try asking the dealer specific questions before you sell your jewelry for cash. For example, find out how much they are paying for each karat type, as well as the ounce.
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A dealer with everything on the table should be able to tell you these things without stalling, or coming up with an excuse as to why they don’t have those numbers.
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When looking for where to sell your jewelry, it’s worth it to understand the pros and cons of the different venues, because choosing the wrong one can lead to you losing a sizable amount of cash, or your jewelry altogether.
SELLING JEWELRY TO THE RIGHT BUYER
CHAPTER 3
Why should they pay more for yours?
The single biggest factor in getting the most substantial payout for your jewelry isn’t in trying to convince any merchant to buy it for that amount, but in finding the right kind of merchant. Some jewelry dealers are inherently incapable of offering you as much as the next dealer, because they have a different business model.
For example, if you try to sell estate jewelry to a pawn shop, which doesn’t care about the increased worth of this type of jewelry, you’ll get rock-bottom prices, because he has to turn a profit by reselling the jewelry to a refinery.
Jewelry Store, a perfect Buyer?
When looking for where to sell jewelry, jewelry store might at first sound like an obvious answer; however, it is the wrong answer. They are a close second behind pawn shops as some of the worst otherwise legitimate businesses at which to sell your jewelry. They certainly serve a valuable function; just not for you if you want the right payout. Jewelry stores are excellent for getting inexpensive or free appraisals, which are an absolute must before you locate the right buyer.
There is one rare case in which a jewelry store might be the perfect buyer, capable of giving you an excellent price if you have a handcrafted marvel, or a piece made by a famous craftsman that’s worth a lot of money in the original form. In these cases, you can even get paid more than the current worth, with the expectation that the price will rise in the future. Nonetheless, if you own a piece of jewelry like that, it might be better to consider keeping it.
Sell Jewelry Online
Out of all the available buyers of jewelry, the one from which you have the most to gain would be tell sell jewelry online. Online companies based in New York, such as the acclaimed gold and jewelry dealer Luriya, have a leg up on establishments anywhere else in the country, since New York is the hub of the market. Luriya has access to a strong network of gold and jewelry buyers, and has a system in place to virtually guarantee an offer that is competitive with wholesale prices for your jewelry – far above what you could get at any pawn shop or local buyer.
When you sell jewelry New York, Luriya gives you listing space free of charge, so that you tap into their robust network of buyers, and receive an offer in as little as 72 hours from the time of listing. Once you accept or decline, the process runs quickly; you can either keep your jewelry and try another dealer, or send it in to us for appraisal.
Once approved, you’ll receive your money shortly afterward. As far as jewelry buyers go, it doesn’t get any more painless than this, and you can be assured of receiving the best offers available at current market value.