Someone wrote in and asked about getting ideas to help a customer
sell a piece of jewelry. They asked to have a private response to
their personal e-mail.
I on the other hand would love to have people tell of their
experiences about helping customers dispose of their pieces. I think
it could be interesting to hear about the various ways people have
found to help dispose of customer’s jewelry, from very inexpensive
pieces too the most costly haute couture items.
If anyone else thinks this would be interesting to share and or read
about please reply.
I was approached a while back by a couple who were no longer getting
married, and did not trust each other. They both trusted me. I was
still working in my full time non-jewelry position. They paid $8000
for the ring, had a letterhead appraisal from the selling jeweler
valuing the ring at $16000. They expected to recover their cost,
plus based on the appraisal. I told them that they might if they sold
it to another couple, but for me, the ring would not be worth more
than about $2000 (as that would be my cost for the materials).
However, I used colored stones, not diamonds in my work, so I really
was not interested in buying the ring. I did find a high end
manufacturing jeweler locally who was willing to pay $2000 for the
ring. They each got $900. I got 10% sellers fee.
I too would like to get some input on this. I have a place that I
trust for metal but have no clue where to go to sell my jewelry with
diamonds. I have several beautiful pieces I want to sell. I live in
Atlanta. Any advice would be appreciated.
Someone wrote in and asked about getting ideas to help a customer
sell a piece of jewelry.
Boy if there was an easy answer to that question, I’d be responding
from a beach somewhere. Selling it is easy. Getting anywhere near the
original price paid is the hard part. The issue right now is the same
one as the housing market is facing. It’s a buyers market, there’s a
lot more sellers than buyers. There is far more jewelry for sale by
the general public than the market can possibly absorb at much above
scrap value. And that’s in addition to all the new jewelry gathering
dust at retail outlets.
The best way for someone outside the trade to sell something is
directly to a friend or business acquaintance. That way, the seller
is likely to get more than they would from a pawn shop or jewelry
store (scrap value) and their friend would get a better buy than they
might from a retail outlet.
The next best option is to try EBay or Craigslist, or some other
online auction. There has been reams written about the pros and cons
with this option so I won’t bore you with them.
Another option might be to find a jewelry retailer that either
specializes in or at least offers consignment. The upside to this is
that you have someone engaged in the business marketing it for you
and it’s secure, the downside is that depending on what it is and how
much is wanted for it, it might take quite some time to sell and even
longer (usually 10 to 30 days) to collect as many stores that do this
offer full refund return policies to their customers.
The bottom line is this - unless there is a friend around that’s
just dying to be the new owner of the piece(s), the quicker the cash
is needed, the less cash will be raised, pretty much regardless of
the marketing method used. Wish I had better options to offer.
The bottom line is this - unless there is a friend around that's
just dying to be the new owner of the piece(s), the quicker the
cash is needed, the less cash will be raised,
David says it pretty well. I’ll point out that people generally
don’t understand that an insurance appraisal is for replacement if
it’s lost or stolen, it’s not really what the piece is “worth” in a
way. Many, many people get disappointed when they are offer 1/4 of
the appraised value.
I have a friend who buys, but he isn’t going to deal with the sort
of national/international crowd that Orchid is. Two buyers that will
and are pretty public I’ll post below. They are, like David said,
not necessarily going to offer the ~best~ price, but if it’s good
jewelry, they will buy it. BTW, Langs has a real nice website of
vintage jewelry to look at, whether you are selling or not.
Sure, I’d like more tips on how to sell jewelry. I have mine in 3
closed cases, each one about 20x24" in what is primarily an art
gallery. My best results are when I or one of our members go over to
the cases when someone seems interested and then open the cases so
people can touch and hold whatever interests them. Then I say where
I get my stones, who cut them, and tell them to please handle or try
on etc… People are interested in that and often ask questions, and
sales have been pretty good, considering we are in a new area and
the economy is not great. Any tips others use would be very helpful
to all of us.