How To Effectively Prepare to Sell Your Vintage Estate Jewelry
Handing down jewelry is a tradition as old as time, and it’s common for people to find themselves with a loved one’s vintage estate jewelry at one point or another. While it’s always a meaningful gesture, you may not always want to keep the vintage pieces, but there can be complex emotions around the selling of inherited valuables.
You may not feel any emotional attachment to the pieces and have no plans to wear them in the future, so it’s better for them to go to a loving home than sit around in your jewelry box. However, if you want to sell gold jewelry for cash, you may feel guilty for cashing in on these once-beloved items.
These emotions are common and completely valid, and although selling vintage estate jewelry can be an emotional decision, it’s one that can be made easier if you know how to effectively prepare to sell your inherited diamond and gold jewelry.
Decide what’s sentimental
The first step is to decide what you want to sell and what you want to keep. Lay out all of the inherited jewelry and go through piece by piece, thinking about how each item makes you feel. Do you see yourself wearing it in the future or passing it on to another loved one? Is it tied to important memories?
If it’s something that’s important to you and your relationship with the deceased, keep the piece. If it meant more to your loved one than it does to you, tease apart these distinctions and consider selling it to a new, loving home. It’s okay to err on the side of caution and keep any pieces you feel you may regret selling down the line.
Gather all relevant documents
Once you’ve decided which pieces to sell, you’ll need to prepare these pieces for a vintage estate jewelry appraisal. To get the highest price possible for the items, gather any documentation you have about the jewelry, its authenticity and its value.
If your loved one didn’t keep any original documents, don’t worry. You can always have jewelry authenticated and have a certificate issued after the fact. You can also have the item assessed without this paperwork, but it may slightly lower the value offered.
Approximate your item’s value
Before selling your vintage estate jewelry, you should know how much your valuables are worth. You don’t need to have an exact number in mind — in fact, it’s often better if you don’t — but you should know a ballpark figure to avoid being undervalued.
You can do online research to assess your piece’s value, considering factors such as precious metals, precious gems, brand name, age, condition, and demand. If you can’t find any comparable pieces online, you can have your jewelry appraised at a reputable jewelry repair store, often for no cost.
Find a reputable vintage estate jewelry buyer
Craigslist, eBay, and other third-party marketplace sites can often seem like the easiest method for selling vintage estate jewelry, but as buyer-driven platforms, you can often be lowballed or even scammed out of your money entirely.
To protect yourself and your loved one’s treasured pieces, research reputable vintage estate jewelry buyers in your area and sell in person at a brick-and-mortar shop. Finding a reputable jewelry buyer is as easy as Googling “sell my jewelry for cash” or “places to sell gold jewelry near me” and then researching the top results to verify their trustworthiness.
When verifying a jewelry buyer, look at third-party reviews from sites like Yelp and Google, check their local licenses and certifications, and ask whether they have a GIA-certified gemologist on staff for appraisals. You should also verify that they’ve been in business for several years; this is often an indication that they’re trusted by the local community.
If you have inherited jewelry that you would like to sell or pawn, contact Watch & Wares today. We’re one of the best places to sell jewelry for cash in Orange County, and we consistently offer some of the highest values in the area. With over 30 years as a family-run business, we’re proud to have hundreds of 5-star reviews from residents of Orange, CA and across Southern California. We’re also a luxury jewelry and loan pawn shop, so you can get a four-month collateral loan on diamond jewelry — no credit check necessary. Contact us today at (714) 633-2030 or fill out our online contact form to request an appraisal or schedule an in-store appointment.
