Historically, jewelry has been worn both to make oneself look good and to display one’s wealth. These days, much of the jewelry produced and worn is costume jewelry made of cheap materials like brass, glass, and acrylic instead of precious metals and stones, but fine jewelry is still popular. However, people’s tastes in fine jewelry can differ just like they do with everything else, and you might have jewelry pieces that are more valuable to you as cash than as jewelry. If you are interested in selling any of your jewelry, your best option is to go to an experienced jewelry buyer like Carolina Silver & Gold. If it’s your first time selling jewelry, we encourage you to keep reading to learn a bit about what to expect when visiting our buyer.
- Appraisal of Metal – One of the first things our jewelry buyer will do when you bring in pieces for them to look at is appraise the value of the metal and gemstones. The metal content of a piece is usually engraved on it somewhere, but, if necessary, we can assess the composition using other methods. We’ll typically weigh the piece to determine the total amount of gold, silver, or other precious metal it contains.
- Appraisal of Gems – If your piece contains gemstones, our jewelry buyer will also examine and appraise them. To do this, the buyer will consider factors such as the specific stone (e.g., diamond vs. cubic zirconia), as well as the stone’s size, clarity, cut, and color. Naturally, the rarer, larger, and clearer the stone, the more valuable the piece will be.
- Historical Appraisal – Lastly, our jewelry buyer will also look at the history of the piece. We’ll look at the age of the piece itself, and we’ll do research into similar pieces of that time period—the more unique the design and the older its history, the higher the valuation will be.