You’ve inherited a large amount of jewelry from a member of your family. There are many beautiful pieces that you’ll probably wear every single day. Some necklaces and rings in the box aren’t really your style, however.
You can hold on to them, or you can throw them online and pass them on to another person. There has to be someone out there who will get some use out of them as long as you know how to sell jewelry.
We can help you out with that. Keep reading to learn how to get started.
Set Realistic Expectations
You have a priceless necklace from your great aunt Janet. At least, it’s priceless to you. The thing is, you might not be able to get quite as much for it as you hoped.
Those diamonds may not even be real. You need to find out the real price of the piece before you put it up for sale. The best way to go about it is to hire an appraiser.
They’ll look at the necklace from an objective standpoint and give you a realistic price range to place it at. The numbers might not be what you want them to be, but getting something for it is better than nothing, right? Try to look at it that way.
If you can’t afford an appraiser, your next best bet is to look around eBay and other selling platforms. Search similar pieces and see what they’re going for.
Do Your Research
Imagine trying to sell a house without knowing how many rooms it has, the condition of the appliances, and the age of the floors and roof. You’re not going to get that many hits on the real estate app.
The same goes for your jewelry. Before you post it up for sale, you need to know as much about it as possible. Find out the exact carat, weight, clarity, color, and cut of those diamonds.
Also Read: How To Choose a Diamond Ring For Your Engagement or Wedding
This is something else an appraiser can help you with. They’re trained to know everything about a piece simply by looking it over. So, they can give you a price quote and tell you everything you didn’t know about your jewelry.
Get Your Pieces Cleaned Up
Selling jewelry online, or anywhere for that matter, isn’t easy if your pieces are tarnished. You still might be able to get rid of it, but for a reduced price unless you take the time to clean it.
The good news is that it doesn’t take much to restore a musty old piece to its former glory. Cleaning methods vary from material to material.
You can buy silver polishes and let your pieces soak in them for a while. Pull them out after about 5 minutes, give them a good scrubbing, and you should be good to go.
If you don’t have any silver polish on hand, you can use dish soap and warm water. Dip a cloth in the solution and rub the jewelry until the tarnish begins to disappear. Rinse the piece with cool water and dry it.
For extreme silver tarnish, you can make a solution of three parts baking soda and one part water. As far as gold jewelry goes, the soap and water method will work fine. You can also use it to clean gemstones, but replace the regular water with seltzer water.
Go Through a Pawnbroker
Now that your pieces are nice and clean, it’s time to figure out where to sell jewelry. If you need money fast, go to a local pawn shop. We’ll warn you that you might not get too much money by going this route.
The pawnbroker has to be able to make a profit from your things. If they don’t think your jewelry will sell too fast, they’re not going to offer you a good rate on it.
If you don’t sell your jewelry through them, at least get an appraisal. They’ll tell you how much your stuff is worth and give you a cash quote at the same time. If you don’t like the quote, you’re not obligated to sell it through them.
Scrap it
Another quick way to sell jewelry for cash is to scrap it. Go to a gold-buying shop or mail in your pieces. The establishment will take a look at what you have to offer and give you a price quote for the materials.
If the price is right, they’ll melt your pieces down and sell them as bullion.
Go Online
Selling jewelry online takes a little longer than the other methods on this list, and it can be risky. For example, you can go through eBay, but there’s always a chance that the buyer could back out of the deal.
Online jewelry shoppers rely on the product images and the best way to confirm the value of products is to provide professional photography.
With Craigslist, someone makes an offer, and you meet them in person to make a trade. As you can imagine, this comes with its own set of risks. If you ask us how to sell old jewelry online, our answer would be with platforms such as Cash At Your Door.
You send your jewelry pieces in, they give you money for it, and you go about your day. Simple as that.
How to Sell Jewelry and Get the Most for it
How to sell jewelry on and offline? It’s not as simple as pawning your stuff on a person. You’ve got to figure out how much your pieces are worth, and it won’t be easy to get rid of them if you don’t scrub them a little first.
From there, you can put your jewelry up online or give it to a pawnbroker. If neither one gets you a good deal, there are other avenues you can go down. Check out our blog to learn more.