How to Sell Vintage Jewellery

Article by Christian Jewelry.

Vintage engagement rings have a certain appeal to them, but they can be considered old fashioned if your wardrobe is decidedly modern. Sometimes, your tastes just change. If you have some rings, earrings, bracelets or other forms of jewellery you don’t wear anymore, then you might consider selling some of them off. It’s not uncommon to inherit all sorts of jewellery that you decide you don’t want to keep over time. Some of the more sentimental pieces tend to find a home forever, but not every piece has deep and significant meaning to you and your family. For those pieces, here is some advice from Cynthia Findlay Antiques, which sells custom jewellery from Toronto, on how to sell them.

Photograph Everything

If you can, invest about $30-40 on a lightbox from somewhere like Amazon. Good ones will come with a small lighting kit, but that isn’t necessary if you can find a room that gets lots of sun. You might want to build a small pedestal for the estate jewellery to set upon, so it gives it more of a visual appeal, but you can just place the piece inside the lightbox and snap photos with a reasonably high quality camera. Most modern cell phones will offer decent photography, but a DSLR would be better if you can find one.

Research the Piece and the Era

The more you know about the piece, and it history, the better your odds of selling to a private buyer. You can almost always choose to sell to a jewellery store directly, assuming they buy vintage pieces, but private buyers will expect to make an offer for the piece. If you don’t know what you’re selling, you might give it away under value. Get the piece appraised, ask family members about where it came from and learn more about who made it if you want to get the most for your piece.