Selling jewelry/downsizing

OLD THREAD

If any of the jewellery is antique or by famous makers get it valued before you sell it to anyone.

Just re-writing our wills and previously I've bequeathed some of my jewellery items to my daughter, step daughter and son and my granddaughter....now I have another granddaughter and 4 grandsons. I'm at a loss if what to do now. Would my grandsons want womens jewellery?(it would be costume as my more expensive pieces will go to my children. I don't want to leave anyone out. Has anyone planned this yet themselves. I think if didn't have my son it would all go to the females in my family.

A previous poster here said she went to sell her silverware but was offered a fraction of what she thought it was worth. Tried giving it to her daughter who didn’t want it, so she is keeping the set.

No one wants this kind of item that requires that dastardly silver polishing routine. I say - set aside that inexpensive stainless steel set and Use Your Silverware Everyday and Enjoy Using It! Don’t let it sit neglected. Everyday hands-on use will keep it from tarnishing.

Gold, platinum and precious stone jewelry is different. Those items should be passed on - or sold - or refashioned into more modern pieces that you can wear everyday or week. Gold and stones never go out of fashion.
USA Gundy

Yes, and only recently. I had loads of gold jewellery in a box that had been given to me by exes and it seemed silly holding on to them whilst my granddaughters wouldn’t be interested. The fashion now is white gold, silver or platinum so I took to a ship where he gave me credit to buy anything so I bought some silver items enough to give to each one. It was a great feeling. Also I had a 15ct gold ring from approx 1860 with precious stones that was my grandmothers and that is going to auction later this month. I recommend you sell and enjoy the proceeds.

I don't think anyone here has said keep all your jewellery. So I would say you have your answer, whether it be keep a few special pieces or have a clear out and buy one special piece. It seems that none of us wear our jewellery much or ever. Young people (certainly my own children now all around 40 years) don't have the same values and find wearing expensive jewellery to be distasteful, irrelevant and not 'green' .
Use the money for a lasting memory such as a holiday.

I sold a lot of my gold jewellery to pay for my teeth ! Glad I did though

I gave my daughter my diamond earrings a couple of years ago. I don’t have a lot of jewellery but I’d prefer her to have it now. I think it’s great selling things and giving things away. I don’t need too much “stuff”. I’d prefer the space (and the cash).

A few comments and suggestions. If you no longer wear or use your jewellery then my first port of call would be to think about important people in your life, family but also your close friends. i.e. my friend and I have known each other for 74 years and kept in touch for all these years and meet up when we can. So I would ask her if there is anything she likes , would enjoy wearing or just have it as a keepsake of me , and vice versa. Do it now and then the monetary value of whatever whether it is worth £1 or £1000 does not come into it. Next collect it all up and see what you have got. In this inflationary situation we have now, gold is worth a lot and many people feel their funds are better in gold than currency. So you could find out the value of the gold and go one of two ways. Sell items to the highest bidder in gold - and prices change every day and if you get enough buy a little gold ingot as an investment that you could keep safe so that in an emergency you have an easily sold and portable bit of emergency money. Then as they say Shrouds have no pockets! I would then look at something you have wanted to do FOR YOURSELF . Not to fit in with anyone else. Maybe you always wanted to go to Glyndebourne, travel to Machu Picu, go for a meal to somewhere you have always wanted to , but it has been out of your price range. Whatever you have always wanted to do but been unable to because of family commitments or costs, and go for it!! Take photos of pieces that meant something to you and I put a little note of where I got them, and who gave them to me and the circumstances. That way if anything is lost or stolen you both have pictures for the insurance people, but at least that photo of what it looked like. I have moved 19 times as an adult , both here and abroad and consider myself quite on the ball. However I have learnt one lesson too late. I was a professional singer with the Gulbenkian choir in Portugal. During that time I saved up my earnings and bought a lovely 3 strand gold necklace, which I have worn and enjoyed . On a later move in this country this was stolen and I am sure it was by someone in the removal people, as they were the only people apart from my husband and I , who could have taken it. Especially as it was the most valuable in the box and nothing else had gone. I am very organised about moving and have got good helpful ideas to help in the move, but of course in the middle of actual moving and getting settled in, going out for occasions is not something you do for some time and I did not check it for some time. I was annoyed with myself for not checking it at the time etc. Now anything that is very precious, whether it is a picture of a dinner service or jewellery, I take photos , in case of accidents but also have given them for safe keeping to a family member or friend. So my view is definitely photo the things and write on the back of the photo some details for your memories in the future and sell and enjoy an experience. Those who love you would want you to enjoy them.

The decision was taken out of my hands! I was broken into and all the jewellery and sentimental items I’d inherited from both Grandmothers, my Mother and my own jewellery were stolen . This happened just a few months after I’d been given my Mother’s jewellery following her death. Took me a couple of years to make peace with what had happened, but eventually I found some odd pieces of gold which hadn’t been taken and had them turned into a signet ring (which I call my ‘kintsugi ring’) and wear it all the time. Fortunately I had already given my daughter one of my Mother’s rings, so she at least has one item.

Yes, I downsized my silver collection - I didn't get anything near what it was worth! I wish I'd kept it for my DDs to benefit from it now, even if it meant I had to keep cleaning it!

We’re currently packing up to move house and found a lot of items we didn’t know what to do with: a couple of silver plated items which had tarnished (one a biscuit barrel), necklace gem stones not worn for years, broken silver & gold chains and earrings coins etc.
I’d seen Vintage Cash Cow recommended in the Sunday Times, so called them and they sent a parcel label (you have to supply a sturdy box) and they’re sent securely. They offered me £250 which was a nice surprise.

Took quite a bit of what I thought was fairly tatty jewellery, various gold and silver chains, earrings, etc, to a local man who buys and sells. Thought I’d get £50 to donate to charity. Instead it was £500! Worth doing with a fair trader.

My birthday is in the summer, and most years DH would buy me a ring to celebrate my birthday. As my knuckes seem to be getting bigger as I age, I can no longer wear many of these pretty rings. I don't want to have them all resized, and know my two DDs would not wear any of them. So I recently sold 20 of these rings at a local auction house. All but one sold, and I was pleasantly pleased at the total price I received for them. Now I will get a couple of special rings resized and enjoy the money.

The only rings I intend to leave to my DDs are the wedding rings which belonged to my great grandmother, grandmother, mother. My instructions in my 'inevitability box' are for them to sell any other jewellery I leave and buy themselves something special that they choose.

Take your more sentimental pieces to a reputable jeweler and have the pieces remade into something you will wear.

She77, just hoping that your mum has mentioned the fact, to the future recipients, that she has sold jewellery that had been earmarked for them!

Only last week I contacted a friend in the Jewelry trade and asked where to take it, so went into town and she came with me. It was mums stuff and sister and I had already had what we wanted, it came to over £2000 I was tickle pink.

lixy I have been to a auction house but they valurd at half the insurance price. Couldn't guarantee a good price.

My mother-in-law has a lovely brooch made from the inherited rings etc she would never wear. It's studded with the gemstones- from diamonds and a couple of sapphires to some aquamarine. It is really beautiful.

I would like to do something similar one day.

Go for it. Treat yourself with the proceeds, whether it's funding a holiday, new hobby or taking the whole family for a great day out.

I'm afraid that you wouldn't get anything like the insurance valuation of your jewellery. I'm guessing you'd be lucky to get 50%. This may change your mind about whether you'd want to sell it all.
My husband has always liked to buy me jewellery and insuring it is pretty expensive now but, like Nanamar, I don't really go out to places where I could wear it now.

I have no family to leave my jewellery to. I had a lot of gold pieces I no longer liked including a defunct gold bracelet watch so I had it all melted down and made into a rough gold nugget and now I can enjoy all those old bits and pieces on a chain as a pendant .

To grandtanteJE65
Hoping that your husband recovers soon.

Marg75 ask advice at your local auction house if you have one - they often have valuation days any you can book an appointment for free. Their advice is impartial; there's no obligation to sell through them.
You often see people on Flog It or similar doing exactly what you want to do, but i have no idea about how to get onto a televised auction if that is what you would like to do.

How to go about it!