What to do with unworn jewelry?

[Circe]

I have 3 categories of Jewelry I Do Not Wear.

1) Presents my folks gave me which were, a) grossly inappropriate for my age at the time when given, and, b) which are grossly unsuitable to my taste now. Examples: Henry Dunay broaches in the shape of a silver elephant with gold tusks, a gold lion cub, etc.

2) Gifts from ex-boyfriends. The stuff that can be re-gifted, I've regifted without a qualm, but some of it is pricey enough that it would just be weird to give to a friend. Examples: gold and diamond locket, Karen Karsh ring, artsy tourmaline jewelry.

3) Stuff that I just plain don't wear anymore because my style has changed. Example: My beloved round eternity band still has sentimental value, but ... I dunno if I'm ever going to wear it again now that I have others that I love more. So does the sentimental value outweigh the $600 bucks or so I could put towards a new piece that I would wear, that might also acquire a nice patina of sentiment?

So ... WWPSD? Do you guys sell? Where? How? Do you hoard? Why? Tell me all your unworn jewelry secrets.

 

[texaskj]

Get rid of it! I made enough selling unworn stuff on Ebay last year to pay for a pair of BGD huggies and I'm not done yet. The more expensive stuff will probably get taken to a mom-and-pop store here that takes trade-ins.

 

[Tanzigrrl]

Remodel it! Well, in your case, some of those designer pieces don't sound like they could be, or should be, remodeled. Here's what I did, though. I had 3 "young ladies" rings and 2 pairs of stud earrings I was never going to wear again. And I had them made into the fabulous white gold pendant (see below). My local B&M is a really wonderful place that is about half jewelry store and half art gallery and their onsite artists do amazing, unique, one-of-a-kind work so I always take my old, unworn pieces in and have them remake them for me. This pendant below was made from a pear-shaped blue topaz ring (w/ 2 diamond chips on either side), round amethyst solitaire ring, oval sapphire ring, amethyst studs, and diamond studs. I get more compliments on this piece than many of my others. Instead of having a bunch of stuff in my jewelry box that I do not wear, I was able to get this one great piece that I wear all the time.

PS I inherited a ring from my grandmother that is not to my taste. It will be going in shortly for a remodel. Stay tuned.

 

[mary poppins]

To answer the question posed in the thread topic, send your unworn jewelry to me. All of it. I'll see which pieces I like and figure out how to dispose of the rest. Here's my address:


















j/k

 

[RissaLou]

I completely agree with the selling it option. I just sold all of my unused jewelry and got an amazing RHR ring. Now I would not sell unless your going to get something in return that you really want, otherwise you may regret selling or re-gifting.

 

[JewelFreak]

Agree you should sell what you're sure you don't want. Geeze, since Henry Dunay died last year, his stuff should go up in value. You might want to hang onto family stuff if you have it -- your tastes may change. Mine did -- a gorgeous 6-row pearl torsade w/ big carved jadeite clasp that my uncle got for my grandmother in Asia during WWII. She left it to me & I never liked it for 20 yrs. Suddenly I decided to give it a try & it looked great -- in my 50s. So you never know.

Old BF stuff, out! Unless it has stones you can un-set & keep for something else. I have a lot of gold I don't wear & am gonna sell that.

--- Laurie

 

[Andelain]

I had a bunch of jewelry I'd retired, a lot of silver and turquoise, a couple diamond pieces including a 1/4 ct marquise ring, and some custume stuff. Right before I deployed I gave to to my best friend and told her to do what she wanted it. She and her daughter sat down and cleaned and polished it up like new and divvied it up between them. Now it gets worn more than it ever did when I had it.

 

[Miss Sparkly]

I sell. There's a lot of great forums and antique sites you can sell on. Then you can buy something you'll really love

 

[Gypsy]

Like Tanz, I'm having most of my bits and pieces made into a necklace.

But I have other 'stuff' I'm not incorporating into it. I have quite a few colored stones I'm not doing anything with cause I'm undecided. And then all my yellow gold.

But I did sell the yellow gold that wasn't sentimental, and the rest I'm keeping to wear once a year (lol) and then to pass down in the family.

Here's my advice:

Stuff that's not branded or heirloom, sell.

Stuff that's branded get appraised for current value. And then if it's not heirloom then consider consigning it or seeing if an auction house might be interested in it. As you aren't in a hurry you can afford to wait till you get the right price on it.

Stuff that's heirloom leave alone. IMO.

 

[suchende]

Honestly, resale prices are so bad, I would rather give stuff away or hold onto it for nieces/daughters/someone.

 

[Circe]

Well, it sounds like there's definitely a consensus - selling it shall be! I guess my only concern is the one Suchende raises - given the state of the economy, how crappy of a market for resellers is it? I'm hoping rising metal prices might balance it ought, but if it means I'm going to have to list and relist, I can just hoard for a few more years until the market rebounds ....

(Also, Dunay DIED? Seriously? How did I miss that? I knew the company had been having issues, but I thought it was all business stuff. What a pity - he was a lovely man.)

TexasKJ - Oooh, do they have a thread? I love how they do huggies - so delicate!

Tanzigirl - that is such a gorgeous necklace! Definitely better than having a bunch of things you'll never wear. I love how delicate it is .... Sadly, all my stuff consists of poor candidates for remodeling (and I have tons of loose stones to be set anyway - if I sell these suckers, then I'll have the cash to do something with those). So, a good solution no matter how you cut it ....

Mary Poppins - you could keep it in your carpetbag! Seriously, I LOL'd.

RissaLou - Good advice! And I love the look of your RHR: can't wait to see hand pics!

JewelFreak - Dunay DIED? Woah. I totally missed that. Google isn't giving me anything - do you know what happened? The advice about holding onto the stuff with sentimental value is very solid, though, as is the bit about stuff that might eventually be my style. BTW, I would LOVE to see that torsade - that sounds like my style NOW!

Andelain - what a great solution!

SparkleyBlonde - I will have to research these ....

Gypsy - short, sweet, and to the point as always: excellent advice. Thank you!

Suchende - I rarely play the straight man, but ... how bad are they?

 

[Miss Sparkly]

I don't ever pay retail - so I break even on most things right now. If you paid retail, you're really going to be out a lot then

 

[Circe]

I don't ever pay retail - so I break even on most things right now. If you paid retail, you're really going to be out a lot then

Bite your tongue!

 

[dragonfly411]

Circe - I think you've been given good advice, and considering that you aren't wearing the stuff, does it matter how long it takes to sell?

 

[texaskj]

dragonfly raises a good point. I've always had the best luck selling on Ebay during the second half of the year. This last year they had a really long free listing period, which was great. You could start your auction at any price and keep relisting for free until the item sold. Since the first of the year, I can't even get people to look at my stuff, but it's not costing me anything because they had a two-week list-for-free. I'm not in a big hurry; some of this stuff has been in my jewelry box for 20 years.
And no, I've been terribly remiss in not posting my huggies with my little studs. I just can't seem to get any good ear shots.

 

[kenny]

I have a few things I keep meaning to sell which just sit in a dark safe deposit box.

Rhino just mentioned a 20-30% increase associated with the improving economy, so maybe it's a good time to finally get off my butt and sell these things.

 

[suchende]

I don't ever pay retail - so I break even on most things right now. If you paid retail, you're really going to be out a lot then

This is me too, but it might make a difference for hard-to-replace pieces/stones. Another poster recently described getting multiple offers at the price she paid for a diamond that was well-cut and with rate/desirable proportions. It's also not unheard of to get retail-level and above offers on name-brand pieces that have been discontinued. Generally, though, the first thing I do is see what a piece would cost retail, and the most I would pay for second-hand is about half of that... and if someone's price is close to sticker, I'm usually frightened off from making an offer -- I assume they don't really want to let go of it.

 

[JewelFreak]

Yesterday I sold a bunch of gold jewelry I never wear -- made $947! None of it was special enough to be worth more than its gold content and I'm the happy owner of enough shekels for another stone (or a setting for my poor homeless ones waiting for a place to hang out).
Even DH was impressed.

--- Laurie

 

[jstarfireb]

With gold prices being so high these days, I've been scrapping a lot of old pieces through a jeweler that pays fair prices for gold.