If you’ve never sold your jewelry before—and even if you have—you may have questions about how the process actually works. Fortunately, while it takes a tremendous amount of experience and skill to evaluate jewelry accurately, the evaluation process itself should be fairly straightforward.
So whether you’re working with jewelry buyers in Chicago or anywhere else in the world, you can’t always expect a relatively similar evaluation process, as the experience and knowledge of the buyer will have a significant outcome on your vale received.
Finding the Value
Generally speaking, when a jewelry buyer in Chicago evaluates your jewelry, he or she should be looking for what makes the jewelry most valuable. For some types of jewelry, the most value may be in the intrinsic value of the raw materials—for example, the gold in a bangle. For other types of jewelry, such as very unique and/or antique jewelry, the most value is in the style and the maker or designer of the jewelry itself and not only the gold value.
Of course, antique jewelry may require some restoration. Therefore, the true value of the piece will depend in part on the restoration and repair costs as well as the price at which it might sell.
After all, even if a piece of antique jewelry may have the potential to sell for $5000 when it’s restored, if the restoration costs thousands it may not be cost-effective or possible to restore.
Marketability Matters
It’s also important to keep in mind that when a jewelry buyer in Chicago evaluates your jewelry, they’ll take into account just how marketable your jewelry actually is. What that means is, while your jewelry may be truly unique, if the market of buyers for that type of piece is very small, it will be harder to sell.
The longer it takes to sell a piece of jewelry, the less that jewelry is worth because the buyer has to take on additional risk and inventory cost, and styles and trends change. If you are in the market to sell jewelry in Chicago, stop by Chicago Gold Gallery today!