Is Your Old Jewellery Worth A Fortune?

When consider which piece of jewellery to wear, do you consider the actual value of the piece? By the value of each piece of jewellery, I am refering to the price you could sell it for today, rather than the price you actually bought it from the store.

Working out that number is no walk in the park, this is because there are various factors that you need to consider. You have to remember though that when you bought that lovely piece of silver jewellery, you payed the price that the shop was selling it for, which is not the price it’s worth.

When buying your jewellery from a store, you have to pay the price that the manufacturer charged the jewellery store, plus the mark up that the store put on to make a profit. This figure is very difficult to come across, but what is even harder is trying to get the figure that the manufacturer puts on the item. The manufacturer of the item will put their own mark up onto the jewellery to ensure that they make a profit on the cost of materials and labour that it took to make the product.

Due to all of the above factors, you never pay the true value of the jewellery, so what is it really worth? The largest factor that affects the price is the value of the raw materials that have been used to make the item. Say you have some silver gemstone jewellery or silver pendants. You can weigh it to find out the weight of the metal, once you know the weight you can find the current price of that metal to find out how much the raw materials are worth. You should also look at other materials that are on the piece, jewels are a big one, a local jeweller will be able to value these for you.

Once you find the value of the raw materials of your jewellery, it can come as a bit of a shock because often the scrap value of your jewellery will only be a maximum of 15% of the retail price. However, there are a range of other factors that will have an effect on the value.

Sentimental value is another factor that needs to be considered, selling a piece of jewellery that has sentimental value to you will be worth more than an unwanted present. The manufacturer of the piece also has an affect on the value. If you manufacturer is famous, this will add some value to your jewellery piece. This value is hard to work out because the way the manufacturer become popular varies, it could be the quality of work, or if a celebrity has been seen wearing it.

Overall, unless than manufacturer has gained reputation which increases the jewellery value, your jewellery will be worth less than the retail price that you original payed. Unfortunate but it’s the way the manufacturer and jewellery store generates all their money.