posted
I've been really wanting to buy some vintage jewelry, that perhaps needs repair or that I can salvage great vintage findings and clasps from, but everybody I've talked to says that you can't get good vintage jewelry at thrift stores, you have to hit estate sales.
Okay, so how does one do that? I mean, do you just look in the paper to see listings and then go? And are estate sales like yard sales, where prices are pretty much negotiable?
Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
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posted
Yup. Unless they're managed by professionals-- which is what I thought this thread was about!
Often they are advertised in the paper, sometimes just signs on the street. Saturday morning by 8:30 or 9 is the best time to start hitting them.
Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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quote:Okay, so how does one do that? I mean, do you just look in the paper to see listings and then go? And are estate sales like yard sales, where prices are pretty much negotiable?
There are listings in newspapers. There are also several online resources: google estate sale listings, and you'll find a bunch.
The negotiability of prices depends on the sale, but they tend to be negotiable if run by the immediate family and non-negotiable if run by professionals.
You can also find vintage jewelry relatively inexpensively in pawn shops (in surprisingly large quantity, too). If your area has storage unit auctions, those are also GREAT places to find stuff.
(In case you don't know, a storage unit auction is where a storage company auctions off the contents of storage units that have either been abandoned or are delinquint in payment. Typically, the potential bidders are given 10 minutes to look through the contents, then the unit is sealed up and bidding begins. This is a way to potentially make thousands upon thousands of dollars if you know what you're doing.)
Posts: 4313 | Registered: Sep 2004
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Let me ask some of members of a jewelry guild, of which I am a member. Some of them deal exclusively in vintage jewelry repair and reconstruction. They may have some great leads for you.
Posts: 822 | Registered: Jul 2001
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posted
Around here there are estate sale companies, and many of them conduct the sale and then take what doesn't sell back to a shop. Those shops are excellent places to find vintage jewelry without all the hassle of trapsing around to estate sales. Yes, it will have already been picked over once, but you can frequently get some neat things, and they have the advantage of having many different styles. If you go to a sale that advertises jewelry and the person only wore gold piece, for instance, with no beads, you'll have wasted your trip. Also, since you don't mind if the pieces are broken, the "first dibs" people at the sale may have overlooked the very stuff you're looking for.
I'd look in the yellow pages for estate sale companies in your area, for most of them their ad should list if they have a shop or not. Posts: 7954 | Registered: Mar 2004
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I'm really just interested as a hobbyist, I don't plan on opening a jewelry business anytime soon or anything, I just love working with jewelry and think that I'll learn a lot by working with vintage pieces. I'm going to try some thrift stores even so, because for my purposes even really picked over stuff might work.
Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
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Basically, they said to check Ebay for vintage jewelry. Also, one of the ladies sent me several links you might be interested in. I can email you the links, if you would like me to. (Unless others would like the links posted here as well.) Just drop me an email.
Posts: 822 | Registered: Jul 2001
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posted
The one big thing about eBay for vintage jewelry is that 1) you can't see it in person and 2) there's a world market, so prices tend to be much higher than they would be if you stumbled across a piece at an estate sale.
Posts: 4313 | Registered: Sep 2004
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