How to Identify Costume Jewelry at estate and yard sales

One area where there is a good deal of money to be made at yard sales and estate sales is buying and reselling vintage costume jewelry.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

1. 

   Good pieces of costume jewelry that can sell for a few dollars up to a few hundred dollars can often be bought at an estate sale or yard sell for pennies. The best way to learn to spot the hidden treasures is to spend time handling good pieces. Find a good antique store that specializes in costume jewelry. The shop that helped educate me is the place that buys my best finds now.

2. Costume jewelry can be made from all kinds and colors of material. Get to know what types are most collected. Bakelite is valuable and very easy to test with a wipe of 409 spray cleaner or test liquid. However you should get to the point where you know it feels right and are confident buying so you can test it at home, not at the sale. Don't buy damaged or broken jewelry or jewelry missing stones or parts. It is usually more expensive to repair than you can sell for. You would need to match the old piece exactly and that is hard to do. Only buy broken jewelry to maybe make your own altered art pieces and don't pay much. Jewelry is everywhere.

3. A good designers name on a piece will add a great deal of value. Some people only buy a certain designer or collect an era and know the designers of costume jewelry from that period. A designer marked piece is usually a good find if it is marked. Style makes a difference. Even strange looking pieces should be bought if marked. Strange, unusual pieces can be the most valued to a collector. Weird jewelry sales. Large over the top pieces you would never wear yourself often surprise you and sale first.

4. Flag pins, Christmas pins and other styles all have collectors willing to pay for a good piece. Learn what backs look like in different eras. I have friends that can date many pieces just by the type of pin or clasp. Certain closures are still used but were more common in a given time frame.

5. Look for hallmarks and metal marks. Gold is marked in a number then K for Karat. Gold fill or gold plate has value as well, but not near as much. Nice metal content or fine workmanship shows the piece was more expensive when new so probably is more valuable now.

Tips & Warnings

• Avon is not a designer name. They make nice looking pieces of costume jewelry, but were and are so widely sold as to usually only have value as something you may wear yourself. There is still a lot of designer marked jewelry out there. I know people who make a full living at it even in my small population area.

[junkiejessie]

on 10/28/2009 Thanks so much! You have given me great tips! I cant wait to go to my next estate sale.
http://www.designsupplies.etsy.com

[teknon]

on 9/8/2009 I have just starting learning about vintage jewelry. Thank you so much for the tips. I have sold a few pieces on Ebay. However, I am still learning.

[lilolladystuff]

on 6/3/2009 I've just started selling and collecting vintage jewelry. Appreciate the tips since there is so much to learn.

[woot]

on 3/25/2009 Thanks for the article about identifying costume jewelry. People get rid of the darndest things!

[Coach4U]

on 2/22/2009 Garage sales are so much fun! I'll be keeping my eyes open for treasures. "5"