Antique Collecting: Costume Jewelry at Garage Sales

"Let's talk about the bling. Costume jewelry. Costume jewelry is hugely collectible now. And you just have to be careful that you get some that's vintage; sixties, fifties. Not so much seventies. But that stuff prior to that time is really collectible. For instance, rhinestones are so hot right now. And if you go to Nordstrom's for instance and try to buy a pin like this. It's going to cost you a hundred bucks. Or more. this is a vintage rhinestone pin. One of the things you need to be very careful of is that all the stones are intact. Because if any of the stones are missing it just completely devalues the item. It's all about condition, expert village. Remember? The other thing you want to look at with costume jewelry is pieces that are signed. Now, you can't see it on this one but it will say a brand name on the back. Monet, which is a later brand but other brand names. And so you can judge the value by the name that it's signed with; the company that made it. Let me show you something. This is called bake lite. This is hugely collectible if you can still find it. Bake lite was one of the first plastics ever made and it's hard to tell. Gee, is this bake lite, isn't it bake lite. There's a fool proof test. If you think its bake lite, you take it and take some formula 409. I've even seen people keep little bottles of this in their purse. They spray this, bake lite, it turns yellow. Actually turns yellow. It doesn't matter what color the bake lite is, you have a yellow cast that comes off of it. And that means that this is bake lite which is very cool because if something is bake lite people want it because it's old and it's highly collectible. Bangles, earrings, buttons. So bake lite is good."