Tips For Selling Vintage Costume Jewelry

Costume jewelry became a popular trend in the early to mid-1900s. Designed as inexpensive, essentially disposable, decorative jewelry pieces, these were crafted to be affordable and easily replaceable as styles and trends changed. Whether you recently inherited costume jewelry as part of a loved one's estate or you're just looking to sell your own collection to generate some additional cash, there are still many buyers out there. Here's a look at some of the different ways of selling vintage costume jewelry.

Auction Houses

Vintage costume jewelry is a popular item for auction houses, with lots found at a large percentage of auctions. As a result, many costume jewelry collectors and investors frequent auctions looking for new pieces.

If you're going to auction your vintage costume jewelry, make sure that you know its value before you go to the auction house. Then, you can talk with the auction house manager about whether the jewelry should be auctioned as a lot or if there are individual pieces that are of high value and should be auctioned individually.

You'll pay a portion of the sale price to the auction house for their service, so consider that cost when you're deciding how to sell your jewelry.

Private Online Sales

With many online auction sites, local sales listing sites, and other marketplace options available online, many people opt to simply sell their vintage costume jewelry themselves through one of these avenues.

Depending on the platform that you choose, you might pay a listing fee or a percentage of the sale to the company that maintains the platform, but it would give you more control over the process if that is important to you.

Dealers

Despite the fact that costume jewelry's popularity peaked in the mid-1900s, there are still costume jewelry dealers out there and a significant customer base for that jewelry. In many cases, costume jewelry dealers will buy pieces directly from private sellers much the way that jewelers will buy gold and silver pieces from customers.

Look for a costume jewelry dealer in your area and have them assess your costume jewelry to see if it's something they might buy. You could save time and effort selling the whole lot to a dealer, and you wouldn't have to pay an auction house or online service commission on the sale.

These are a few of the most popular options for selling vintage costume jewelry. Think about what you hope to get from the sale and choose the one that's the right fit for your situation. To find a vintage costumer jewelry buyer, try looking at websites such as mcsestatebuyers.com.