Mom always said, give some away and sell the rest. My mom passed away and we gave most of her sentimental jewelry pieces to family and friends. We have a few pieces left that are .925 silver (primarily necklaces). What is the best next step?
Thanks.
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The next step to determine the value of these items is to take them to a jewelry shop and have them appraised. They will be the best ones to weight the items and tell you how much they are actually worth. Then you can determine if you want to sell them for the silver weight or list them for sale online. A few of the pieces could be kept by the rest of your family to remember your mom by.
On Google > Search > Silver Prices Today
This is the current price that Sterling Silver is being sold for.
Note: If you sell your piece, the buy in will be less as these jewelers, pawn shop stores need to make money.
If you could do research on the items online you might be able to find if they were rare pieces (if so price will not be dependent on the weight of sterling silver).
As a general rule - pieces sold for silver content will not be worth the gas to take them to a shop. Jewelry stores rarely give information on pieces (some may tell you the silver content of one or two pieces for free but they are not in the business to do things for free. Cost of appraisals is many times more than the piece is worth unless it is an antique and a famous maker.
If you wish to know the jewelry content, a pawn shop is usually the best place to go. It is costly to melt down silver/gold to the point it is sellable by the merchant so they may only offer 25% or less of the current silver value. If they buy it in a lot, they would then pick out the pieces they could sell and scrap the rest.
If there is any piece that someone would like to keep, now is the only time they will have this opportunity so do not have regrets as most likely very few pieces will be very valuable - if any.
You should examine each piece closely and write down any numbers/marks you can find as they are sometimes 'hid'.
If you find any marks you can post another question with a picture of the necklace and marks and someone may be able to help you further. It is best to do only one picture on each question as multiple pictures can get confusing.
You and helpers can research 'vintage silver necklaces on eBay and Etsy to see if you can find anything even similar to what you have. Just remember, asking prices are only prices a seller would like to receive for their items but only an exact sold item can tell you a 'current value'.
Since you will probably never find exactly the same necklaces you will have to determine from your research what would be a good starting price.
www.etsy.com/
www.ebay.com/
eBay is the only site that a link to their sold listings but you check for similar necklaces to see what people are really paying for these older pieces - you may find something to help you.
Be very careful and examine each piece for marks as most likely these will be the only ones to be worth very much money.
Jewelry is still selling but may be slow as there are thousands of pieces for sale.
You might want to consider posting these on other venues such as Facebook Marketplace, letgo, offerup or any other site you're familiar with. This way you can post on several sites at the same time and start with higher prices and lower them if no one shows an interest. Do not give out any personal information and never let anyone come to your house for an item like this.
eBay and Etsy are good sites but not for new sellers when jewelry is involved.
Pawn shops will tell you the value, or what they would offer if you wanted to sell, that advice is free. Try maybe a high end pawn, or even a consignment store.
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