{"id":1638,"date":"2016-05-04T13:43:04","date_gmt":"2016-05-04T17:43:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/datlas.com\/?p=1638"},"modified":"2016-05-04T15:27:13","modified_gmt":"2016-05-04T19:27:13","slug":"best-practices-in-selling-estate-jewelry-diamonds-and-gems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.datlas.com\/blog\/best-practices-in-selling-estate-jewelry-diamonds-and-gems\/","title":{"rendered":"Best Practices in Selling Estate Jewelry, Diamonds and Gems"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0<\/strong>A definitive guide to doing the job right, without regret, and <\/em><\/strong>without making costly mistakes.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

For over 40 years of my even longer career in the jewelry industry, I bought and sold estate jewelry, diamonds and gems. There is nothing like daily experience over decades to give someone a unique and wonderful insight into the many pitfalls that exist for the public, who only occasionally find themselves in an unfamiliar role as sellers.\u00a0 To become an intelligent seller of items the public has little real knowledge of second hand markets.\u00a0 Individuals have next to no experience in negotiating asking prices, offers and deals.\u00a0 Do you think it is difficult to buy a car?\u00a0 Jewelry is far more difficult and blind.\u00a0 The second hand jewelry and gem sales market is very different than the retail jewelry market or the auto business.\u00a0 You do not dare enter such markets with no advance knowledge.<\/p>\n

There is literally no end to the diverse nature of the jewelry product mix. No one individual buyer is expert in everything.\u00a0 No one buyer is a true best buyer for everything.\u00a0 Buying and selling items in the jewelry business requires proper expertise in not only the items on offer, but very good understanding of what buyers preferences are, what they feel they can sell, what they wish to stock for inventory, and what they believe they should invest in.\u00a0 Of course, one also needs to know what buyers do not want and what turns them off.\u00a0 It is a psychological game as well as an expert game for all the players.<\/p>\n

The consumer who wants to sell has special problems. They are inundated by \u201cbuyers\u201d of all types.\u00a0 Pawn shops, scrap buyers, coin stores, mom and pop jewelers, kiosks in malls, auction galleries of every size and shape, large corporations with slick advertising in fancy urban locations.\u00a0 You name it, there will be a \u201cbuyer\u201d there just waiting to peel off some $100\u2019s or willing to write you a check.\u00a0 Your problem is that you probably have many unanswered questions that need answers to BEFORE you make any deal.<\/p>\n

You need to know the range of second hand value of each and every item. Until you know what the real value is in the market you are now in, selling jewelry and gems, you cannot know what price is a good one to accept.\u00a0 You cannot tell by the personality of the buyer.\u00a0 Remember, all con-men have wonderful personalities and their stock in trade is getting you to believe in them.\u00a0 It is very, very easy to be victimized.<\/p>\n

You will be offered \u201cFREE APPRAISALS\u201d by many buyers. You must realize that this free appraisal is most often worth exactly what it cost.\u00a0 Sorry, but there is little free stuff that is worth anything.\u00a0 You may find this somewhat harsh and unkind.\u00a0 My tone is strident because way too many people wishing to sell are badly misled by biased advice.\u00a0 If \u201cfree appraisal\u201d was worded properly, it would be advertised as \u201cFREE OFFER TO PURCHASE\u201d.\u00a0 That would be way better.\u00a0 You can always say \u201cNO\u201d.\u00a0 However, if you have no understanding of the proper value of what you want to sell, you will say \u201cNO \u201ceven if you were offered the correct amount.\u00a0 Why would you do that unless you have not gotten the information you require first?\u00a0 This is a main and primary point of this essay.<\/p>\n

Before you go out to sell, you need expert advisory services to best understand the values in the secondary marketplace. You need to know the facts in advance to make a clear decision.\u00a0 You can\u2019t rely on \u201cfree appraisals\u201d given by those who might not be objective.\u00a0 There is often a lot of money at stake and everyone knows where there are big bucks, there are often huge pitfalls.<\/p>\n

The same advice can be given to the public when they are asked by retailers or others in the jewelry trade to \u201cConsign the items with me for a period of time and when I get them sold I will give you XX% of what I obtain\u201d. This is NOT AN OFFER to buy anything.\u00a0 This is allowing your precious items to sit somewhere out of your control and at the whim of the seller.\u00a0 How well do you know the seller?\u00a0 Will you get back what you left?\u00a0 Will the items ever sell?\u00a0 Will the eventual price be a correct one?\u00a0 Is the person you are consigning to a true expert or just a \u201cbuddy\u201d?\u00a0 Consigning to an auction gallery may be a bit better, but it sure is not inexpensive.\u00a0 You will get about 2\/3 of an auction selling price.\u00a0 That is not always terrible and may end up being very good, but it may not even be as much as you can get outright from a really expert buyer who wants what you have and is willing to pay on the spot for it.<\/p>\n

What can you do? First, obtain a real appraiser\u2019s estimate of value as a second hand item for sale.\u00a0 Only an experienced appraiser, one with second hand market expertise, can help you with this.\u00a0 Only a relative handful of otherwise well qualified appraisers in the USA have such estate jewelry valuation experience.\u00a0 There will be a fee for such services, but the fee will be more than fully covered by selling for correct prices and not impulsively for way too little money.\u00a0 Some appraisers will recommend buyers for items that fit well with one another.\u00a0 I often do that, not as a profit center, but to help my clients get the right amount of money without putting them into a worrisome situation.\u00a0 If I don\u2019t have a good buyer or situation for what you wish to sell, that\u2019s what I tell you.\u00a0 Not every sale is easy. \u00a0Most of the time, sales made easily without market value knowledge<\/strong>, are not<\/strong> for a proper amount of money.\u00a0 That\u2019s human nature, but we can often defeat our failings with better advice and a bit of education.<\/p>\n

Have I gotten your attention? This was not written to scare anyone, but instead to encourage you to investigate the value BEFORE<\/strong> you sell.\u00a0 Knowing the real range of value will make the sales process easier and safer.<\/p>\n

My time can be yours by appointment.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 David Atlas\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0datlas@datlas.com\u00a0\u00a01-215-385-0258<\/strong><\/p>\n

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\u00a0A definitive guide to doing the job right, without regret, and without making costly mistakes. For over 40 years of my even longer career in the jewelry industry, I bought and sold estate jewelry, diamonds and gems. There is nothing like daily experience over decades to give someone a unique and wonderful insight into the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,22,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-appraisals","category-diamond-selling","category-education"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.datlas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1638","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.datlas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.datlas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.datlas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.datlas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1638"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.datlas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1638\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1646,"href":"https:\/\/www.datlas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1638\/revisions\/1646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.datlas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.datlas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.datlas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}