Do you want to make money selling jewelry? TIPS

[DarkChameleon]

Tips on becoming a jewelry trader

 

Learn what you want to trade, is it solid pieces, pure 14k, pure 18k, if so then learn the shapes people buy, they might be into dainty bracelets or rings.

Learn what places are available for consigning, they will give you a much better return then selling to the jewelry shop, after all they want it to sell and make the big money.

Have a drive around after getting a list of jewelry stores near you or are willing to travel, the further you go the more it costs to get there in gas, petrol or diesel…its going to cut into your top end.

Make a list of the jewelry shops around you and ask them some questions when you are there, do they consign is a good one, some operate on commission which can be up to 20%, others may ask you what you want and they will decide whether to take your piece on then could sell for several hundred of thousand over what you said you wanted and end up with 20, 50, 100% commission.

You can watch and learn as you watch them do their work, maybe some of it doesn’t translate to the way you do business but you can learn how to clean a piece the best way you can, even to polish out small scratches, hoe to present a piece that the consigner might appreciate.

Learn what tools to get like a gold tester, diamond or gem tester, a scale to get the carat of the diamonds and gems.

You can teach yourself at home how to solder small fixes like replace a lobster clasp by buying scrap from the jeweler if they sell it and picking out 14k and 18k clasps, those will save you money in the long run, buy the polishing fluid and clothes they use, even ask if they can sell you some or order extra for you if you know them better, you can save money then with dealer prices.

Remember you don’t need a second hand dealers license if your consigning as a private person…some people have accumulated hundreds of pieces and may want to get rid of them it doesn’t mean they have to get a license to do it.

Make sure you have some apps running on your phone so you can have them at hand all the time:-

Ebay

Goldprice.org

Goldcalc

Ebay is good for buying but also good for learning, you can find the sold items and look at what sold and for what price, look at each one separately in your price range and when it states the weight then go to the gold calc and put it in and see what the price paid was, was it significantly higher then scrap?, was is vastly under?, how did the piece appeal to you, could you see yourself wearing it or your spouse, your kid maybe?.

Also look at the winners feedback, are they likely a dealer, as in is their feedback number in the thousands, if that’s the case then the best way to win that piece if you’d wanted it before and the price ended at around scrap price was simply to add to scrap price as some dealers will never cross that law they have…so $5 over can be the winning bid, but don’t go too far over or your cutting into your profit.

You can then start looking at the feedback of people selling, if they have feedback in the four digits then back away, they will not fall for low bids like others will, there are enough fish in the sea to not have to fight the sharks, for now any ways.

Now the ultra low feedback bidder can be a nasty one to outbid as they have got sentimental about a piece and will pay much more then its top value so if you chase them then your going to lose all your profit and then some, they are the people you want walking into the jewelry shop you consign to and unloading their wallet in your direction.

Now look at the state the seller is in, for now if you buy from out of state you get to avoid taxes, not so in your own state, a healthy 10% hit at the end can be a shock and can be half your profit gone instantly.

Now when you get the weight of the piece and carat then open your gold calc and put in the figures and it will give you the value of that amount of gold in that karat as of this moment, that gives you your base to work with, then its time to look at other things that might help you, sometimes there are offers running on fleabay, in the US its ebay bucks and you can get offers of 5%, 8% and 10% which can significantly help you out, it can reduce the cost under scrap value if you get it at scrap value or allow you to get an item at scrap value by bidding 5%, 8% or 10% over, if you have to do that to get a nice piece then it can be as good as getting a scrap priced item and then asking the jeweler to put it on for 50% over the melt, some might want to reduce it t 40 or even 30 but you can always go somewhere else, don’t get upset at their offer but just state you can get that somewhere else and much more.

If you want another way to get a good deal you can try by typing in what you want such as ‘14k gold preowned’ and then in the filter put in ‘best offer’ and then select newest first….then you have the new fish who might be newbies who don’t know the game, or people who have had to list their item a couple of times with it not selling and now are a little more pliable to a lowball offer.

Now think about your market, are you going to have to make each item after costs taken into account be $150, or $500 or $1000?....think about what style and pieces tend to sell at that price, what jewelers have that kind of selection, it might be nice to buy a piece that stands out as the best piece in that shop but really is someone going to come in with that money and buy it?.

Do you need a SDB for your goods, are you going to be holding so much stuff that your housed insurance will jump, will you develop a twitch when your driving around with your stock?, find a place to leave your stuff and only ever handle a set amount so if you do get mugged, robbed, conned, you wont lose everything and if you have insurance you might even get some money back, never all of the amount lost but hopefully enough to keep going or start again.

If you have a stash of silver and gold and you want o get into this then divide your pm, into collecting and keeping and stacking for when that day comes by…it can be a very easy source of funds for a deal on a piece you think will make you money, learn the person willing to pay the most there and then for coins, bars, tubes etc…yes you’ll lose out but will that deal if right make that money back and then some…I hated seeing 40 ASE’s go but not as much as I loved watching $3000 arrive for one piece…its like having cash on you but not so available that you can be sitting in a casino and think…hey a few more dollars and ill make it all back.

Now the best of us will be in a waiting curve while pieces sell, most if not all shops will have to hold your item for a set time and fill in the police forms, take your id, your thumb print, address, phone number and then hold the piece for 30 days before selling them, one reason its good to learn to judge sellers, make sure they have good feedback but not so high that your being conned by a tradesman.

So figure on 6 weeks at the least to sell, it could be two months or more especially if you have them out after the season is over, the best season is October through march, it encompasses thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukah, valentines day.

So if you but and clean and show around those places chosen for handling the right type and having a good position then you should reduce the time it takes to sell.

You may want to tell them that if someone wants to buy but doesn’t want to pay the full asking, what price will you take, I have items that have a 10% float so if someone wants a deal, the 10% can be taken off but that’s it, lose the sale before you lose your shirt.

If a piece isn’t selling then it might be time to ebay it, put it into and auction with melt being the reverse or maybe hold back your tears and get it melted, if this last one option come along then find out from all the jewelry shops where they send their stuff to be melted, there are national refiners but they often have local gold buyers who will give higher rates then shops will give you, I have one guy who will pay 93% of plumb or 95% of melt, which means if he just gets the items he pays 93% of what they way, or if you insist on them being melted which sometimes they will let you watch, they will melt it into a small ingot depending on how many grams you brought in and then pay you 95% of the final melt…but that can be a few grams less then it was before being melted as the impurities and small springs in those lobster clasps can melt off, its one or the other…its usually not very far off each other..my first time I had it all melted and watched so when it was tested with a gun and priced up it was all 14k and so he knew I wasn’t trying to salt the pot by putting in a 14k gold plated 10k piece…they respect honest brokers.

If you lose out by having to melt some of your stock then use the money and keep going, it will teach you to avoid certain pieces, to maybe get your own gold tester, gem tester, cleaning fluid, cleaning clothes, buy cheap boxes in larger numbers to add to that lure, if a piece  is a tiffany you might want to buy a tiffany box to put it in…that can sway a deal for some people.

Now time to keep books

The cost of the piece, of the shipping and handling, the weight, if it has diamonds, what size are they, is there a GIA report, an appraisal, ask for the papers with whatever you buy or ask if they have any papers on it.

Now also put on your fuel, if your driving a full tank of fuel finding places to sell, keeping relationships going etc, it costs money, not just fuel, maybe food for you even if it’s a home made sandwich and water, its costs, the little things can be the difference between the years profit and loss.

Find out what your most favorite jewelers like, an owner operator might appreciate something simple like a bag of kitchen towels as he’s wiping the cases down constantly, or petroleum jelly or vicks to dab slight under his nose when he’s cleaning with fluids all day that give off that Sulphur stink…I even have a hobby of making wooden pens and using rare wood, giving on of them is a personal gift that can make future relationships better, I also used to write bumper stickers and give him some for nothing that he puts on his counter and gives away to people if they are interested.

When I want things cleaned to see them better or are on the way to show them ill drop by my local shop with a bottle of cleaner that only costs $5 and say its for him for what he did…when he asks what he did ill say, you cleaned my stuff…here…its humorous and he gets the left over fluid for nothing that might last him days, it can also let them know that your listening to their advice, under my guys advice about how good his gold tester was I bought one, got a great deal on it and then a few weeks later his needed a new pen..so I lent him mine till he got one shipped to him…I need to test but I need a good relationship more then having something tested that day..i can always bring my piece down and he tests it for me…and cleans and gives me a deal on some eagles I buy there….a relationship works great both ways, I have over $5000 of pieces consigned to him, with the same again at another shop who are just as chatty, just as educational and just as good to sell with..i put a diamond solitaire in with mine and people were asking within three days and it sold with the month, I bought it for $300, it sold for $1000, the jeweler took $50 commision….so over 200% pure profit on one deal…and the owner was calling around his people and found the person who then bought it…his sources are invaluable, they can make up for a bad location often.

 

So learn your market, learn the best places to put your stuff, have a list of places that consign and what level of stuff they and their clients like, bid low and don’t be afraid to lose the piece another will always come along, sort your stack out into some you would sell for a loss to your jeweler to get that d=great deal done today...you might even want to set one night a week aside to stay up and see what pieces are finishing at weird hours, they can be a hidden vein of profit.

Keep a tight set of books with all expenses and keep your costs to a minimum, I have a usb microscope to check them out closely and video a close pass over I can study again, I also have a neodymium magnet to get those pesky gold plated pieces out of my way, I have a gold tester and gem tester for the same idea, to stop the fakes and to get a much better idea of the piece if the seller doesn’t have one themselves….some sellers bight be inheritors who don’t know much about many thing.

I have a jewelers loop, and tarnish remover, polishing cloths and a few boxes and velvet bags to put them in to lift the appearance, I have some nice fine scales to get the exact weight and have asked for and got partial refunds as their selling weight was over…don’t be afraid to ask for $5-$10 back, its all your money, have those apps on your phone, ebay, goldcalc, goldorg.com to know the market whenever you want and perhaps a google for the dow jones and for after hours the dow jones futures incase your buying after or before the market is in session. You might also want to take a class or teach yourself sodering because simply things like that can fix items people thought were just junk because the clasp failed or a piece was twisted, if you don’t feel safe doing it yourself then get your jewelers buddy to do it and of course, record that in your expenses.

 

I hope all this helps anyone thinking of diversifying into jewelry investing

[Pottedbeef]

Posts like this are excellent. Many thanks for your time and knowledge of the area. It makes me want to do this tomorrow 

[Notafront4adragon]

@DarkChameleon this is why I support this forum. Folks willing to share their knowledge and experience! I hope I can apply some of this to the British market.