When you are buying or selling precious jewelry, doing your homework can have its benefits. You will now wonder where you can start.
Don’t use acetone, ammonia, turpentine, bleach, or other harsh chemicals for cleaning them. This can cause the stones to lose their luster in addition to eating away the enamel on any of the pieces.
Take care to store your jewelry safely. You can protect your jeweled investments with hooks, boxes and holders that keep each piece intact and prevent tangles. Don’t just put them in one huge, unorganized pile. This haphazard approach can cause damage to the individual components of fine jewelry, and create a tangled mess.
Sterling Silver
If you want to buy sterling silver pieces, use a magnet and examine the jewelry very carefully. By using the magnet you can quickly determine if the jewelry item is made of a cheaper metal and not sterling silver. True sterling sliver always has some sort of hallmark stamp on it, such as .925, sterling or ster. If the piece you’re inspecting doesn’t carry such a mark, be careful, as it is likely a fake.
Make sure you know what kind of gem you are getting when you are buying jewelry. Gems can be natural, imitation or synthetic. Synthetic and natural are real stones, while the imitation ones are plastic that is colored. Natural comes from the ground, while synthetic ones are created in a lab.
A good piece of jewelery can last you your whole life. To ensure you are buying a quality piece, refuse to deal with anybody but the most reputable of jewelers. The best jewelry is well-designed and well-made with close attention to detail. The jeweler will be able to provide a complete history of the piece of jewelry, including who made it, and exactly where the stones originated. You’ll create an heirloom tomorrow if you choose high-quality jewelry today.
If you buy jewelry from a jewelry store, ask if they offer insurance. That way, if something were to happen to your jewelry, you can easily bring it back to the jeweler who will fix or replace it. Some jewelers have insurance policies that cover lost of stolen jewelry, also.
You need to learn the best ways to take care of your jewelry. The variety of stones, metals and assorted settings will determine the ways in which you care for them. Cleaning and maintenance techniques that work perfectly on one stone might cause damage to another. If you can’t find information about caring for a specific piece of jewelry, consult a trusted jeweler.
You can use a brooch to make your belt stand out, since it is sure to be eye-catching. You can add it anywhere on the belt that you think looks good.
So, as you have seen, it is true that buying or selling jewelry requires research, work and effort so that you can buy the pieces that you want, or sell the pieces you have, for profit. Keep all the tips fresh in your mind, and you will find success.