don't know bakelite from party lights
but you still want to get into the
jewelry reselling game well stay tuned
because I'm gonna get you sorted out in
this video I'm gonna give you five tips
to get started in thrifting and
reselling jewelry on eBay and Etsy
without having to spend a ton of money
and not get a return on your investment
and make sure you stay tuned until the
end because I'm giving you a bonus tip
it's the item that I got started selling
and the item that I have sold twice to
make the most amount of money for my
jewelry selling and it's the item that
is most often overlooked at thrift
stores and garage sales hello there my
name is Margaret I am a reselling
homeschooling mom that sells on eBay and
Etsy to help support my family
I've been reselling it since 2013 and
I've sold over two thousand items a lot
of that is jewelry also I have what I
like to think of as the best jewelry
group on Facebook with over 3,500
members and if you haven't joined it yet
go join Texas gals jewelry lovers
because even if you're just lurking and
learning there's so much information
there we've got great admins the group
is fantastic and nobody makes you feel
stupid for asking questions and to make
sure that you don't miss any of the
reselling on eBay and Etsy videos
whether jewelry or hard goods go down
there and hit that subscribe button in
the bell next to it so you don't miss
any content so five easy steps to get
started
reselling jewelry on eBay and Etsy if
you choose tip number one is look for
silver and gold naturally that's
something that is going to bring in a
lot of money and it silver I would say
is more common than gold but it is
something that is probably the first
thing I look for and it's usually fairly
easy to identify
especially with silver because you're
gonna see shiny silver or you'll see a
tarnished silver and once you get a feel
for what that tarnished silver looks
like you'll be able to spot it really
quickly so we're gonna take a peek
few items but I wanted to share with you
two tools that you definitely need if
you're checking out precious metals like
gold and silver one of them is a loop so
that you can get in there and see the
marks now if I'm out and about I may not
always have my leap with me and so I'll
use my phone and kind of zoom in with
the picture and then the other is a
magnet this is a magnet I use I think
it's funny
it's an expandable magnet I don't take
this one out with me but I I don't lose
it in my work or me there if you
remember if you've watched me for a
while I used to have that little bar
magnet I lost it all the time so I don't
lose this one so let's take a look at a
couple of silver items that are sold
from my shop this is one and I wanted to
point out the mark on the inside of the
ring because when you'll find a silver
item usually it will be stamped with a
925 let me pull that up for you there
just upside-down so 95 means that it's
ninety two point five percent pure
silver the important thing to remember
here is that stamps are cheap so it
always pays to double check and test so
again the loupe the magnet and then I
have a gold and silver testing kit that
I use to double-check everything because
you don't want to sell somebody
something and say it's stamped it's
silver and then they get it and it's a
knockoff and somebody's just stamped and
it's not real so I'll make sure to link
all that down below and I have video
showing how to use the jewelry testing
kits as well
now this is an example of a silver piece
that was not stamped so it really paid
to have a few of the other tips here and
to be able to recognize silver if at all
possible so let's look at the back so
this is the back of this owl and you can
see that tarnish another way to do to
check it
this works for silver plate as well is
if you really rub on the part that's
silver then it should start shining up
for you and this is another silver
bracelet that I've sold recently and as
you can see many of the items that I
sell are tarnished that are silver but
some people prefer to varnish and some
people prefer not tarnish but stay tuned
because I will be sharing some silver
cleaning kits and jewelry cleaning kits
with you guys that
I'm gonna be trying out called simple
shine so stay tuned for that but most of
the time if it's real it's really really
really dirty and tarnished I don't clean
it too much I might lightly clean it so
I leave the tarnish on so it'll kind of
have that grayish look that's over the
the silver and then here's another piece
that's really really tarnished and I
left it on there and let's take a look
so there's the back of this one the 95
was really hard to see and then the 18k
that was for the overlaid little Incan
God that was on the front so it was a
mix of silver and gold so tip number 1
make sure that you're checking for
silver and gold the tarnish and the
stamps and it's not magnetic all that
good stuff
tip number 2 is to look for the unusual
so this is something that I love looking
for unusual items these are things like
animals or birds or I've got a scorpion
here haven't sold yet but I can't wait
to list it because it's something that
is really unusual something that not
everybody's gonna be able to find so
things to do with Sun Moon stars
horoscope things that are identifiers
for people that people will say oh you
know what I really like alligators so
I'm looking for alligator jewelry you
know so the unusual so let's take a look
at a few unusual pieces so you saw this
one this one kind of fell into both
categories it was silver and gold and it
was very unusual the owl was also a very
unusual striking piece so this was
another one that hits both of those it's
got the silver and it's an unusual
figural piece so the again these cactus
earrings sold and these were something
that I I didn't spend a lot to buy but
they were something really cool that
somebody wanted because they liked
cactus so they wanted cactus earrings
and the Sun the Moon the Stars this had
a Sun and the moon with the chain and so
I think I got this at a garage sale for
about a dollar and in this one sold
fairly quickly so things that are a
little bit unusual and spiderwebs come
on
spiders spider webs bugs butterflies
those type of things sell if you
look at it and you're like my dono it's
a I mean I did I just I detest roaches
but if I saw a piece of jewelry that was
a roach I would definitely buy it not a
library but if there was a piece of
jewelry that was a roach jewelry it's so
unusual it would definitely sell tell me
if you have heard this before the only
jewelry that will sell is precious
metals and jewelry with makers marks I
know I ever heard people come to me and
say that to me so often when I'm sharing
all videos or I'm saying oh I think I
can get 20 30 bucks for this piece and
I'll get comments all the time saying
there's no way that will sell that
doesn't have a makers mark let me know
if you have heard that comment as well
too and I'll link a video that I created
talking about how to sell jewelry that
isn't marked and branded tip number
three is to look for natural items like
stones gemstones semi-precious gemstones
shells wood things like that so
especially gemstones and semi-precious
gemstones those you can find fairly
regularly and they sell for a fair
amount of money and fairly quickly so
what kind of things am I talking about
when I'm talking about semi-precious
gemstones I'm talking about things like
lapis lazuli like my earrings here are
lapis things like malachite which is
green and wavy things like tiger's eye
amber and if you're not sure how to
identify these then I would suggest
joining Texas cows jewelry lovers for
one if you come across something that
you think might be a gemstone and you're
not sure how to tell one is to take it
and hold it in your hands real gemstones
are usually going to be cool to the
touch except for amber and then there's
a site called Fire Mountain Gems which
sells all kinds of jewelry making
supplies but also has an amazing array
of pictures to help identify gemstone
semi-precious gemstones by their color
by their shape by their distinguishing
marks let's take a look at a few of the
semi-precious gemstone type jewelry that
I've sold
I sold these amber drop earrings these
were some that I bought at savers I was
doing a $5 or less challenge with one of
my kids to see let's go in find
something for $5 or less that we can
flip I bought these for you think about
$3 at savers and sold them fairly
quickly and I do have a few videos about
how to identify if Amber's real or not
so I'll link that down below so
turquoise is another semi-precious stone
that can do really well when you're
flipping it now you do need to be
careful because there's a lot of fake
turquoise out there which is dyed
howlite you can still sell it you just
have to make sure that you identify it
as not real turquoise so that's another
place you could jump in the group you
can do a google search and see how do
you tell howlite from turquoise usually
if it's a bead you can look where the
hole is drilled how light is white and
when they dye it they'll dye it blue
like turquoise or red or yellow and
things like that but if you look through
the drill hole a lot of times you can
see that it's got a white interior or
sometimes there'll be spots where it's
chipped off again it can still sell
because turquoise can be fairly
expensive so people might not be able to
afford that and would like a large piece
and a piece of dyed howlite that's done
well can mimic turquoise pretty nicely
so this was another necklace that I got
at a garage sale and this was a piece of
serpentine that was carved and this one
you know again it was just very cold to
the touch and it was something that sold
fairly quickly tip number four is to
look for things with maker's marks now I
know I said Oh people always say you
know you can't sell jewelry if it
doesn't have a makers mark well you can
sell other jewelry but looking for a
makers mark is another really good way
to find jewelry while you're out and
about now I have got a few pieces that
I'm gonna show you in just a second that
I saw the maker's mark I never heard of
it before but I thought I thought that
the piece of jewelry looked cool enough
and I could look up the maker's mark on
the spot if I needed to you here's an
example of a piece that I just got in a
goodwill
blue box and it's a nice little bracelet
and it's a Brighton piece now let's say
you get you find this and you're not
sure what this B stands for because
you're just getting started how you know
right how would you know if you can't
get it to turn around for you there
that'd be so if you're thinking I just
started I don't know what that B stands
for then what you can do is if it looks
nice enough like this is a pretty nice
Brighton piece it's not you know scuffed
up and the wear is not rubbing off then
you know you could get it you could ask
in the group we've got a makers mark
kind of library that we we've created in
the Texas gals jewelry lovers so you can
go through and look for a mark to see if
you can figure out what it is in the
group so let's take a look at some of
the pieces that have sold for me lately
that have makers marks so this bracelet
was a pretty nice premiere design
bracelet which premieres like a
house-party type of jewelry brand that
consultants come to your house and have
one of those jewelry parties so I find a
lot of premiere stuff I don't always
sell a lot of it but this was a really
nice piece of premier jewelry I'm trying
to find the piece that had the I can't
remember if this one had the maker's
mark on it or not or if I had to look it
up so this was another piece that I sold
that I had not heard of the maker on
this one before and as you can see on
the back it says my sterling so well it
was sterling which is a perk but nice
Stuart and I and Stuart nice still makes
jewelry and sells it and so it really
helped out that there was this makers
mark on it for me sometimes having a
makers mark can bring the price up
sometimes it really doesn't matter this
was a piece I had never heard of laying
before but this was a Lang piece of
jewelry and right there says sterling
Lang and I thought well it's a swan it's
sterling I'm gonna take a chance on it
and this is a Lucky Brand piece of
jewelry I don't sell a ton of Lucky
Brand jewelry but this tree of life with
its blue stone underneath I thought was
so cool and it was marked Lucky Brand
right on the back for me this was
another one that I
not heard of the maker and there was
somewhere to the finish on this bracelet
but I still sold it I think that you can
offer on this one more around $70 but
the maker was called boo Cher I'm sure
I'm saying that wrong the maker was boo
share Bo you CH ER French I believe and
again the finish really did have some
somewhere to it but because of the brand
it still sold for a really good amount
of money my fifth tip about looking for
jewelry to resale is to check the item
carefully for damage before you pay for
it and bring it home I've got a few
pieces here that I want to share with
you the first is this cool cloisonne
bracelet I love close to me personally
and I thought at first when I saw it
that it was in the goodwill blue box as
well I thought well I'll just add this
to my cloisonne bracelets it's not the
bending part that's that's the problem
on the inside there's this spot right
here you can see where it's kind of
indented in it's broken there and if a
friend in the chat didn't mention you I
could put something there to to even it
out but it's something to be aware of
because if you sold this and didn't
disclose I'm trying to get where you can
see it because it's gonna I mean just
rubbing my finger on it it's really
scratching but I couldn't sell it I
could probably fix it for me but I
probably would not sell it so there's
that there's more damage right there
somewhat yeah there's some more damage
like that looks like it got ran over
poor thing another thing is like this is
a bracelet what was this American Eagle
Outfitters but you can see and you'll
see something like this on a lot of
other jewelry where that finish that
silvertone finish is started like
getting rubbed off and you can kind of
see the base metal underneath it so
there might be brands that you could do
okay with like this but for the most
part once I see that I just put this
into a lot of other jewelry that I sell
in a big lot
I think I've sold maybe an Alex and
Annie bracelet that had some wear to it
like that but it's still sold not for a
ton and this one is a conundrum for me
too I don't think I'm gonna sell it it
is a mark
peace it's a Monet it's got a hang tag
over here and I also love bracelets that
have safety chains which is this chain
right here so if this bracelet popped
open the safety chain would keep it from
flying off your wrist right but the one
thing it does have is wear along these
edges now I don't know I might still be
able to sell it but it bothers me and I
know it looks kind of like well maybe
it's supposed to be that way but there
are spots where you can see that the
gold finish was on that as well I can
get it to show you I mean I may try but
it kind of bummed me out that the finish
is not amazing on this piece anymore so
that's something that I probably won't
sell because of that even though it's
marked Monet so those are my five tips
but here's my sixth tip my entry point
my gateway jewelry into selling jewelry
of all types my gateway jewelry into
selling jewelry was men's accessories
and I'm talking about cufflinks tie bars
collar pins tie pins and the two things
that I've sold in my entire reselling
career that have brought in the most
money both of them were cufflinks sets
and I think the reason is that most
people overlook cufflinks and tie bars
and tie clips and collar pins they just
think it's men's accessories stuff and
they just toss it into a box to resell
so a lot of times that is really really
overlooked let's take a look at some of
the men's accessories I've sold lately
and I'll share with you my two top sales
that were cufflinks
so this tie bar just sold recently in
it's a helicopter I think this one sold
for 17 or 19 dollars a mint a little bit
more next up these are another pair of
cufflinks that were pretty unusual they
have these really cool blue stones these
ones took a little bit longer to sell
but with cufflinks tie bars men's
accessories jewelry in general
and I don't mind waiting because they're
so small I can just put them in my
storage system and wait so it doesn't
bother me if they sit for a little while
that again this is another pair that
sold right around the same time as the
blue ones these are wrap around
cufflinks and I've done a few videos on
selling men's accessories also Lynne who
her channel's the tide chest she's got a
ton of videos as well now here's the set
my first set that got me hooked honestly
this is probably one of the things that
got me hooked on reselling in general
word that was this cuff link and tie
tack they're gold and jade and I sold
them they went to Germany they sell for
$400 I want this set for four dollars at
a garage sale and the other set of
cufflinks I bought for a dollar at a
thrift store
they were cufflinks that had a chain and
what clued me into them being something
special was that they were marked but
they have British hallmarks on them so
they're not like United States it didn't
say 18 karat gold or a 14-karat gold or
any of that it had like a crown and it
had they have symbols in their system
and so this was what the front looked
like when he zooming in for you so it
looked like they were these laurels it
was like a crown on top it was really
cool and I ended up taking these to my
gold guy the guy that I would take my
scrap gold to I don't think that he was
gonna scrap these because they were
really really nice I think these were
probably specially made but I got $400
for these as well they were I believe if
I'm remembering correctly these were 18
karat gold they were fairly heavy and I
made about $400 cash maybe a little bit
more on these cufflinks that I paid $1
for those are my five tips in my bonus
let me know if you have sold any jewelry
or what's keeping you start small maybe
just start looking for silver or start
looking for things with semi-precious
gemstones and rocks minerals things like
that start I mean just pick one area and
start diving into that just look for
that and then start branching out
because that's how I got started I just
went in looking for men's accessory
and slowly started branching out from
there go down there and let me know how
you liked this video give it a thumbs up
if you learned something new thumbs down
if you didn't it's great feedback for me
so I'll know how to direct my channel in
the future and I will see you on the
next one thanks so much for watching
everybody bye and I'll link them and
I'll link a video to share five eb-5
mimic VV VV v EB
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