Selling your custom jewelry in Utah can be a hard decision sometimes. After all, your item’s story might be worth than its weight in gold. However, if you have a custom-designed piece not initially intended for you, like an heirloom, you might find it more useful when turned into cold cash.
When your custom jewelry’s resale price is more appealing to you than its sentimental value, avoid these mistakes to get the highest possible payout:
Skipping an Appraisal
Some sellers don’t bother talking to a qualified appraiser before the sale. These individuals assume that they won’t get a ton of cash from their item anyway, so spending money on appraisal seems impractical.
Regardless of the value that you perceive your piece to have, consulting someone with a trained eye matters for many reasons. First, a thorough appraisal can tell you whether selling your custom jewelry is worth the trouble to begin with. Second, your appraiser can provide you with helpful advice about determining your asking price. Third, you can tap your appraiser’s network to get as many good offers as you can.
Without the aid of a professional appraisal, you won’t have reliable information that you can use to negotiate a favorable deal with a buyer. When the other party knows something about your jewelry that you don’t, you might not receive top dollars after getting unknowingly lowballed.
Forgoing Cleaning
Jewelry preparation is just as important as the sale itself. As a seller, it’s your job to make your commodity as attractive as possible. In other words, you should make your item sparkle again to fetch a great offer.
Fortunately, you don’t necessarily need a hand to clean your custom piece. You can use household items to create an effective homemade solution to restore your jewelry’s luster in no time. Typically, you can restore an old piece’s charm with a mixture of warm water and dish soap. If you need something with greater cleaning power, combine soap dish with baking soda and salt.
Selling as Is
Unless your custom jewelry has valid historical value, its story, no matter how riveting it might be, cannot help get it sold faster. Its uniqueness might not be a major selling point as much as you think it would be.
Your best move is probably selling your custom jewelry for scraps. This option is viable when your item has genuine gemstones, which could be worth more when sold separately than intact. In most cases, only designer pieces cost a lot as a whole and lose significant value when scrapped.
Timing the Sale Poorly
If your jewelry is made of gold, find out the trend of this commodity’s price movement before pulling the trigger on its sale. Put your finger on the pulse of the market so that you will know when the gold’s value will rise or drop. Considering that you’ll probably get just 70% to 80% of your piece’s melt value, you should sell when the gold price is at the highest.
Selling custom jewelry isn’t rocket science, but it requires objectivity, prudence, and foresight to avoid costly mistakes. Take your time to gather all of the information that you need before inquiring for offers.
