everything vintage/what is it worth?

vintage jewelry

Here is some of the vintage costume jewelry I was selling at merchants square mall (a flea market) last weekend. This particular box was selling for only 50 cents a piece!

These are some of the pieces I sold for 1.00 a piece. I only take the “cheaper” stuff to the flea market. I sometimes take a few pieces that I keep separate and sell for 2-10$ but mainly my customers are looking for the 1.00 or less pieces. I can sell over 50$ (in just jewelry) in a weekend even at those prices!

Where do I get it? At estate sales and local auctions. Usually I find the costume jewelry displayed at the auction in boxes with 10-30 pieces per box. I know that some of it might not be in great shape but I wait until the bidding goes to no more than 5.00 per box and then I take all the box lots that are left. That way, I am able to sell it for the prices that I do. I feel like a discount store!

I always find a few great pieces that I can sell at my booth at the Zionsville antique mall, or that I can offer on eBay. There is so much vintage jewelry on eBay, how do I decide what to list there? I have a few criteria:

1. It needs to have a brand name or artist signature

2. It needs to be in perfect  condition

3. It’s nice if it has a real stone or gem but that is not always necessary

4. It’s nice if it is actual gold or silver but it needs to be marked as such and correctly photographed and described

5. If a few of the above criteria are met, I often list it in vintage lots such as 14 pair of clip earrings, all rhinestone items, 5 pair of screw back earrings, etc. Then it is more likely to sell.

Sometimes I sit at the flea market and sort through the boxes I got at auction. That makes my customers crazy because they want to see what I am doing and they feel like they got something special if I sell it to them right from the box! It’s a good strategy and it saves me time too!

I’ll be listing this piece on eBay later tonight (Dec. 27). It will be on auction for a week. It was one of the nicer pieces I found in my box lots! Visit my eBay store at everythingvintagesteph.com. Thanks!