How To Value Your Jewellery

When you go to your jewellery box, do you often wonder what it’s all actually worth? I don’t mean the actual price you payed for it, but what the actual value of each item if you were to sell it right now.

Trying to figure out that magic number is harder than it seems because there are a number of factors you need to take into account. You have to remember though that when you bought that lovely piece of silver jewellery, you payed the price that the shop was selling it for, which is not the price it’s worth.

When you buy a piece of jewellery from a store, you end up paying the manufacturers fee, plus the mark up that the store puts on to make a profit. This figure is very hard to find out, but an even harder figure is the mark up that the manufacturer puts on the product. The manufacturer will put their own mark up onto the item to make sure they make a profit on it.

Due to those factors, you never pay the actual value of the item, so how do you figure out the true value? The largest factor that affects the price is the value of the raw materials that have been used to make the item. Say you have some amber jewellery which is made of silver or gold. By weighing the precious metals and finding out the current scrap price for the metal, you can work out the value of the materials used in your jewellery. You should also look at other materials that are on the piece, jewels are a big one, a local jeweller will be able to value these for you.

Once you find the actual value of the raw materials, it will come as a shock because the scrap metal value will only be around 15% of the price you payed for the piece. However, there are other factors that can increase that price.

Sentimental value is another factor that needs to be considered, selling a piece of jewellery that has sentimental value to you will be worth more than an unwanted present. The manufacturer of the piece also has an affect on the value. If you manufacturer is famous, this will add some value to your jewellery piece. This value can be hard to judge because the way the manufacturer gets known can come down to a number of ways, whether it’s the quality of work, or a celebrity wears the make of jewellery.

Overall, unless than manufacturer has gained reputation which increases the jewellery value, your jewellery will be worth less than the retail price that you original payed. Unfortunate but it’s the way the manufacturer and jewellery store generates all their money.