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.

The Charm Bracelet is Evolving

It can be difficult choosing a birthday, anniversary or Christmas gift regardless of whether it is for a family member, close friend or work colleague. Even when you know someone really well, you can know them too well and everything you think of doesn’t seem to be suitable or good enough. Well, there are some great options, especially for women and these come in all forms of jewellery.

Jewellery comes in so many different forms and price ranges that when you are struggling for ideas it can be the perfect answer. Whether it is an expensive item or simple dress jewellery, there aren’t many people who don’t wear at least one piece. An anniversay, birthday, Christmas, graduation or ‘just because’, you can’t go wrong whatever the celebration. For the men out there you will no doubt be aware that a piece of jewellery makes a wonderful apology gift, and may just get you back in the good books, or at least set you off on the right foot!

There are so many different types of jewellery options available such as rings, necklaces, earrings, toe rings, nose rings, belly button rings, watches … the list goes on. Charm bracelets are extremely popular and what makes them more interesting today is the sheer number of designs and collections available. There are literally hundreds of links and pendants as well as the various chain sizes and colours.

A trend at the moment is Lovelinks Bracelets. Like the traditional charm bracelet you build a personal and unique bracelet choosing from the wide range of links available, such as sterling silver lovelinks and many more. Why not taking a search for a lovelinks stockist?

You can put all kinds of things on a charm bracelet and not all jewellery has to be an expensive metal or precious stone. The bracelets of this type that you can get are made from different types of materials and in different sizes, colours and shapes. Find bracelets with letters and shapes such as hearts, animals, anchors, keys and letters, silver charms, gold charms, coloured beads and even links in murano glass. If you can picture it you will probably find that there is a charm bracelet designed with that image or theme in mind.

Charm bracelets can be purchased complete or you could begin with just the one link on the chain and perhaps build on that on future birthdays or anniversaries. How about buying the bracelet chain with maybe one link or charm to start them off, the charm bracelet can then be personalised over time with additions from the proud owner. This way the bracelet is their own using links, charms and pendants which they choose to ‘link’ onto the bracelet. So they can be as imaginative and varied as they like with the choice of colours and designs they add to their bracelet. Then you also have the option to buy a new charm each birthday or special event to add to the charm and saving yourself more agonizing over what to buy over and over again.

There are various brands that have designed bracelets made to be personalised with individual links that you attach. These bracelets can have as a few links or be completely filled with charms that represent unique qualities or simply co-ordinate by colour. There is a wide variety of colours, patterns and designs for this type of charm bracelet so there will almost certainly be something for everyone.

Next time you are short of ideas for a gift, remember jewellery, perhaps a charm bracelet or single charm could just be the perfect choice. You might be pleasantly surprised at the choices available when you look. Don’t forget there are not many people who do not LOVE jewellery!

To start you off why not take a look at these Lovelinks Bracelets.

There are also options for those who prefer Italian charms for Italian charm bracelets.