Videos of Sorting Through Bags of Jewelry From Second Hand Stores - Who Knew

 I have shared for years that I go to second hand stores and look for jewelry. Back many years ago, they sold the jewelry individually with a price on it and it wasn't locked up.

As time moved, the second hand stores became "cool" and more people started shopping there as before that, in a small town, it had a bit of a stigma. I now see all sorts of people there and they aren't embarrassed and run out as many did a few years back.

About ten years ago, they would bag all the jewelry individually in small bags or would collect out things they thought may have value and put them at higher prices but they were paying someone $8 an hour to pull apart necklace knots and sort and they really didn't know what they were looking for, or at, so they started just taking large handfuls of any and all jewelry and putting them in bags for anywhere from $10 a bag to $40 a bag depending if they know it has silver or gold in it.

Other second hand stores in the bigger cities price things individually if it is "real" or cute jewelry and then will mark it down if it doesn't sell and then eventually, take all that hasn't sold and put it into clear glass vases and then charge from $15 to $50 a vase depending on how large the vase is.

Over the years, I have gotten quite good at looking through the bags and vases to pick out the "real" jewelry. I can shake it and get the rings to fall to the bottom and tiny gold chains will also fall down if shaken so I shake the bags and vases and usually will get it if I can find some silver and gold worth $20.

Since the second hand stores are more popular now, and there are many youtube channels dedicated to finding jewelry and opening them on camera, I am finding it harder and harder to get jewelry bags as  they are bought as soon as he puts them out. It has been a few months that I have missed the bags and finally this week, I was able to get three bags.

I haven't sorted through all of them ye,t but found that I was watching a few youtube 
videos of people doing exactly what I have shared about doing for years. They sit and open the bags and vases and video tape themselves going through the bags, sort of like a treasure hunt.

I found it odd that people would watch and I watched two different videos of people doing it so I figured I would give it a go. I have made a few video and will link one here as it is long and took many hours to upload, I don't know that I will share on my blog the other videos but I will upload them to my youtube channel in case anyone wants to watch them. I can see the draw as I have been watching the "Nuggetnoggin" videos of the boy that video tapes himself metal detecting and finding coins so in a way, it is a similar thing. He goes to new building sites and I open a new bag, treasure is found at both so, yea, I get it.

I found that I can somewhat show you little markings using the camera on my computer and my jewelers loop so I tried to take some stills to show you the markings on some of the pieces. You can also see it clearly on my videos I uploaded as I do the same with the magnifying glass and the camera so that is fun.

Last night, I found this SUPER large sterling silver Eagle Ring in size 10 made by a Navajo Designer Sharon Cisco. It has turquoise on it and a large amount of silver and has a copyright mark on it and an etched flower on one side. In looking them up, she has womens smaller rings that have sold on ebay for between $40-$75 but there were only a few rings for men and none with the carved animal on the side so I looked online for similar items and found this website where most of the rings of similar size and decoration were all near $200 or more.

I am also showing a 14 Karat real gold and pearl tie tack trying to show you where to look on smaller pieces for the markings. Earrings also have the markings on the stem piece most of the time for Gold and on the earring back for silver 99% of the time. The other thing with Diamond and some gold earrings is the backs actually screw on so you don't lose the diamonds so that is an easy way to tell on diamond earrings. 

I love it when I find a cool piece of jewelry. I found a cool carved Jade piece a few months back that was circled with 14K gold and since I lived in New Zealand, I love the jade tiki carvings but this was Asian so I looked them up as I wanted to give it to Princess Four when she arrives home from Japan to wear with her Kimono and I couldn't believe how expensive the carved jade and 14K Asian pieces are. They really like their Jade! The closest thing I could find to this was on Amazon, had no carvings and it was $500! I looked for a good 20 minutes or more. I think this may be vintage which would also make it more expensive.... So, I have it hanging with her Kimono and know she will like it.


I could never afford the gifts I have been able to give the girls due to the way I have purchased all these items. I am so grateful that I had the dream I did about collecting silver and gold so many years ago. Here is a link to the post about that so long ago......

Have a Blessed Day!