Buy here, don't sell.
I took in nearly 40 items of both costume and expensive, premium jewelry from an estate. They sold 3 items, over the Christmas Holidays.
Their pricing structure is:
Have item assessed, 5 dollars an item. Take evaluation, cut in half, and that is the starting price. If, after a month, the item has not sold, the price is cut in half. Since the seller is getting to start only 1/4 of the retail value, every time the item doesn't sell, each month, the seller's piece is cut in half. So you start with 1/4 retail value and go down each month, to an 1/8th, 1/16th, etc.
I really like the jeweler who recommended this shop. However his evaluations of some of the items, and the store reviews are questionable. We had 34 grams of gold in a variety of bracelets. The gold was worth way more then we were going to get if they sold the first pricing month.
I decided that the return was so little, that we should leave the costume jewelry in the store to sell, and pull the valuable items. I went in and picked the items up yesterday, along with a "huge" check for the sale of a nice man made rudy ring. 171.75 cents.
The store had put all the costume jewelry in the bag, along with, I think, all the jewelry I had brought in. Even though I paid for the assesments, the tags were cut off, and I had to ask for an inventory and value sheet.
I cashed the check at my bank across the street. 10 minutes later, driving home, the owner, Lynn, called me and told me she had put stop payment on the check. So I went to my bank, and later found that she had put a stop payment on the check, claiming I owed her 100 dollars for her payment to the jewelers, and the 'unprecedented' amount of work they had to do to pull all the items.
Currently she owes me 71 dollars.
After the way Lynn handled this situation, I see no reason to ever consign with the store.
My girlfriend found a set of leather, beautiful boots that are her size, which is very small. 32.00.
Great price for the buyer.
Can't help but think the seller got 16 dollars for 350 dollar, slightly used boots, if that.
They system makes the buyers wait at least a month, every time they find something they are considering buying. Why not? They get the price cut in half, along with possible discounts, the longer they wait.
They don't display your items in boxes, but drape them over displays. The cases are darkly lit, so the brilliance of your jewels is not complimented. I pulled my certified 2k Diamond ring, and the diamond looked dirty, and poor quality in the case. Not so when it was taken out.
My friends jewelry had a retail value of about 16k. If they had sold in the first month, she would have had 4k. We can do better selling at a garage sale.
One other note:
MY diamond ring had a stone that was valued at 2k in 1992. It was valued at 2100 dollars by the jeweler. Yet on the sheet, the starting price was about 1300 dollars, indicating that the jewelers' value had been inflated by over 500 dollars. I'm not sure why.
The entire system concerns me from a sellers point. The stores communicate, since our ruby ring was sold in Berkeley. If you have such communication... read more
