What to Keep, What to Sell, and the 5 Places That Will Rob You
Secure checkout by Stripe · Download link right after payment
I stood behind the glass counter of my father's store in Scranton, Pennsylvania, for forty-one years. The thing I did most often was not selling jewelry. It was buying it back. Widows with a sandwich bag of chains. Daughters with a shoebox from the closet. Grandsons with a ring they'd never seen their grandfather wear.
Most of them took the first number they were offered, because the man wore a suit and the scale looked official. A week later a sister would ask, "you did what?" — and the piece was already in a furnace.
This guide is those forty-one years, written down. It does five things, and only five, because five is what you need before you let anyone weigh your mother's jewelry.
Your mother's jewelry only gets sold once. Make sure the person weighing it is someone who'll still be there next week.— Dee
One page for every piece: the mark, the metal, the stone, the weight. A hallmark table that tells you what 585, 750, PLAT and "sterling" really mean, and the home checks that cost nothing.
The math on one page — metal weight × purity × today's price — so you know what the gold is worth at your own kitchen table, before anyone else tells you.
The mail-in envelope, the hotel ballroom "road show", the gold party, the mall kiosk, and the buyer who is also the appraiser. Where I would never sell, and why.
Ask them, in this order, to any buyer. The answers tell you more than the number does. With a buyer scorecard you can fill in while you stand there.
Signed pieces, old European diamonds, cameos, Victorian mourning jewelry, charm bracelets — the pieces worth more whole than the metal inside them, and the tests that prove it.
What to sell, how to sell it, and when to walk out with your gold still in your purse. Plus a quick-reference hallmark cheat sheet, home tests, and four printable audit sheets.
A 33-page PDF, letter size, that opens on any phone, tablet or computer. The audit sheets, the melt-value sheet and the buyer scorecard are made to be printed — print as many copies as the box needs.
Right after payment you land on your download page, and Stripe emails you a receipt. Save the download page in your bookmarks; it keeps working.
No. The guide starts with "sit down, don't weigh anything yet" and walks you through one piece at a time. If you can read a stamp with a magnifying glass and use a kitchen scale, you can do the audit.
Dee Whitfield is a fictional character created with AI. The guide was put together from publicly reported consumer investigations, hallmark references and the standard practices of the retail jewelry trade. Treat it as a careful friend's checklist, not as a professional opinion on your pieces.
The guide is a digital download, so all sales are final once the file has been delivered. If the download didn't work or the file won't open, email us and we'll fix it the same day.
The guide is for you and your household. Please don't post it or resell it — that's what keeps the price at $27.
Secure checkout by Stripe · Instant download