How to Resell Jewelry: The Essential Step-by-Step Guide

Struggling to sell your jewelry? Well, reselling jewelry for the first time can be complex.

This process requires decent knowledge about jewelry types, the market, and potential buyers. The absence of any of these pieces of information makes the process confusing.

However, with the right guidelines, you can successfully resell your jewelry at a profit.

This post will guide you on how to resell jewelry. We’ll also provide you with the ins and outs of the process to master it.

Is It Possible to Resell Jewelry?

Yes, it’s possible to resell your jewelry for a profit. There’s a vast market and demand for pre-owned jewelry, both online and offline.

However, to generate healthy profits from selling your jewelry, you need to have jewelry that has a high demand and appreciating value.

What Kinds of Jewelry Sell Well?

Although there’s high demand for different types of jewelry, fine jewelry made of gold, platinum, and silver always tops the demand.

This is because of their potentially ever-increasing value. Jewelry from luxurious brands like Tiffany or Van Cleef & Arpels also has a decent demand in the long run.

That way, you can resell them for a high-profit margin.

As for the top-selling jewelry categories, you can get insights into what sells best from the “best-selling” pages on popular platforms like eBay or Etsy.

What Is the Value of Jewelry?

Jewelry pieces gain their value from multiple sources. Here are the factors that play the most significant role in determining the value of your jewelry:

• Metal or gemstones: The type of precious metal or gemstones in a piece of jewelry and its percentage determine most of the item’s value.
• Brand: The presence of luxurious brand names, like Van Cleef, Cartier, and Tiffany, on jewelry pieces adds to their value.
• The popularity of the collection: Popular collections such as “Bulgari’s B zero1” tend to maintain high demand and value for a considerably long time.
• Condition: The better the jewelry’s condition, the higher its value.
• Paperwork of designer jewelry: Having the paperwork and the box of your authentic jewelry piece increases its value. This is because the paperwork serves as a reference for the piece’s authenticity.

You can use an online jewelry value calculator to determine how much your jewelry’s precious metals or gemstones are worth based on the current market rates.

These calculators will give you a quick look at the value of the pieces’ material. However, you’ll also need to take into consideration other factors like the brand and condition and so on.

Does Jewelry Lose Value Over Time?

Jewelry can lose or gain value over time, depending on multiple factors. Here they are

• Quality: High-quality jewelry retains its value and can even appreciate over time, unlike low-quality jewelry. This is because high-quality pieces conserve their condition longer.
• Brand: Jewelry pieces from reputable, established brands retain their value much better than those made by less popular brands.
• Rarity: Rare and vintage jewelry increases in value over time. Conversely, widely spread items decrease in value gradually.
• Materials: The value of a piece of jewelry made of precious metals or gemstones increases and decreases based on changes in the price rate of these materials.

Things to Consider When Reselling Jewelry

Here are a few considerations you need to pay close attention to when reselling jewelry:

Develop an Understanding of the Jewelry Realm

To achieve high profits in reselling jewelry, you need to develop an in-depth understanding of jewelry’s value, types, and the typical buyers of each type.

To do so, learn about distinct markings like hallmarks, the primary materials used in jewelry manufacturing, and similar topics.

Refurbish and Restore the Items

Before listing your jewelry for sale, it’s crucial to restore and clean all the pieces to make them look like new ones.

You also need to conduct a jewelry repair to fix any item that has any damage.

Jewelry are aesthetic items, and they should look exquisite to catch the eyes of potential buyers.

So, before photographing your items, you need to make sure they’re in perfect condition.

Provide Certificates and Paperwork

If you plan to resell jewelry made of gemstones, you should provide certifications and paperwork for these jewelry pieces.

These documents can include gemstone certificates, appraisals, or other papers demonstrating the piece’s authenticity.

Doing this provides the jewelry buyer with a guarantee of the authenticity and quality of the jewelry you’re selling to them.

As a result, the pieces will have higher perceived value. That way, you can sell them quickly and at a higher price.

Where to Resell Jewelry

There are plentiful marketplaces where you can sell your jewelry items, some are physical stores, and others are online.

However, using online markets for reselling jewelry provides wider customers reach and more convenience.

Here are our most recommended three platforms for reselling jewelry online:

1. Worthy

If you plan to sell your jewelry in an auction, Worthy is the place to do this.

Worthy is a platform specialized in selling designer and diamond jewelry as well as luxury watches.

This online auction house will help you evaluate your jewelry’s value and set the auction’s initial pricing.

They’ll also refurbish, photograph, and professionally list your item on the platform to attract potential buyers.

• Fees and commissions: 10% to 18%, depending on the value of the sale.
• Payment methods: Bank transfer, check, and PayPal.

2. eBay

eBay is one of the best platforms to sell fashion jewelry. These are jewelry pieces that don’t have a base of sterling silver, platinum, gold, or genuine gemstones.

That said, you can still sell authentic and expensive jewelry on eBay. In this case, you can use the website’s “authenticity guarantee” special feature. 

This feature gives you more credibility, which boosts customers’ trust in your jewelry.

The platform is an excellent marketplace for reaching various second-hand jewelry buyers.

• Fees and commissions: 15% commission on sales valued at $5,000 or less and 9% on sales over $5,000
• Payment methods: Direct bank transfer

3. Ruby Lane

If you want to resell vintage or antique jewelry, there’s no better marketplace to do this than Ruby Lane.

With over one million monthly visitors to the website, this is one of the largest platforms for selling vintage items.

Whether they’re worth only a few tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars, you’ll easily find many potential buyers for your old jewelry on Ruby Lane.

Creating your shop and listing your items on the platform is easy. Even better, the platform will help you throughout the entire selling process.

It provides many educational programs and tools to help you complete your sales successfully.

However, you need to list at least ten items in your shop to be eligible to start selling.

So, if you plan to sell a single jewelry piece or a few, this isn’t the right marketplace for you. In this case, eBay is an excellent alternative to sell on.

• Fees and commissions: $25 Maintenance fees starting from the second month of listing the items and a 9.9% service fee based on the order’s total value.
• Payment methods: PayPal business account

Besides these marketplaces, if your jewelry pieces are mainly made of gold, Cash for Gold USA is one of the best places to sell gold.

Likewise, The Diamond Valet is the ideal place to sell jewelry made of diamonds.

What You’ll Need to Resell Jewelry 

The requirements you need to resell jewelry are simple. Here’s a list of these needs:

1. Basic knowledge of the jewelry you own

To successfully sell your jewelry pieces, you need at least a basic understanding of each piece’s type. You’ll also need to know how much each is worth and their ideal buyers.

This knowledge will help you write compelling product descriptions and set the best price for the pieces to achieve the highest possible profit margin.

2. Listing and selling costs

Online platforms and physical store brokers will charge you certain fees to help you sell your jewelry.

Some will charge you once when you successfully sell your items. Others will charge you twice when you list your jewelry item and when you sell them.

3. Clear and full-of-detail product photos

When selling your jewelry online, you’ll need to take clear and detailed images of each product you list.

To do so, you’ll need to rent a professional camera or have a smartphone with a good camera to take photos. Alternatively, you can hire a photographer to do this job.

How to Resell Jewelry: Step-By-Step Instructions

Reselling jewelry isn’t rocket science. You can resell your jewelry at a perfect profit margin by following a few steps. Here are these steps:

1. Conduct a Quick Research

The first step you need to follow is to conduct quick market research. You’ll need to look up all the available information about your jewelry and its current value.

You can ask a jewelry expert to evaluate your items and recommend the best price for selling them.

You’ll also check out online and physical jewelry marketplaces during the research to see how other sellers list their jewelry and at what price.

2. Determine the Best Marketplace

Choose the best jewelry marketplace for selling your items. To do so, you need to consider the following few factors:

• The type of buyers and products in each marketplace
• The fees each platform charges
• The services each marketplace provides for sellers

3. Take Clear, Well-lit Photos

The best places to resell your jewelry are online. To make your online jewelry eye-catching, you should post exquisite photos of them.

To achieve this, you’ll need to photograph each piece from different angles to show as many details as possible.

You’ll need good lighting, proper background, and a high-resolution camera. By looking at how popular brands list their jewelry online, you’ll get an idea of how you should photograph your product.

If you don’t know which camera to use, here’s a guide on choosing the best cameras for jewelry photography.

If you’re selling expensive jewelry, you might even consider hiring a professional photographer to do this job.

4. Price Your Jewelry

Pricing your jewelry can be the most challenging part of the selling process. You need to achieve a good profit margin. Meanwhile, you don’t want to list your products at unattractive prices.

From your research in the first step, you should have some insights into how jewelry pieces similar to yours are priced. Consider these insights when setting your prices.

You also need to take into consideration the value of precious metals and gemstones that make up the pieces.

Add your profit margin, the fees of selling and photography, and any miscellaneous expenses to the items’ price as well. Now you have the final price of each piece.

5. List Your Jewelry for Sale

Once you have the jewelry, the photos, and the prices for each piece, it’s time to list the products on your chosen platform.

Besides adding the price and the photos, you need to write a catchy description of the products, outlining the most important details of each item.

Additionally, include all the essential information about you as a seller and optimize the visual appeal of your online jewelry store as much as possible.

To pick the best name for your online store, here’s a list of outstanding names for a jewelry business

Can You Make Money Flipping Jewelry?

Flipping jewelry can generate a substantial income stream if you know how to do it right. There are a lot of success stories of people who have made massive profits from flipping jewelry.

The key to achieving this is understanding where and how to find valuable second-hand jewelry.

You’ll also need to be aware of the different jewelry materials, the value of each, and how to determine whether a piece is authentic.

What Is a Jewelry Resale Business?

A jewelry resale business follows a simple model. To succeed in this business, you need to follow two steps.

First, you need to source pre-owned jewelry in good condition at competitive prices. Then, you should clean, repair, and sell them for a high price, making a profit margin.

One of the best tactics jewelry flippers use is buying valuable jewelry from garage, yard, and estate sales at incredibly low prices. They can do this because of their extensive knowledge of jewelry.

This knowledge allows them to spot high-value items among the clutter of worthless pieces. Many sellers have reported that they’d purchased pieces from garage sales and managed to sell them at ten times their purchase price or more.

So, if you’re considering launching a jewelry resale business, garage sales offer lucrative opportunities you need to keep your eye on.

If you want to know more about starting a jewelry business, you’ll find priceless information in this guide.

Is Reselling Jewelry a Good Way to Make Money?

Reselling jewelry can be an excellent profitable business if you have the knowledge and experience to do it professionally. Some people make a living from flipping jewelry.

However, this type of business has the same drawbacks as other flipping businesses. When you’re new to the business, you might incur many losses.

For example, you can purchase unwanted jewelry items and fail to resell them or spend tremendous effort to do this.

Another drawback is that you can spend much time searching for valuable jewelry pieces or ones in good condition.

Still, gaining more knowledge and experience will make the process easier. As a result, you’ll be able to earn higher profits.

If you aren’t into flipping, making jewelry to sell is an alternative way to generate a healthy income.

Frequently Asked Questions

Similar Tutorials to Check Out

If you’re interested in learning about other reselling businesses, you can check out those similar tutorials:

• Resell Clothing: Looking to start a clothing resale business? This post will give you the key to thriving as a clothing reseller.
• Resell Bags: Reselling bags can be a great source of income. But how is that? Check this guide to learn the process.
• Resell Designer Clothes: Want to start a designer clothes resale business? This guide will help you out.

Wrapping Up

Having read this guide, you now have a clear idea of how to resell jewelry. By following these steps, you can generate substantial profits from selling your jewelry.

You can even start your ​​jewelry flipping business which provides immense lucrative opportunities.

Refer to this guide for help anytime you need guidance on reselling your jewelry.

If you have any questions or thoughts, feel free to leave them in the comments. If you know someone interested in reselling jewelry, please share this article with them.