Before Selling Grandma’s Jewelry: 3 Checks That Reveal Real Gold — and the Counter Trap

Every house we've cleared out together on this channel has one: the jewelry box. And it's the worst drawer in the house - not because it's worth the most or the least, but because you can't tell. That heavy necklace could be 14 karat gold, or brass with good manners. The ugly brooch could be costume, or the one thing in the box worth more than the dresser it's sitting on. So most families do one of two things. They haul the whole box to a We-Buy-Gold counter and take whatever number comes back. Or they can't face it, and the box rides along to the next house unopened for another decade. Today we do the third thing: three checks, at your own table, about two minutes a piece. A loupe, a magnet and a kitchen scale. Then I'll show you the trap waiting at that counter, so if you do sell, you sell like someone who checked. CHECK 1 - THE STAMPS Real precious metal almost always says so, in tiny letters where the maker left them: inside a ring's band, on a chain's clasp, on the back of a brooch. Silver: 925, or the word STERLING Gold: 10K = 417 | 14K = 585 | 18K = 750 (that's 41.7%, 58.5% and 75% gold) Platinum: PLAT or 950 - heavier, and worth more than gold And the letters that mean stop: GF (gold filled) and RGP (rolled gold plate); GP, GE, GEP or HGE (electroplated); or a fraction like 1/20 12K GF. Those are a thin real layer over base metal - costume's respectable cousin, but not gold value. No stamp at all? Old pieces wear their marks off, and some fine antique jewelry was never marked. No stamp means the ask pile, not the sell pile. CHECK 2 - THE MAGNET, THEN THE SCALE Gold and silver are not magnetic. If a "gold" chain leaps at a strong magnet, you're done - it's steel in a costume. But here's the limit nobody mentions: passing proves nothing. Brass doesn't stick either. The magnet only rules OUT. It never rules in. Then weigh it, because weight is where value gets a number. Real metal is priced by the gram, at purity, against today's spot price - a public number you can look up while the kettle boils. Grams x purity x price per gram = the melt value, the honest floor under that piece. Write it on a sticky note and keep it with the piece. One honest caveat: the scale prices METAL. If a piece has stones, the weight lies - a heavy ring with a big stone is mostly stone, and a real diamond can be worth more than all the gold in the drawer. Anything with significant stones skips the melt math and goes to the ask pile. CHECK 3 - TWO IN-PERSON WEIGHT QUOTES Jewelry is the one category our sold-price method can't serve. Furniture, china and tools you can look up. Jewelry has no good free sold archive - so the book says it straight: two quotes instead. Two buyers, same pieces, same week, and watch what the spread tells you. Before anything gets weighed for melt, one more sort: the loupe goes looking for signatures. A signed piece from a known maker can be worth several times its melt weight to a collector - and the melt pot destroys that forever. Ugly is not evidence. Some of the most collectible costume jewelry ever made is loud, heavy and unfashionable. CHAPTERS 0:00 The worst drawer in the house 0:43 The third thing: three checks 1:05 Check 1 - the stamps 1:49 Platinum announces itself 2:00 The letters that mean stop 2:21 No stamp doesn't mean fake 2:41 Check 2 - the magnet rules out, never in 3:13 The scale, and today's spot price 3:26 The melt floor 3:56 Stones break the math 4:26 Check 3 - two in-person quotes 5:00 Look for signatures 5:21 Ugly is not evidence 5:46 Now the counter 6:20 The only question that matters 6:59 Two quotes, in person 7:23 Never the mail-in envelope 7:40 One page in the record 8:08 Three piles, no maybes 8:34 Next: the china cabinet #Jewelry #GoldJewelry #EstateSale #Downsizing #CostumeJewelry #VintageJewelry #WeBuyGold #ScrapGold #Hallmarks #SterlingSilver #Declutter #DeathCleaning #SeniorLiving #EstateCleanout #SellingGold #GoldPrice #Inheritance #HouseInventory