Selling Vintage Jewelry on eBay

When I go to estate sales (which run all year by the way) and garage sales, I am always looking for new, oddball items to try out on eBay.  One of the items I had always walked by without giving it a second glance was jewelry.  I figured that the competition was too great since I always saw people milling around the jewelry tables.  I've learned that a lot of people sell jewelry on eBay, but many seem to focus on certain brand names or styles and some can't be bothered with anything but the high end items.  One day I saw a large lot of what looked like cheap rings and earrings sitting in a box toward the end of a sale.  The seller just wanted to get things moved along at that point and asked me if I wanted the lot for $7.  I figured I didn't have much to lose, so I bought it.

I got home and put the box aside since I had other things I wanted to get listed first.  When I finally got to the jewelry and took a closer look, I noticed that there were some old mood rings from the 1960's or 70's.  I didn't know much about listing jewelry and didn't feel like getting into any major research, so I shot a few photos of the mood rings and listed them for 99 cents, just for the heck of it.  They had adjustable bands, so I didn't need to worry about finding exact sizes.  I just included a quarter in the auction photos to provide scale, and let her rip.  To my surprise, every one of those mood rings sold for over $15!

The rest of the lot, made up of older earrings didn't sell as well as the rings, but they did sell.  The old clip-on earrings sold for between 99 cents and around $8 per pair.  All in all, not a bad turn around for a $7 box of trinkets!  As I said, I'm not an expert on old jewelry, but I think it is worth the time to take a look at completed items in the category:

Jewelry & Watches > Vintage & Antique Jewelry > Costume > Retro, Vintage 1930's - 1980's > Other

I'd sort by highest price and then by a variety of keywords like "ring", "brooch", etc. to get a feel for those less spectacular items that get dumped during estate and garage sales but which still sell on eBay.

Good Luck!

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