Receiving an advertisement for a gold and silver buyback event at a local hotel seemed like a scam at first, but the more I looked at the ad and thought about my hidden jewelry box, the more I realized that this was probably a cool idea. At least it’s something to do that does not involve eating, drinking or playing pickleball (the usual activities for the newly retired.) All I had to do was to find my jewelry box and give it a thorough investigative search. A cruise is hiding in there somewhere.
So I called my friend and mentioned that maybe we could gather our old silver and gold bits and take them in to see what we’d get for them. The days of wearing jewelry were pretty much over. We were no longer working or attending meetings and conferences where work attire was needed. Lots of our jewelry was languishing in boxes. In many cases that one lone earring was never ever going to meet up with its mate too! So why not turn these things into real cash money?
I worked on my small pile. I gathered silver bracelets thinking I was going to score. I was a bridesmaid a bunch of times and it seems as if the silver bracelet was the gift of choice. In the end only one bracelet had enough silver in it to actually add up to money. I had silver items that turned out to be silver plated – no good. Orphan gold earrings, old gold thin chains, etc. My lot was small compared to my friends’ jewelry.
My friend had a husband that never knew what to get her so he bought her bracelets and earrings and necklaces! Her jewelry box was more like a bunch of near perfect boxes! Turns out her ex mom-in-law let her have all of her unworn jewelry too and it was 18K gold! Wow! My friend said it would be fun to get $20 out of her lot. I suspected she was going to score big.
So when you go to these types of places in hotels, they certify their scales with the city, you have to provide a license to prove these are your things, nothing stolen, etc. I could not believe how many items my friend had. Not huge pieces, but clearly birthday, anniversary, Christmas pieces. My ex was the type of person to run through the pharmacy last minute and buy me some “gift” that had “ as seen on tv” printed on the box. My Christmas presents were pretty lame.
In the end on our first day I got a check for $144. Not bad considering it was stuff I was never going to wear again. My friend was so excited to find out her haul was $950! He had offered her less but I told her to hesitate, and kindly always ask for another hundred or so (in the car before we went inside) and she did! We were pretty happy.
Going back to my car we could not believe it! She was saying that had I not called her these things would still be in a box in a cardboard box in her shed (in other words – buried!) so she was happy. We literally described everything as treasure!
The next day we went back of course and brought more. She got another $1,400 and I came away with $188. The weekend was not even half way through and we were flush$! Lots of talk of taking a fun cruise – and it was just sitting there in our jewelry box. Image that!
As your situation changes in retirement, you look at things differently. Are you going to wear those silky blouses again or maybe they should be donated? Is all the jewelry going to see the light of day – or should you turn these pieces into a cruise to St.Thomas? Yeah, I’d take the cruise too! Time to travel.