Christmas is a wonderful time of year, a time to gather with family and friends and show them how much you care about them with thoughtful gifts and warm sentiments. However, Christmas can also be a stressful time financially, causing you to stretch every dollar in order to give your loved ones the perfect present this holiday season. At Napier Gold, this is our favorite time of year because we love giving people extra cash for Christmas so they can make it more special for their family and friends. For nearly 40 years, our family has been giving customers top dollar back for their gold, silver, and platinum items, all things that are otherwise sitting in a drawer or in storage collecting dust. So to help your family buy more Christmas gifts for loved ones this season, we put together a list of the Top 7 Most Valuable Items in Your Drawer to Sell for Extra Holiday Cash.
#1 Broken Jewelry
Typically, if an item in your home is broken beyond repair, it’s an easy decision to just throw it away. However, every day, we buy broken necklaces, rings, bracelets, items with missing stones, and even single earrings, all of which can be quite valuable! Gold, silver, and platinum jewelry still retain the same precious metal value even when broken. Even if it’s dirty and lacking the beautiful luster it once had, it’s still valuable. On the other hand, if you have broken jewelry that you still value and would like to have repaired, we also do jewelry repairs and are happy to restore your items back to as they were when you first bought them.
#2 Estate or Inherited Jewelry
Sadly, we often have customers come into Napier Gold to assess jewelry they’ve inherited from a loved one who has passed away. Even if you have a whole box of items, we are happy to help assess every piece of jewelry that was left to you and give you some perspective about the lineage of the items and their current value. We recently had a customer come in whose mom passed away, leaving her with a box of jewelry. Some of it wasn’t her style, and she didn’t have any emotional connection to those pieces so she decided she wanted to sell them. To her surprise, the few pieces of jewelry she brought in were worth $1,800! Something to consider is that it’s always possible that your loved one left their jewelry as a gift so your family could benefit financially. You never know if there may be significant value in the items you’ve inherited that would otherwise sit in a box untouched.
#3 Gold and Silver Coins
If you could use some extra cash and have a coin collection or have inherited one, coins can really add up! At Napier Gold, we buy everything from pennies to silver dollars. We also buy gold and silver bullion that may have been purchased as an investment. Dimes, quarters, and half dollars from 1964 and before are especially valuable right now since they have silver content. Many times, we’ll hear a customer was thinking of taking their coin collection to the bank, which is a big mistake because your coins could be worth several times their face value! The coin pictured on the left is actually worth over $1000, so you never know what treasure is sitting in your collection.
#4 Turquoise Jewelry
Back in the 70’s and 80’s, turquoise jewelry was at the height of its popularity in the fashion world. You may have even paired turquoise necklaces and rings with your bellbottom jeans or tops with shoulder pads back in the day. While turquoise jewelry isn’t as fashionable anymore, it still can have value. Most older turquoise jewelry is comprised of sterling silver. However, many people don’t realize this because it’s often not marked as sterling silver, as many items were hand-made. At Napier Gold, we pay more for turquoise jewelry than your average sterling silver item because these items are unique pieces of art, with distinctive one-of-a-kind details. We’ve been buying turquoise jewelry for decades, and have seen thousands of turquoise valuables over years that we’re honored to assess and purchase from our customers.
#5 Sterling Silverware and Houseware
Countless customers have come to Napier Gold over the years with sterling silverware sets or sterling housewares that they no longer use and would like to sell. So if you have old sterling silverware, tea sets, platters, candlestick holders, serving bowls, salt and pepper shakers, brushes, combs, pitchers, or even ashtrays made of sterling silver, you could be sitting on quite a bit of money. Sterling silverware and houseware often hold more value than lighter sterling jewelry items because of the simple fact that they weigh more. If you do want to sell sterling items at Napier Gold, there’s no need to clean and polish them before bringing them in for us to assess the value. Even if the item is tarnished, it can be worth just as much as if it was pristine condition.
#6 Wristwatches and Pocket Watches
If you have an old wristwatch or pocket watch you no longer wear, it is definitely worth your time to have it assessed. Especially if you have an older vintage watch dating back to the 70’s or before, you might be surprised how much your watch is worth. Some older watches are comprised of gold, they frequently are more valuable due to heavier weight in comparison to necklaces, rings, and bracelets. Some older watches can still be valuable if they aren’t gold too. Some of the most valuable brands currently are Rolex, Omega, Bulova, Cartier, Waltham, Illinois, and Hamilton. Once more, even if a watch you’ve considered selling is broken, it can still have value, so there’s no reason it has to sit in a drawer collecting dust – We would be happy to assess its value and potentially give you some extra Christmas gift money for it.
#7 Wedding Rings
Unfortunately, some of the most popular items we purchase are wedding and engagement rings. So if you are looking to move on and resell a wedding ring that reminds you of the past, we have assessed and bought thousands of wedding rings over the near 40 years we have been in business. You can get significant money back for gold or platinum rings with diamonds. When assessing the value of your ring, we consider several attributes. As many people know, the value of a ring increases exponentially in proportion with the size of the diamond. Another factor that can increase or decrease your ring’s value is the clarity of the stone. For instance if it’s clarity is perfectly clear, your ring will be more valuable than a ring with a diamond that has carbon spots or feather marks, which detract from the value. Also, we consider the shape of the diamond. Currently, the most desirable diamonds are round cuts so those are worth more than other styles. Last but not least, when valuing wedding bands, some of them can be quite heavy and really add up.
A note before you go…..
When customers first enter our business, they often say, “I’m not sure if this is something you’d be interested in buying, but…” or “I have never done this before and I’m not sure if this is something you buy…” They seem unsure of what items we buy and what items we don’t buy, and if the items they’re bringing in are worth anything. So our family just wants everyone to know that we’ve assessed thousands upon thousands of gold, silver, and platinum items, and we have built a strong reputation of providing top dollar in this area for 4 decades. So if you have any questions about any items, even items that we haven’t included on this list, bring them to Napier Gold in Benton Harbor or St. Joseph, and we will give you a free assessment and let you know what they are and how much they’re worth within minutes. We hope we can do whatever we can to help make your Christmas a merry one for you and your family this holiday season!
Locations:
Napier Gold – Benton Harbor
1261 E. Napier Ave.
Benton Harbor, MI 49022
(269) 927-4012
Napier Gold – St. Joseph
2415 Niles Ave.
St. Joseph, MI 49085
(269) 983-2500
