Jewels Have Become Beanie Babies

Patti is still learning about reselling jewelry.

I’m looking at abundance and cash flow differently. You never know where money can come from, and sometimes, not having to pay for something means you can still receive and not lose the abundance in your wallet.

I learned a mantra long ago that says, “Money comes easily, freely, and in large quantities.” I then added my own, “and sometimes it means it’s not leaving your own pocket.”

Now to segue from my contextual tangent. I was looking in my jewelry box the other day and saw my grandmother’s ring.

“Why am I holding onto this when it is gold, and I’m never going to wear it because I’m a silver girl?” I thought to myself. “There must be a way to sell this… ooh, look at grandpa’s rings. Are they worth anything?

I approached the subject o my husband, and he Googled “how to sell jewelry.” Orlando Jewelry Buyers came up as a sponsored search result. So I gave them a call, and we made an appointment.

We walked in there with my high school class ring, John’s college ring (which was missing its big stone), two of my dad’s parents’ rings, and two of my mom’s mom’s rings.

(Backing up, I appraised my mom’s mom’s ring for insurance purposes back in 2015 when we got my engagement ring. It was “worth a lot!” I also took this other ring from my mom’s mom that had a lot of “diamonds,” “sapphires,” and was silver. However, this ring was all CZ, glass, and considered worthless.)

We found out my high school ring wasn’t real silver at the store. I then remembered my past self going for an alternative, greener, no conflict, peace-loving ring. It has a yin-yang and earth on the band. So not worth anything to the buyer.

John’s college ring was hearty gold, and they wanted it even though it was missing a stone!

Unfortunately, my dad’s parents’ rings weren’t real gold, and their diamonds weren’t big enough to sell.

My mom’s mom’s ring that I insured for the big bucks didn’t have big enough diamonds, and the big ole sapphire wasn’t worthwhile for them to buy!

“What?!?” I exclaimed. “This is the most expensive jewelry I own by insurance appraisal!”

Denise, the woman behind the assessing counter, said that, back in the day, jewelers bought so many jewels that they had bags of them that no one wanted. “Manufactured jewels are the rage because it doesn’t hurt the earth, and the young people are just not interested.”

“So sapphires, rubies, and emeralds are now considered the beanie babies of collectible jewelry buying?” I asked.

“I never thought about that before, but yes, with the perspective that they were the craze, but now young people are minimalists and anti-consumers of stuff that take up space.”

This makes me think of NFTs and how they take up no “space” (but don’t get me started on the carbon footprint), and ownership brings access and street cred. Which is so like Gen Z to want (you can check out my company’s research on Gen Z here).

Anyway, I also asked why insurance appraisers highly affect my mom’s mom’s ring rates. It seems that the inflation is so that if the ring is stolen, lost, or damaged, buying a new, fun, pretty ring that matches what I lost may still cost that much.

But buying jewels as a buyer and selling jewelry to a consumer have different levels of worth.

Denise recommends I try to sell the ring on eBay, by the way. Someone is bound to want it.

“Even if it sits there until the right person comes along, it’s better than just sitting in the jewelry box with no one knowing about it.”

I’m contemplating doing that and seeing if my dad’s parents’ rings will go to a consignment store.

But I haven’t told you about the glass ring! This is the best one yet. Denise wanted it. The band was actually silver!

(I’m reminded of that feel-good meme floating around saying that a classic car has a different price and value depending on where it’s sold.)

So John and I packed up my unsold jewelry, accepted the cash she gave us, and spent it on Whole Foods and a few dinners out we already had planned to go on.
“…sometimes it means it’s not leaving your own pocket.” And so that’s how it worked this time. We didn’t get the great quantity of cash we were hoping for, but we did get to do something we were planning to do and didn’t have to touch our wallets. The new energy of cash flowed through us. We benefited from yummy supplies and lovely dinners to celebrate ourselves and our friends.

And that is truly living abundantly.

Namaste and keep learning,
Patti