How To Sell Jewellery At Auction

Why Sell Jewellery at Auction?

According to an article in the Independent Newspaper in May 2019, women in the UK own more than £6.2 billion worth of unworn jewellery. This study found that two-thirds of women wore the same pieces from their collection every day, instead of rotating pieces within their jewellery boxes.

With this fantastic figure in mind, it is definitely worth scouring your jewellery collection to see just what those pieces gathering dust could be worth. Every week, we see clients come in with unworn jewellery that had largely been forgotten about, who are stunned when we tell them the estimate that we would place at auction.

Now is a fantastic time to sell jewellery, with a rise in precious metal prices linked with the current economic uncertainty and Covid-19 pandemic.

This recent surge in the gold bullion price has met an 18 year high, making it a brilliant time to sort out which pieces are worn and cherished every day, and which pieces could be sold to go towards that next holiday/renovation/investment. 

Why Sell at Jewellery at Auction Instead of Other Methods?

By selling to a dealer, jewellery shop or bullion merchants, you are receiving a price from an individual seller, who has in mind their own overheads and profit margin to make, offering an individual price. In contrast, selling a piece of jewellery at auction allows your item to be viewed and bid upon by a plethora of private and trade individuals.

The addition of internet bidding has opened this field of prospective buyers even wider, with registered buyers placing bids from overseas. Through the Covid-19 pandemic, interest in online auctions has increased astronomically, with bidders keen to spend their time browsing and bidding at auction.

Our state of the art technology now enables four online bidding platforms at our sales, ensuring that your items are viewed online, worldwide and to various groups of collectors, both trade and private bidders.

Our dedicated team have years of combined experience identifying, grading and researching thousands of jewellery pieces, and so are in the best place to offer you sound and reliable advice concerning your collection. By selling your item at auction, you are benefitting from the specialist knowledge and expertise of our dedicated team.

Other online platforms such a eBay do not offer this wealth of knowledge to sellers when listing their items, sometimes unknowingly underselling their items due to a lack of understanding of their items!

As such, selling jewellery at auction is a fantastic way to ensure that you maximise your financial return from your unworn jewellery. Due to the way that auctioneers fees work, it is in the auctioneers very best interest to secure the highest price for you, of which we take a small commission.

Pictured: An Arts & Crafts opal and vari gem brooch attributed to Arthur and Georgie Gaskin. Our specialists instantly recognised this unsigned silver piece from a selection of costume jewellery as a Gaskin brooch, a significant husband and wife design team of the Arts & Crafts design movement, found associated design sketches for the piece dated 1911 and advertised to specific collectors. Our specialist knowledge, established buyer base and targeted marketing ensured a hammer price of £650.

Peter Wilson Auctioneers provide obligation-free valuations, with appointments available to book online. Fill in our valuation form to gain a provisional auction estimate of your items, or alternatively book an appointment with us to assess your collection. Contact our Jewellery Specialist Liz Bailey MA FGA DGA on 01270 623 878 or email liz@peterwilson.co.uk for further advice and information about our Fine Jewellery Sales.

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