How To Inspect COSTUME JEWELRY To Determine The Value!

how to how you do cousins I'm Rusty and I'm your cousin and you're mine and this video is all about inspecting jewelry to determine its value and what it is sometimes you might have something that's quite valuable and you didn't know it or maybe you're out searching for things and you need to know the things to search for the right way to look at it often times looking at the back of something is more valuable than the front of it where it looks the nicest but I'm going to show you all this we're going to talk about costume jewelry today in this video and the next video will be about fine jewelry so in this video I'm going to show you some different types of costume jewelry that's lower end and not real great quality we're going to inspect it closely and I'm even going to take a few things apart to show you what they look like and it will give you a better idea of the materials that they're made out of we're also going to work our way up to very nice costume jewelry nice Brands and nice pieces in the next video it'll be about really nice Fine Jewelry silver and gold and gemstones but without further Ado let's look at some of this stuff we're going to start with cheaper stuff and move our way up to really nice items let's go find some treas today we're going to start off by looking at some costume jewelry pieces that would be considered more lowend pieces meaning they were not expensive to produce they utilize lower quality material materal both in the metal and the stones if it incorporates stones and I'm going to show you some telltale signs when you're looking at pieces that you have someone else has or when you're Outsourcing so first off you're going to look at the design often times um really simple designs are simple to make they're easy to manufacture and they can make a bunch of them very quickly and so the not this is not a perfect rule but often times the more simplistic the design the more often that it's going to be more of a cheaper piece rather than more complicated complex pieces that utilize multiple types of stones in this case you've got a heart and a smaller heart that has something inside of it in a in a nicer piece You' probably see some sort of gemstone possibly or something like that but in this case it's just clear it's not even a rhinestone it's just almost like plastic like enamel in there not only that you've got this spot here in the center that's kind of like off color it's kind of like an ugly color it's like a yellow and that's just glue folks that's not even um a stone and so that's a downside here is and you're looking at this um you're kind of seeing something in there and you don't really know what it is almost looks like an egg yolk or something super strange the back of it you can see it's kind of uh pitted and they've they've made e effort obviously in the mold of this to try to make the back look interesting even though there's really not a whole lot going on here it's got a pen it's very basic it's a very simple piece of jewelry and I would not buy this for even 50 cents like there's not really a market for something this common there's probably hundreds of thousands of them out there so that's something it's not really going to be interesting to a buyer here's the piece it's got a lot of rhinestones okay it's kind of bright colored but one of the things you want to look for is whenever there are stones how is the stone set is it glued into place is it a nice tight bezel or does it have prongs in this uh case there are no prongs and you can even see that this Stone here you can even see what they would call the crown of the stone the edge of the stone where it's facet cut is even popped up out of there so these pieces have been glued into place and a stone or a rhinestone that is glued in is generally going to be less valuable than one that has a prong set in now there are such a thing as superficial prong settings that are so flimsy I could pry it with my nail really easily those are still not going to be as valuable but if you think of fine jewelry for an example like a diamond ring they're going to hold that diamond real tightly in there because they don't want it to fall out you're not going to glue something like that in on the back here you can see a very rough coarse back with a pin that clearly was just glued on in this case to the back of this as well and so it's a very simple pen it's not even a swivel pen it doesn't catch and it's you know it's bright but it's not really all that terribly attractive because there's no color going on here it's a simple sort of design and these things could probably be popped out real easy if I really stuck my thumb in there and pulled uh I could probably pop that out that's not a good thing you'll find pieces that already have Stones missing a lot of times for this exact reason here's another example little bit more complex design but still you're you're only using a couple different size stones and they're glued in now is the back are they open so that L can pass through them or is it blocked off well these are all blocked off if you're looking at nice pieces of costume jewelry that incorporate beautiful or glass rhinestones or semi-precious gemstones they're going to have a open back so that the light can pass through and you can actually see the Hue and saturation of that stone as it naturally is meant to be viewed but Stones like this often s um they're glued in and they'll even have some kind of a foil or some sort of a paint on the back of them with the intention of reflecting the light back at you and sometimes they're painted with certain colors so that you will think you're looking at a green stone or a blue stone when in reality it may be entirely clear like this they're not hiding the fact that this is clear again you've got kind of just a very basic basic design um and and these were probably mass-produced here's a pendant uh it's made to hang you can see from a chain but again we got these lines trying to make it look interesting even though there's nothing going on here no Makers Mark nothing like that and these stones are opaque you can also see the Gap here between this Stone uh and and what it's set in this is just glued into place I bet if I stuck in there and Pop I could probably pry this puppy right out of there if I wanted to and uh I'm not going to do it cuz I don't necessarily want to go through the hassle of gluing it back but even over here if this was a gemstone these this bezel would be stuck right up against it cuz it the purpose of it would be to hold it in place these are just a couple dots of glue they stick a piece of colored plastic in there and they call it good but this is not a high-end piece this is very very cheap here is something that is simulating a cameo now original cameos were carved from Shell and uh and they sometimes they incorporate other things like Coral um but look at this if I stick this in here I can very easily pop this up now look underneath what are we looking at here do you see that residue that's just glue folks and look at the dollop on it this is just a piece of plastic that has been poured into a mold a base color and then they took another piece of of of plastic and they glued this piece on and then they glued the whole thing onto here this is just metal if you look on the back it's kind of gritty again they're trying to make it look interesting you can put this on the Chain if you want or you can make it as a pin this is actually made to open up and you can see there's some sort of like little balm or something that you would put on I see the Avon company with these a lot of times but did you see how easy that was for me to pop this off that is not the kind of thing and if you were to see this in like an old antique piece this bezel right here would be fast up against it holding it in place because this would have been hand carved by a person and sometimes the metal is made of silver gold filling or solid gold moving on we have one that does not incorporate Stones now there are some midlevel even higher level brands that that make pieces of jewelry that don't incorporate stones in some cases on the higher end they can be made out of sterling silver or even gold now this right here is a separate piece that would have been poured into a mold and you can see a little pen here it's like a rivet it went down from the middle of this this piece right here went down through this portion and then they bent it so that they stay on together again you're noticing the same thing here a lot of these little lines these little hash hashing Parts which is a part of the mold that they would have poured this very cheap alloy metal into this pen there's nothing uh you know really interesting about it there's no Makers Mark nothing like that there are some brush gold pieces by by Brands like crown trari and some others that uh do have some value especially if they incorporate things like faux pearls or gemstones but plainly speaking folks this is just kind of boring like it's a flower but like there's not a whole lot going on there's a mold they poured a base alloy into and they can do it hundreds thousands of times it's not hard to make something like this it's not an artisan piece let's look at a ring real quick you're looking at something that's floral it has sort of black plastic rhinestones in here some sort of metal around some sort of stone in the middle now we are looking at something that is um you know we do have prongs as you can see but if I take my nail look how easy it is look at that did you see that stone pop from the side I could pull that stone right out there it is you see how easy that was also look at the back of it there's that foil I'm talking about that foil has been put in place in order to cause a reflection so that the stone looks much more brilliant it makes it look like a real Stone when in fact it's just cheap plastic the other thing is you've got this this metal which is clearly worn and corroded it probably had more of a brilliant gold color originally but now it's worn down to the Copper the base metal you can see corrosion here it's just flat out ugly folks if you flip it over you'll see it's super thin it's got a single piece here where it has been um soldered on just the ring portion has been soldered on and you also have heavy wear and tarnish the color is different up here this is what it would have been more like kind of a light gold color and down here is just copper very very cheap piece of costume jewelry not something that I would personally want to buy okay so we're up in the anny a little bit we got some color here we got multiple Stones all right so that's looking a little bit better um we've got different colors here let see if I can zoom in a little bit better on it right there we go so you know it's got some holes a little bit more intricate design but again look how loose that stone looks right there it's just barely in there barely glued in if I check my thumbnail and I really pull I could pull that puppy right out of there that's no good on the inside you can see that the stones are open backed but they're not clear they got that foil on again oh dog on it they're trying to they're trying to cause me to think that these stones are real stones and they're not also you can look on the inside there's no marking of a maker there's no marking of any precious metal this is a base alloy sure it's got some bling to it but it's certainly not screaming to me that it's a high-end piece if we look at this now we're looking at something that is a motif made to look like people you got a man and a woman and the woman's dress is incorporating some some almost like a a sky blue topaz or even like a aquamarine type color and then you've got some me medium level blue topaz or even light blue sapphire looking Stones you know it's okay nothing super fantastic though you know it has been carved out but again just pouring a metal into a mold like that would be very easy to make again no prong settings those are just GL in there they could easily fall out on the back look at this we got a lot of these lines again more now now someone's going to get on here and argue and say oh Rusty you know there are some high-end brands that have backs look like this it's true however I go through thousands of pieces of jewelry every year and I got to tell you that about only one out of every maybe 50 or more pieces that I come across probably even more than that when they look like this on the back end up still being pretty valuable this is not a valuable piece it doesn't have any other marks on it this is gold color but it's just a base metal it's not made out of gold here's something that has some attractive uh qualities to it this is definitely like a a Victorian approaching like an art Nuvo sort of look and uh you know it's uniform in color kind of got that dark recess it's nice no Stones you turn it over though and you see just this flat black a very cheap pen that has been soldered just in one spot on here um very very kind of low end low quality it's very thin they're not using a whole lot of metal it's not even a valuable metal it's you know a coppery type of a of a thing in fact it might not even be copper it may just be some other you know um cheap alloy with this sort of like color on the top of it here I mean it is interesting enough but this is not a piece someone's going to pay $30 or $40 for you might be lucky to get $8 or $10 for something like this though it does still have a little bit of a tractability last one I'll show you here when we're talking about cheap jewelry same things appli things like um um you know bracelets necklaces earrings this is very light and weight yes it's a gold color um you got these links put together but there is no maker noted on the back of the clasp or on the inside of the clasp it's very lightweight which makes feels almost like aluminum that's how light it is um the clasp is very um cheap very very small and then if you look at these Stones they're made to look like facet cut Stones almost like simil and onx which is a semi-precious mineral that has been used as gemstones but again these are not uh there are no prongs holding these in and in some cases again you can see like right here where the edge of the stone is a large very large gap if I put put this in and popped I could probably pop that out without much difficulty um and as you as you go through and you're looking you're examin it you know it's not too it's not too ugly I mean the stones so far are all still in here but some of these uh look like they're just barely hanging on by a thread I mean look at this one right here I can fit this thing directly underneath of it it's almost popping out look at that and you can even see the glue residue underneath of there where it's been glued into place find jewelry and nice quality costumes jewelry do not glue plastic stones into place so this though is somewhat attractive it could be worn and used you're really looking more like 8 $10 at the most but I wouldn't even pay $2 for this at a thrift store because there's better stuff out there rties Hot [Applause] Tips now hold on for just a moment folks real quick I want to remind you that we have some other YouTube channels that you may be interested in one is called what sold that's where we show you things we've sold on eBay in the last week or two we tell you what we paid what we sold it for and some information about it check that out we also have postcard Planet that's all about postcards their values and why you should pay attention to that and then we've started a new podcast called the what sold podcast you can listen to that on a streaming service and we also have the YouTube channel version of that it's much like our what sold YouTube channel that we started with where we talk about things we've sold we give a little bit more in-depth information there and we talk about other things too like what it's like to be a reseller and the highs and lows things to look out for how to run a business if you're a reseller check those out let's get back to more jewelry here I have set out a tray of some very nice pieces of costume jewelry these are all brooches what I'm going to talk about today applies to brooches it can apply to any type of jewelry whether it's earrings or necklaces or the LA but what I wanted to show you was a few of these pieces and kind of help you to see the difference between this and some of the stuff we've previously talked about which was cheaper costume jewelry this is a beautiful little brooch here with some sort of um sort of like a a translucent uh type of a rhinestone so right off the bat this is a you know it looks fairly complex and it's fairly attractive looking you've got the combination of a larger uh Paar or teardrop shaped Stones you've got smaller ones you've got round ones that are not facet cut you have smaller facet cut rhinestones that have that Aurora Borealis look that sort of iridescence but with a green base okay so it's quite attractive looking it's got uh you know the pen is is you know horizontal here so it would it would go this direction or like that but honestly they could have put it on any way that they wanted to depending on what were they were wearing and where they were putting it but the point is you've got some various sizes this is a fairly intricate piece and by looking at it it just catches the eye but where we really start to learn about the piece uh before we flip it over I just want to note that these these are prong settings so if I get real close for you you can see right here a big prong a prong this and that and so you notice that it's quite brilliant looking and part of that is because the backs of this these are open for several of these so light is actually passing through and that illuminates the stone entirely which is very common of uh precious gemstones in Fine Jewelry right not all of them in that way but but some of the bigger ones are uh so the prong setting is the first indication that maybe these are uh potentially nicer either real stones or most likely glass and the reason is because with cheaper Stones as we discussed earlier in the video cheaper Stones often times have more of a a bezel around them and they don't have anything that is uh made to keep the stone in securely often times they're simply glued down into place now if you've ever uh seen or worn find jewelry fine jewelry um they're made with semi-precious or precious gemstones and so you're not going to glue a diamond down like a one karat diamond down onto a ring no no no because that's it's too likely that that thing's going to fall out and it's too valuable to allow it to fall out so when you see things not to say that there aren't pieces that have nice Jewel you know nicer looking stones in that aren't prong set but often times uh nicer stones or glass are are prong uh set and these are glass rhinestones and the reason I know that is because by holding it in comparison to something else with plastic this is quite heavier because glass is heavier of course than plastic is okay as we turn this over we're going to look for a few things number one we're going to look to see if there's any sort of a maker Mark that indicates who the manufacturer was we're also going to look to see does it have open backs or not and we're also going to see is there any sort of Mark that indicates that there might be a precious metal involved here silver or platinum or gold okay so if we give this a once over we're seeing again this is the look kind of the back this is the look of a nicer piece of jewelry it's complex you can see that there's some some bubbling up here of um of some of this you know this plating that was put on here and then you have the pen of course that is on the back now this particular pen uh you know it has a swivel part here it would go in like this I'll turn it over now it's secure um let me try to zoom in on this here you'll notice that it's set with a metal piece behind it so sometimes these are made with the pen made as a part of the piece originally and then you have ones like this where this pin portion was created separately and then it was later soldered onto the back but in this in this case that's what has happened this pin was separate piece it's been soldered on as opposed to it being a part of the original form of the piece of jewelry so we look around and I can tell you because I've already inspected this it does not have a maker's mark on it nor does it indicate that there's any sort of precious metal involved so it's pretty safe to assume that this is a piece of costume jewelry the other thing is real close right here if you look we have a little bit of corrosion a little bit of almost like a rust color right here and if this were silver or gold it wouldn't have that kind of corrosion because silver and gold do not corrode in that way now base Metals base Alloys nickel um things like that will sometimes tarnish like that and so that's a that's a spot there where the plating is not entirely over this joint and so the inside base metal in contact with moisture or oxygen or something is going to tarnish a little bit it's still a lovely piece this is the kind of thing that you can find out at thrift stores and things sometimes for3 or5 but this is easily a$3 to $50 piece of jewelry let's use the information we just discussed as we start to evaluate some of these other pieces you're going to start to find some similarities once again we've got a fairly intricate design here large Stones small stones multiple different colors involved as well and and I kind of half Wonder to be honest with you if in this piece this Stone has not been replaced at some point because as you can see we've got a very distinct amber color of these three stones this one however has a little bit more of a green foil kind of look to it so it's possible that this has been replaced at some point but it's close enough uh without very very um close inspection and it it's still it's passable right various colored stones Aurora Borealis we've got green a sort of a floral look prong settings we flip it over here is an example now of a piece where the pin is a part of the overall design you can see that it is uh it is a part of this doesn't have a that metal backend like this other one did for comparison purposes I'll pull this up you can see how this one has this other component behind it to help it as it was soldered down on however this piece is an part of the overall design from the beginning now we're going to start to see something called puddling puddling is where when they've put this uh coating this gold foil coating on it it was in liquid form to begin with and then you start to see these little bumpy Parts here this is pooling this is called puddling and it's where when you have these different settings where there's some of this that kind of bleeds over between and there are certain brands like Deliza and eler and Juliana pieces which are higher end costume pieces then uh that is one of the telltale signs that it could be that because often times those pieces are not marked with a Makers Mark and again as we look at this piece there is no maker Mark no name no branding and also no indication that there's gold or silver um I've handled thousands of pieces of jewelry I know that by looking at this already without even you know seeing if there's a name but what I often look for when I see a piece like this is just to see if they say a brand like Weiss or Eisenberg or Carnegie or hll things like that it's also a beautiful piece let's pick this one up a different kind of look still sort of like a floral look um but we have these cab uh Stones they're convex on one side uh flat on the inside you'll notice no prong settings so I'm not thinking that this is anything like a precious gem uh although these have sort of uh AR I wouldn't say artificial I would say superficial prong settings there is what looks to be a prong however it's not really holding on to the stone it's just there for looks these Stones folks are glued into place as are these they are made of glass because they are heavy and you see this interesting three-dimensional design with this wire that comes out we're going to flip it over I'm going to make sure this pen is put away so I don't stick myself as I'm going through this opening in the back even though these are opaque stones or pieces of glass you can see the residue here of the glue so even if I didn't know by looking at the front of it you can tell this translucent glue that has made its way out around the edges of some of these pieces this one is set up both to be a brooch with this pen or if you wanted to put it on a necklace you've got a little part here that you could clip that into place right and you could hang it looking around I'm not not seeing any names or Makers Mark on this either and you'll find that there are specific brands of higher mid mid to higher end Boutique costume jewelry makers that did not name or put their name on their pieces rather when they were for sale they would have a hang tag either in plastic or paper and the name was on that and of course when you buy a piece and you want to put it on what's the first thing you do well you take the tag that has the price and the name on it off so it's actually very uncommon to find original pieces with the tags on them the ones that do have them bring a premium in price all of these I'm showing you though are easily $30 or more pieces of costume jewelry hopefully you're starting to see the difference between ones we looked at earlier here folks is a gorgeous piece Blues sort of like almost like an ocean blue some deep Cobalt again a little bit of the Aurora Borealis coming through there some small stones you do have prong settings these are in place to hold that stone in in case uh it gets bumped or dropped or there's degradation of glue over time I wouldn't be surpris if there was glue involved in this as well and as you saw earlier in the video when you pop some of these stones out whether they're plastic rhinestones or glass sometimes especially if the stone is not open backed to allow light through they will have a type of foil or a type of paint applied to the back of them almost not unlike a mirror would be where they have it coating on the back that is intended to reflect light back at the person who is viewing it it's a beautiful piece it catches the eye let's flip it over we're seeing a lot of the same things we're seeing some puddle in here we're seeing a pen that is built into the base of the piece of jewelry and we're not seeing any sort of indication of the name of the maker which is unfortunate but certain pieces like Juliana pieces for example among others there are actually databases out there believe it or not where you can take a photograph of your piece and or you can simply look and try to compare pieces that have been uh quote unquote um sort of agreed upon that they are from a particular maker and if you do that you you can also do Google Lens take a picture of it look at it in Google or you can also look in eBay they have a way you can actually take a picture either at that moment or pull from your own photo feed to look and see if the piece is known a known piece by a known brand or if it's already sold recently in the last 90 days another beautiful piece this is a more simple as far as design we're looking at rectangular uh a very large rectangular Stone in the middle that is made made to simulate uh like a smoky quartz or Smoky topaz it does have nice heavy uh legitimate not superficial um prongs on the side here multiple stones of varying sizes more of a tobacco or uh or not tobacco more of like a root beer sort of Amber on the outside and getting lighter to the inside it draws your eye in that's intentional folks and if you pull it over you're going to see that the miniature Stones all have a foil in order to bring light back however the original Stone the large one in the center uh it allows light to pass right through it we've got a built-in design on the pen we have this really slick uh looking back I'll also note in contrast to the pieces which we've discussed earlier that were cheaper I'm going to pull several of these up you'll see a similarity in just the the general look of the backs of these they're slick there's nothing done with the exception of this one this one is more intricate but it clearly follows the root of the wire itself but these don't have any sort of lines or artificial texture on the back to make it look interesting it's simply the backs of the fitness for the stones this one is a lovely piece I like it because of the contrast between the red and the green the greens and sort of the darker looks on the outside um are sort of I wouldn't say dull but they're more like Earth Tones whereas the center is much brighter also the facet cut on the Center Stone is different than these baguettes on the outside again you've got 1 2 3 4 5 six at least six different Stone shapes and or sizes you've got faux pearls you've got something simulating a ruby you've got something simulating uh possibly like a topaz or it would be kind of a poor color aquamarine if it was but you got sort of a um more of like a kind of a hazy a purple or brownish colored Stone there you flip it over this is a little bit of a different look on the back it's more flat you're not necessarily seeing individual um little spots for the stones to be in but this also is set up to be hung on as a pendant if you wanted um or you can use it as a brooch this also is simulating a vintage uh brooch because older brooches usually incorporate more of like a c hook here to hold on to the pin it's not as safe doesn't hold as well this is a newer piece this is not several decades old it might be two or three decades old but it's not from like the early 1900s for example where some broaches will incorporate this it's just made to look like that still an attractive piece and one that's definitely worth it if it's $3 or $5 out there another really pretty piece the greens and blues typically sell pretty well for me when you're looking at a piece like this you need to inspect it very closely don't just see it and say oh yeah it's definitely worth it and I'll tell you why in a moment but you can see here again uh not any work really done to to make the back dressed up or all or anything like that you've got some puddling you've got a pen that's built into it here um these stones are glued into place primarily you don't see any big facets but why I said you need to inspect is if you look very closely right here and right there see if I can zoom in a little bit better for you here folks you'll notice that these stones are missing does not mean that it does not have value however if you want to right here right there if you want to achieve the best possible price if you're W to sell a piece like this you will need to try to repair those I Hold On To Pieces that are broken that have missing Stones I Hold On To those because I will either Harvest pieces from other broken pieces or whatever uh to um to repair and refurbish ones like this that are nicer or if I end up getting a bunch that I don't think I can use or won't use anytime soon I will just sell them as individuals I'll just note hey it's missing some Stones other people might have Stones Some people use them for crafting projects and so it doesn't mean they don't have value it just means they don't have as much value if they're not in perfect condition this is a much different look of a broch uh I think it's it's again really interesting it's floral again however it's made in such a way as if there are multiple things shooting out of here these would be like simulating the stems various little flowers you've got some some long kind of baguette type Stones Some bright pink you got this clear and these are clear glass and they're actually etched so they have prong settings very beautiful piece very attractive you flip it over this is good news we've got open backs here that indicates typically a little bit of a Nasser um piece because they're allowing the light to go through it they don't have to artificially make it look pretty uh the stone itself is going to take care of that or the glass or whatever it is no Makers Mark on this unfortunately this would be one of those pieces I would want to check in Google or in eBay to see if any have sold another beautiful piece here this is almost like a lemony it's like a lemony yellow moving towards green you've got clear rhinestones coming up here with a Central piece at the top um almost it's the wrong color but it almost looks like um a cluster of grapes or something like that hanging down flip it over you can see some puddling here between these two open backs these Stones don't have foil on them they're glass it's heavy it's a built-in pen set up here in the back very lovely piece you can see the differences here folks between these and the cheap costume ones we saw in the beginning again we're looking at the same things we've got several prongs prongs these are some facet cut on the side others are more convex a lot piece in the center this is the first one we've seen so far that incorporates more of this what I would call a rivet design which was a customary of certain brands at certain time periods um that they you utiliz that and that's how they adhered these little settings down and so that it would all be connected you see that you see this piece right here that's the back so it was uh riveted on to this piece after afterwards it wasn't made at the same time this however is built in to the overall design and also you've got this interesting wire piece coming down here that lends extra support since you've essentially got two separate pieces this one up here which was then soldered onto the back piece via this one post this one long line here of wire and so it's nice because it gives it this three dimensional um sort of look this one's a really beautiful piece brushed gold tone simulated emeralds on either side not real emeralds these are glass and then some sort of bizarre looking Stone here in the center originally this would have been much more of a creamy white color you can see that that has worn off and you're seeing just the the uh the piece of the the plastic rhinestone the clear translucent underneath we're also seeing and you almost wouldn't notice it because it's incorporating green stones and your eye doesn't pay attention because it's still the same color but this green is actually not uh what you want to be there this is actually corrosion green corrosion uh that would maybe need to be cleaned if you were so inclined uh it's hard to do that without damaging it further because moisture is sort of not your friend when it comes to this stuff but if you look down here this is the first piece where we actually see a brand and it says accessocraft in YC so New York City accessocraft this again this piece right here on the top was separate originally it was made it was not in the original mold but it was connected to this longer this wider piece here that the that these greenstones are set in Via this single rivet in the back and you'll notice we're not looking through these stones are we no they are not hid in the fact that they have this uh orangish yellowish whatever foil that they've painted on the back of this so on the inside it's made to reflect light back if that wasn't on there folks these would be very dull they would not have that bright green color that you're seeing here now that we've discussed differences between cheaper and nicer costume pieces with regard to brooches in this case why don't we do a couple quick um compare and contrasts so let start with these two pieces yes they're different colors but for these purposes I want to draw your attention to a few things first of all this piece right here if I zoom in on it you're going to see that it has these prongs all around all of the Stones it's holding them in tightly so we know that people care that these Stones don't fall out in this case however you've got a bunch of stones that are the same size and they have no prong settings not only that but do you notice the discoloration the difference in color some of these look more clear and kind of brilliant others much more yellowed and the reason for that is that there's been degradation in the glue underneath and so it's making it look ugly the other thing is if these things are used maybe you're wearing it and it gets caught on something a piece of clothing and it pulls on it these little stones are not going to easily come out you can't hardly pop them out if you wanted to I would have to pry these prongs back to remove a stone you also notice the more uniformity in the color of this so the color is better the the there's been more effort put into keeping the stones in place and if I were to just come over here and take this um like this right here I could in some of these Stones maybe not this but in some of these stones look at that like I could very easily kind of pop a stone out look at that I popped it right out of there now I'm doing this just kind of show you once that stone is gone folks uh the value has dropped by at least half because that stone is no longer in there you flip it over in the back there's nothing really to speak of there's no Makers Mark there's nothing like that it's a basic pin in the back here um so these Stones they're not as pretty uh it's not as attractive of me it looks like an angel right or like a bird like a dove that sort of thing um I've got the stone here I can glue it back in place but that just goes to show it's not as valuable you flip it over and look at the bottoms of both of them and you can very clearly see the different areas where the stones are at here it just kind of looks like a jumbled mess this pin here is not all that different than this one it's the same type of clasp but this just has an overall better look it's heavier these stones are made of glass this one the stones are made out of plastic let's approach these two pieces now this one again is more uniform in color same colors uh used more of an intricate kind of design it's you know it's it's a uniform as far as the way that there's a mirrored image this one is a little different brush gold and you see that instead of stones you just got sort of an enamel type of a paint so a hard almost like a resin with color so this one's already catches your eye more because it shines more this one right here with the with on in my on the right side here this one's floral as well it's not terribly unattractive but it kind of looks you know different you flip them over and you're going to see again you see where all the stones are you see the puddling in between here it's a heavier piece cuz it's using glass stones this piece um is you know they've kind of gone through there and they've scratched around in the mold to make it look textured to try to make it look a little bit more interesting and oops look at this right here we've got a little glob of that uh that whatever that enamel was it's like a reddish enamel color they dripped one on the back they didn't care because it's not an expensive piece it's cheap it's this right here somebody who was applying that after the metal had been cast drip some back here and they didn't even care to pull it off so that's the difference between something that's cheap they're not going to mess with removing that because it doesn't affect the price or the value of it it's cheaper to begin with last ones let's compare let's look at the back instead of the front to begin with on these you're going to notice something right off the get-go this is more of a filigree type design not bad it does look kind of intricate uh but it doesn't really incorporate stones that would be set down into uh fittings this one however as you can see it has open backs it's very welld designed it's got a pen that's built into to the overall form this one I'm noticing a couple things just a cheap looking pen on the back here that has been soldered into place with these three spots and then you have this large Gloppy spot of glue where glue has just come through the back no one cared what the back looked like you can see these pieces are not even stuck into a fitting they're simply they use almost like a hot glue gun to just glue that puppy down in there and folks it's ugly looking it doesn't look that nice also guess what we're missing two here's two where are the others well they're supposed to be right here this piece is meant to to to be pinned and stuck and and like this because that's this is where the pin is and so it's meant to be stuck like this and look they glued the center piece on Sideways the heart is to the side it makes it seem like it's supposed to go like that it doesn't go like that because you got dangly hangy things it's supposed to go like this so that the dangly things hang down okay it's supposed to go like this you have one one on this side one over here and a couple in the middle so we're missing a couple Stones you can see the glue residue they are left over from where they popped off here and here we've got this piece this piece oops we're missing something and one right here so this has lost pieces to some damage and you know why because the material materials are very low quality that's not very well made and they didn't even care these are clearly faux pearls they're not even a good luster they're kind of really low grade this pendant piece in the in the middle here or the little spot in the center which was uh soldered on afterwards is in is gone in the wrong direction just an overall poor poorly made piece this one however in contrast look at the color of that gorgeous uh like a very like a Mossy green we got some uh stones made to look like emeralds and then clear cut pieces on the sides as well a gorgeous piece this is A40 or $50 P brooch this however is going to go in my big bin that I sell like hundreds of pieces by the pound thank you cousins for checking in today I hope that we gave you some information that can help you with stuff you've already got or stuff you might be finding make sure to come back next week and watch our video just like this on fine jewelry and while you're at it if you're looking for something else after this video we've got an entire playlist about jewelry check it out we'll see you soon let's go make some money rusty rusty rusty to rusty rusty rusty rusty rusty rusty rusty rest

Channel: Rusty The Reseller

Views: 244,575

Keywords: Resell, reseller, reselling, ebay reseller, full-time reseller, ebay tips, ebay selling, reseller tips, reseller guide, reseller advice, reseller how to, vintage, thrifting, garage sale, yard sale, estate sale, antique store, goodwill haul, pawn shop, sourcing, make money on ebay, work for yourself, rusty how to, be your own boss, work from home, rusty the reseller, make money, make money online

Id: V9vp9xJGmuM

Length: 46min 29sec (2789 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 21 2024