Friday, February 26, 2010

How to sell silver for the first time

You found you need a little extra money this week. Selling silver is a very easy way to earn extra money. Silver comes in a variety of forms such as coins, sterling silver, silver jewelry, bullion, bars and silverware.

To sell silver jewelry, as with any silver product, you will want to start out by doing extensive research on the item that you have. Is the item worth a lot of money? Is the item rare or a collectable? All of these factors are very important in figuring out the price you want to sell the item for.

A good way to find out the value of the piece that you own is to take the item to an appraiser. This is important because when you look up the value of an item, usually they give you the value for an item that is in excellent condition. Your item may not be in excellent condition or it may even be better than what you had expected it to be worth. If the jewelry is not in the best of condition, you could also consider taking it to a metal refiner to fix up the jewelry which will allow you to maximize your return on it. Once you have found an estimated value for your product, decide the amount that you would like the make on the item.

Deciding where you want to sell the item is a key factor in actually selling the jewelry. There are several online auctions where you can list the product, either in bidding form or a flat pay amount. You can also check out a local antique or jewelry store to see if they are willing to purchase the item from you as a set rate. Typically an antique or jewelry store will not purchase your jewelry for a great price, so you are better off selling the product through auction or to a private collector. There are also several silver and gold exchange websites that allow you to sell your jewelry while aiming at a specific group of people.

It is very important when marketing the jewelry to provide as much detail as possible. You can single handedly convince a potential purchaser to buy your item based on your description alone. Once you get the hang of selling silver, you can continue to do so for a very long time.

Silver coins

We all deal with coins just about every day of our lives, but do any of us ever take the time to analyze them and see more than money on them? Well as all of us know, just about every coin has some sort of special value, to some maybe personal, but to most economically. Some coins are worth just as simply as 5 cents, but did you know that there are actually coins out there worth thousands of dollars? These days, people are making a collection hobby out of their silver coins, some even waiting for the price value to go up on some of them. Most of these world’s fine coins are made out of pure silver, and some dating way back in time, cannot make one exactly a big fortune, but a great deal of money they sure can.

Silver has been used in the process of making coins all over the world since the ancient Greek times. Philip II and his son Alexander the Great, used silver coins to reward their army men and pay for all the army’s expenses as well. Silver coins were also used to make a realistic portrait of the ruler at that time and period. Did you know that even back before 1797 British pennies were made out of silver as well? You may be asking yourself, “Why silver?” Well for many reasons, some being how transportable silver is with its high value of weight ratio, also how long lasting silver can be. Silver has a low spread between its prices making it a lot easier to buy and sale it, but silver can also be counterfeit, which means coins can too. Unfortunately, in China there are a number of coin replicas being made with every exact details as the original coin.

Most importantly, silver coins have helped us learn about people throughout history dating back to the ancient times. Many important people’s faces have been placed in silver coins. People, who made some sort of difference in this world, people like Franklin D. Roosevelt, George Washington, Maria Theresia Taler, Julius Ceaser, Calvin Coolidge, Thomas Jefferson and among many others. So the next time you take a look at a silver coin, keep in mind or do your research to see the coin not only for its value, but for its story as well.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

The Fashion World of Silver

Silver has been valued as one of the precious metals this earth has to offer, it is used in many things such as coins, ornaments, silverware and of course jewelry. With it's great shine and lustrous white metal, silver has become very popular, especially in the fashion world, making it more affordable to buy nice, chic, and fashionable jewelry with a less expensive touch to it. Not only has silver crashed the world of fashion by accessorizing us but as well as dressing us. There are two ways in which silver is integrated into clothing, the first being where silver ions are incorporated into the polymer in which yarns are made out of.


The second is where silver is coated onto the yarns of clothing. Jewelry companies and stores aren't only making their jewelry out of silver alone, but also mixing silver designs with stones and gems for a more fashionable look as we've seen on runways and fashion magazines. Jewelry lines such as Gucci, Tiffany & Co., Bebe, Chanel, Bestsey Johnson, just to name a few, are all adding silver to their lines. Celebrities are, of course, wearing and strutting silver jewelry all over the red carpet and to award shows. Don't think that silver is only for the rich and famous, or for only big events and parties.


There are many stores out there with great prices and deals on silver jewelry, and silver jewelry can be worn anytime wheter it is at a party as well as a day out at the mall, and goes great with any outfit. Kings and Queens would accesorize themselves with jewelry made out of silver accompanied by precious gems. Ancient Egyptian kings and queens would also accessorize not only themselves but their clothing as well, with silver. So silver has been involved with fashion as we can see for a long while now and the demand for it is not dropping any time soon. Based on research, the demand for silver is at one of its highest peaks at the moment, worldwide.


As we've seen through time, any time is a great time to purchase silver jewelry, it most obviously never goes out of style and is more affordable than other jewelry as compared to gold or platinum.


Antique Silver now

Antique silver is not the easiest silver to find. You can find antique silver on the internet and in your local town, but you have to know where to look. Caring for antique silver is something that you should learn about before you jump into it. Antique silver is very old and should be cared for in a certain way. An antique silver collection is a great investment idea. Some antique silver items are worth more than expensive electronics.

Why Antique Silver is So Hard to Find

Antique silver is called antique because it has been around for a certain number of years. In order for an item to be considered of any worth or value as an antique, it should be about 50 years old. Some items are considered antique after about 20 years, but silver is not usually one of these items.

Finding antique silver that has been around for 50 years or more is not very easy to do. This is because you have to find it from other people. You have to visit estate sales, and auctions. You are in essence looking through the possessions of other people to find treasure. You can go to antique shops online and offline to find this jewelry, but antique stores usually know the value of the items they are holding, so you will not usually be given a very big discount.

The Best Places Online and Offline to Find Antique Silver

When you are looking on the internet for antique silver, you will be able to find some things at online auctions or at online classifieds sites. If you are shopping at online classifieds sites, you will have to know a little bit about how to know whether something is an antique or not. The seller may tell you that the item is antique silver, but if you do not know what you are looking for, you might not know if they are lying.

Caring for Antique Silver is Not a Simple Thing to Do

When it comes to caring for antique silver, you cannot just scrub it clean and store it in a closet. Well you could do these things, but you will not be doing a lot to retain the value of your item. Some items are more valuable if you do not clean them with standard silver polish. Since the item is an antique, it will be aged, and if it needs to be cleaned, you should take it to a professional antique restoration company. They will know how to restore the item so that it does not lose its value. When you store the item, the box should not let in light or air, and it should be lined with cushioned felt that is clean. If you cannot care for your antique silver in this way, then it is useless to collect it.