Gold found at a Garage Sale!

[kansastide]

Was driving by a garage sale during the work day last Friday and didn't have time to stop until after work. Sure wish I would have run over there during lunch. Got there around 4:30 PM just as they were getting ready to close. Found a sandwich bag full of costume jewelry for $1.00, a smaller snack type baggie full of the same for .50 and then a small box with lots of old ear ring sets (approximately 50 sets and lots of them rhinestone) for $4.00. Bought a couple other things and as I was paying I asked if they had any more costume jewelry to bring out the following day. Lady said "Nope she sold all the rest earlier in the day and I got what was left over." Said she sold the large freezer bags (about 5 of them) for $4.00 each. Somebody got a great deal at $4.00 a bag and I was kicking myself for not stopping by earlier. I didn't realize just how great a deal someone probably got until I got home and went through my $5.50 of jewelry. When I finished sorting and counting, I had over 75 sets of vintage ear rings from rhinestone to bakelite (I think) to just about any style you can think of (some sterling). Lots of broaches and pins and rings. A couple pieces even look like they may be Victorian era. The kicker was that there were a total of 8 sterling pieces and 1 14K gold broach with faux pearls on it. The broach alone weighed just under 5 grams. Either way, I was a happy camper, but also wondering what that other lucky person got in the other bags (which was about 20 times more quantity wise than what I had gotten). Rough estimate on the goods is $50 in scrap gold if I want to scrap it, $3-4 in scrap sterling, and over $100 conservatively on the rest of the jewelry when I run it through the auction house where costume jewelry tends to sell real well.

Who says there aren't deals at garage sales? Think I have the itch again, but it's the end of garage sale season for the most part. Can't wait until spring!

When I get the chance I'll post pics.

 

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[harker52]

Nice finds on the jewelry! That's too bad that you weren't able to get to the $4 bags in time. I haven't looked at much jewelry at yardsales, but I'm slowly starting to check the stuff out more.

 

[cyberdan]

I haven't looked at much jewelry at yardsales, but I'm slowly starting to check the stuff out more.

I always ask if they have any old coins or jewelry. Or any old gold or silver.

Lately all I hear is, que? then I say, oro y plata? mostly i then hear, oh, no senior.
But saturday this lady pull out 3 bracelets from her pocket. Two are stamped 14k and one in .583 I think. (14k)

She wants $200 which I didn't have and she wouldn't budge on the price. It could have been over an ounce and I didn't have my scales with me. I can afford to guess wrong when buying silver but not gold. I keep kicking myself for not going back and paying the $200.