Busting into Yard Sales--Question

[Piledriver]

Been into yard-garage sales for years, but I recently got into the scrap jewelry end of it.
I'm trying now to learn the hallmarks and stampings of the good stuff without getting burned.

My Question is this....How often do any of you run into pieces with fake stamps?
The punches and stamps for all the purity and sterling marks are readily available on line.

I would like to know how common this is since I am advertising to do some buying.

 

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[Drmad7]

Of the 100+ gold pieces I have come across this year…only two or 3 were fake stamps. One was obvious and the other was not. The obvious one was not the stamp but the gold nugget brass looking wing it was stamped on.

 

[diggummup]

Yeah, most of the time you can tell it's a fake without ever looking at the mark. I've run across about the same, 1 or 2 per hundred or so marks. Had a piece yesterday that was on a card that said sterling and marcasite. I could tell before I even looked for a mark that it wasn't sterling, it did have marcasites on it though.

 

[dw171]

I've run into 2 fake sterling items so far. I knew I would be covered either way, so I bought them anyway. I would always bring a testing kit with you if you plan on buying expensive items. Anyone selling should have no problems with you testing an item before purchasing.

 

[cyberdan]

Every now and then I get a fake but i just set them aside. I never got stung yet. A couple of years ago soemone (can't remember who, might be from one of the t-net groups) sent me a real nice and heavy mens bracelet. It was marked and with out even looking for a mark my brain said GOLD. But I pulled out my GT3000 tester and tested in several places JUNK. I felt bad having to break the news to him before mailing back to him.

Most of the time when I see 14K on chains (and they are fake) I also see "Italy"
I then translate that into CHINA

 

[meanpc]

Reading this title, I thought you were going to talk about how you enter garage sales like kramer used to enter Jerry's apartment

 

[buzzhead]

I've bought 3 pieces that were bad, one a religious medallion when I first started out. Paid 270.00 for it... Looking back I would not have gave it a second look today. And then the very next week, bought an 18k wedding band that was only stamped 18 with a kings head dress there too. It was bad... $300 on that one.. Then just this last summer I bought a pair of vintage glasses, marked 10k for $3 at a yardsale that didn't test good when I sold them.
I get all queasy when I see 14k and Italy on necklaces and bracelets. My mom has 6 of them she bought in Atlantic city that are all fake. Very good fakes, almost no movement against a 17lb rare earth magnet. But still fake.

 

[diggummup]

The most faked stamp you will run across is Tiffany&Co.. I forgot about the time I purchased about 10 pieces that were fake, but I knew they were fake and so did the seller. However most of it was still sterling, just not Tiffany.