$5 For Three 10K (14K ?) Yellow Gold Bracelets - Odd Location

kenscott

Jr. Member
Aug 25, 2012
35
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North Carolina
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Hello All,

Just thought I would share my wonderful find this past weekend.

At major retails stores, you may sometimes find colored tins full of various earrings. The tins
I found were of this nature. You opened them up and a raised cardboard display held the multiple pairs of earrings.

I found three of these digging in an old box at a yard sale. Two of the tins made no sound when lifted, but one did.
I opened the tin, lifted out the earrings, and saw a 10k stamp on one of many pieces underneath. So, I nonchalantly
put the cardboard back in and was able to purchase all three for a total of $5. No need to draw particular attention to just one.

When I got back home, I removed the cardboard and earrings and discovered a total of three bracelets. They were all marked 10K,
with two having the same maker's mark and one having a different maker's mark.

The odd thing was they all marked 10K but the scrapes of 10K and 14K held strong with only the 18K acid doing any visible damage
to the scrapings. Has anyone ever ran across gold marked one karat with the piece actually turning out to be a higher karat?


Anyway, the two solid bracelets weigh a total of 19 grams making their value $437.35 with spot being $1737.80. The one with stones
weighs 9.21 grams making it worth $214.42 if it were solid. Now, I do not know if the stones are diamonds or cz. Under my loupe
I saw what seemed to be scratches on one or two of the approximate 50 stones. Yet, it seems the stones have slightly different colors and
some seem to be cut a bit different than the others.

If they are diamonds, the $214.42 will be blown out of the water. If they are cz, I figure they will sell for around $150 to $160 on the Bay.

In short, a great find.
 

Upvote 3
Any pictures?? WTG on your finds:icon_thumleft:,,HH
 

No one wants to say it do they,,,,,,,,,,,,,Oh well,,,nothing like taking candy from a baby,,,,,,,,,,Karma coming your way?
 

In short, I am not a karma type person.

Also, I did end up helping them in another way which I will not mention here. It is not necessary.
 

How is this bad karma (for those that believe). He didn't put the jewelry in the box, the seller failed to check. He paid and agreed price for what the seller was offering. Sounds like a great deal to me!

PS- that's why we do "this". It's called "treasure" hunting for a reason.
 

Treasure hunting at it's best, maybe if the people paid better attention to what they had they wouldn't have needed a sale in the 1st place. Nice find man!
 

Thanks for the support. I agree this is why we call it treasure hunting.
 

Yep, that's a moral issue we always have to deal with. I agree with both sides. On one side I can only imagine if someone in my family accidentally left important jewelry in a container at a garage sale, and sold the container forgetting they had placed those there years back. On the other hand, it's a slippery slope. and where would you draw the line? For example, if I found a $1000 painting for $5, should I in all honesty notify the seller and let him know what he's giving up? Should I tell the teller's at the banks I am buying $500 worth of silver for $10? Honestly, in the purest since of the hobby, I don't go out of my way to hide something from a seller, but also don't go out of my way to inform them about what they are losing. From a pragmatic standpoint, if we start feeling guilty, we won't treasure hunt anymore, and then some other bozo will buy all these great things and not know what they are. Someone else just would've bought that jewelry most likely
 

No only did the seller miss this, but the previous buyers at the yard sale...well unless you were the first one to arrive.
 

What if someone else placed them in there with intent to steal and u got accused of this? I think the slippery slope guy is right,,,good finds man!
 

Well, the seller made $5.00 for something he had no use for. Maybe the seller was getting rid of some bad memories, who knows? People go to yard sales to find good deals, right? I don't think I've ever heard of anyone going to a yard sale to pay more for something than it's worth. Be happy about your great find and don't let anyone get you down about it.

DANGLANGLEY
 

Bry said:
No one wants to say it do they,,,,,,,,,,,,,Oh well,,,nothing like taking candy from a baby,,,,,,,,,,Karma coming your way?

Why do so many on this site believe in karma? Don't you know There is no forgiveness in karma, each person must suffer for his own deeds.

How's this for a change- for whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap.
On another note, great find, I would have done the same thing. It was a fair deal, seller asks a price, customer pays asking price.
 

Bry said:
What if someone else placed them in there with intent to steal and u got accused of this? I think the slippery slope guy is right,,,good finds man!

This was the second yard sale they put on in about a month. I know that some of the items they had out where at the previous sale, and I think they said they had sold some elsewhere in the area.

If it makes any difference, I was offered everything at the sale for $200. Later in the day, the offer for a majority was $100. So, I still would have likely had the bracelets. I ended up spending around $105 for odds and ends and they sold the remainder of the open yard lot later that afternoon.
 

UPDATE:

I had the third bracelet with stones tested at the jeweler today and the stones are indeed small diamonds.

So, the final find is two solid 10K bracelets and one 10K bracelet with diamonds in it. I would approximate there are 49 diamonds total (one in the inner part of the bracelet is missing though it's location makes it trivial).
 

UPDATE:

I had the third bracelet with stones tested at the jeweler today and the stones are indeed small diamonds.

So, the final find is two solid 10K bracelets and one 10K bracelet with diamonds in it. I would approximate there are 49 diamonds total (one in the inner part of the bracelet is missing though it's location makes it trivial).

Good job!:award_star_gold_1: Buyer beware and seller twice as much!:tongue3:
 

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