billjustbill
Bronze Member
- #1
Thread Owner
It was later in the morning by the time we arrived at this group of garage sales. A garage seller in a community garage sale tried to get more money...
By the time we got there, nobody had paid much attention to the open and displayed plated jewelry... When I looked at them, the lady rather quickly said, "I'll take $5 for BOTH...."
Later, I'll post the pic of original 3 piece box. Doing several Internet searches it appears the necklace and earrings of costume/plated jewelry sold by the Carnival Cruise Lines....under the name of "Tara Vanessa".... The high markup in a cruise ship's store is reflected in the barcode sticker on the inside of the blue box... "Retail: $120.00".
The older couple, most likely in their early 70's, had pulled the large Rhinestone necklace from the blue satin box set and put a thin necklace and pendant in its place. They marked the 3-piece box "$5" and then... and to add to their profits, they marked the large plated necklace "$5".... [/i] Since the thin chain just "looked" different, and that my wife collects newer and old Rhinestone jewelry, I handed the lady a $5 bill for both and walked away with my eyes on their neighbor's garage sale.....
When I got home, I pulled the earrings and their studs showed to be well worn, but were unmarked plate. When I pulled the large loose plated necklace that should have been in the box from the bottom of the plastic bag they gave me, I realized that it matched the earrings.... I carefully pulled the thin necklace from the box's display background.... I see it's stamped "A-O" and 14kt and in two places.... It's White Gold, so it appears to be Silver... I then looked at the pendant, and inside the bail is stamped 14kt. Including the stone, the necklace weighs 2.5 grams.
Getting a bit shaky, I looked at the stone under my 16x magnifier... you can see some inclusion flaws and lots of tiny black specs.... I took one of my better Brown & Sharp micrometers and measured the width of the stone inside its setting. When converted from thousandths to millimeters, and it matches the measurements of a 3/4 carat diamond.....
See what you think.
By the time we got there, nobody had paid much attention to the open and displayed plated jewelry... When I looked at them, the lady rather quickly said, "I'll take $5 for BOTH...."
Later, I'll post the pic of original 3 piece box. Doing several Internet searches it appears the necklace and earrings of costume/plated jewelry sold by the Carnival Cruise Lines....under the name of "Tara Vanessa".... The high markup in a cruise ship's store is reflected in the barcode sticker on the inside of the blue box... "Retail: $120.00".
The older couple, most likely in their early 70's, had pulled the large Rhinestone necklace from the blue satin box set and put a thin necklace and pendant in its place. They marked the 3-piece box "$5" and then... and to add to their profits, they marked the large plated necklace "$5".... [/i] Since the thin chain just "looked" different, and that my wife collects newer and old Rhinestone jewelry, I handed the lady a $5 bill for both and walked away with my eyes on their neighbor's garage sale.....
When I got home, I pulled the earrings and their studs showed to be well worn, but were unmarked plate. When I pulled the large loose plated necklace that should have been in the box from the bottom of the plastic bag they gave me, I realized that it matched the earrings.... I carefully pulled the thin necklace from the box's display background.... I see it's stamped "A-O" and 14kt and in two places.... It's White Gold, so it appears to be Silver... I then looked at the pendant, and inside the bail is stamped 14kt. Including the stone, the necklace weighs 2.5 grams.
Getting a bit shaky, I looked at the stone under my 16x magnifier... you can see some inclusion flaws and lots of tiny black specs.... I took one of my better Brown & Sharp micrometers and measured the width of the stone inside its setting. When converted from thousandths to millimeters, and it matches the measurements of a 3/4 carat diamond.....
See what you think.
