Selling gold and silver jewellery

I'd be the first to admit that I'm a bit of a magpie. I love anything shiny or glittery and as a result I have a lot of jewellery that I've collected over the last twenty or so years. I've got so much that I only wear a very small proportion, which always seems a waste.

I've tried selling jewellery on eBay, but without any success and have given some to charity, which feels good, but doesn't actually help my finances. I inherited some jewellery late last year and at the same time had a sort out of my existing jewellery. A couple of the pieces I'd inherited needed resizing or professional cleaning and so I decided to rationalise my jewellery and sell some of the jewellery I never wore, to pay for the work to the pieces which had some sentimental value.

I sorted through everything, kept items which I felt I would wear and made a pile of everything else. From that I tried to eliminate pieces of costume jewellery made out of stainless steel or which were silver plated, these were consigned to landfill. I then sorted the remainder into piles of silver, yellow gold and white gold. I only really wear white metal jewellery and so didn't have much yellow gold. Some of it was clearly a different colour to the rest and so I thought it must either be plated, or some other metal, but I included it just in case.

I then did an online search to find a reputable company to sell my jewellery to. Hatton Garden Metals came up a few times, so I registered with their site. I weighed the various collections of metal and input the weights into their website, to get an idea of how much I could expect from selling my metal to them. Silver really has very little value, but gold is still valuable. I was amazed to see that my collection was worth £283 (£261 for gold and £22 silver), but I was sceptical as there were some stones which would need to be removed which would reduce the weight, and as I mentioned above, I wasn't sure all the gold items really were gold. I decided that as long as I got more than £100 I'd be happy, as that would pay for the work I needed doing to the jewellery I'd inherited. I packaged it all up and posted it off.

I heard back a couple of days later that, as I'd suspected, some of the items weren't pure metal and they could pay me £147 (£127 for gold and £20 for silver). If I wasn't happy, they could return the items to me at a cost, but they'd have some damage (stones would have been removed and some pieces marked from testing). As any jewellery they returned would just go back into a drawer, I was happy to get nearly £150 for jewellery I didn't wear, so I happily accepted their offer.

The money was paid into my bank account within a couple of days. The whole process was really painless.

If you've got jewellery which means anything to you or that has any history, I wouldn't suggest selling it to a metal merchant. However, if you're like me and have a drawer full of jewellery you don't wear, it's an easy way of turning it into money that you can make more use of. I was happy with Hatton Garden Metals, but again, it's worth checking reviews, as you don't want to post your jewellery to a disreputable company, and risk never hearing from them again, or getting a poor price for your possessions.

To give you an idea, this is the jewellery I sold (yellow gold, then silver, then white gold). Some of it was broken or damaged, but as they simply remove stones and melt the metal down, it doesn't make any difference to them.

 

If you decide to sell anything, let me know. I'd love to hear how you get on.

Beauty box swap

As a lifestyle rather than beauty blogger, I'd never taken part in a beauty swap before. When I read about one that Kat was organising on her blog, I couldn't resist. I tend to stick to the same sort of products, so the idea of trying a selection of new and unexpected items really appealed.

I was paired with Kel from Adventures in Tea and Cake. The only downside was that her blog makes me want to call in for tea and cake at every quaint tea shop I pass, so far I'm pretty much resisting! We exchanged a few emails, decided on a budget, shared a few likes and dislikes and we were off! When my box arrived I was really excited, so excited in fact that I saved it until the weekend so that I could enjoy taking my time over it.

I was so pleased with the collection of things that Kel had picked for me. As I've not worn lipstick for eighteen months or so, Kel made sure I had a few options, with a matt lipstick from MUA in pouty pink, a Barry M Gelly Hi Shine in Sirius and a Fashionista Double Take long-wear lipstick in raspberry. I've already started wearing these, and can't work out why I've gone without lipstick for so long!

She also sent me some DHC Deep Cleansing Oil which is one of her favourite cleansing products. It's not something I'd tried before, but the best thing about a swap is finding great new products that you'd not have tried otherwise! Also in the box were bottles of body lotion and bath and shower cream from one of her favourite shops, Rose & Co. These smelt amazing and I do love a good soak in the bath, so they were much appreciated.

Next out of the box was a chocolate face mask, I'm embarrassed to say I've probably not used a face mask for ten years, but I shall now! I also had a couple of products from elf, an all over color stick, which I've been using on my cheeks and lips, and a jumbo eyeshadow stick, which gives a nice shimmery appearance to my eyes. Finally, there was a Body Shop eyeliner which is now my daily eyeliner (it's that good!) and some Elisha Coy CC cream, which I'm looking forward to trying when the weather's a little warmer and I can cast my foundation aside!

Thanks again to Kel for my beauty box. I honestly can't think of a better selection of products I could have received. I'll definitely be keen to sign up for beauty swaps again in the future!