Give it away to Goodwill or a charity that helps women get back on their feet. What might be lead to you may be gold to someone grateful for something to make them feel beautiful.

You should sell the fine jewelry - the gold prices are amazing!

As for costume stuff, sell it on Etsy or eBay.

Good question, I have some things I know my girl's will not want, at least I think they will not. I am thinking of doing a girls day at my house in the spring and bringing out the jewlery, old family pictures~~and since I have been decluttering lately any dishes, do dads or junk I think they may want. Let them go through it all, then donate the rest to a charity thrift store.

My brother died last June and I took my dads ring back. It is a solid yellow gold double headed dragon with rubies and green jade for the eyes and tongues. He had it refurbished so it looks perfect~~I took it to a shop to see if it really was 100% gold it is a rather large ring~~she said yes it was, but they would not buy it~~I said I was not selling just wanted to know if it was worth anything or not? She said if I wanted to sell it, I had to take it to a shop that deals in antique and custom jewlery to get my best price.

So you need to becareful getting rid of stuff somethings maybe worth $$

My brother was a hard and heavy drinker and he had hocked that ring many times for $100, so I thought it might not be worth much.

We had two smaller diamonds from my DHs grandmother. One was put in a Mother's Ring for me, with the stones for the months in which my children were born. Another was from his grand uncle, and was a good size, but slightly yellow. We had it set and hung on a chain for our daughter to wear on her wedding day. The other pretty half carat diamond really sparkled. We offered that to our son when he was planning to get engaged. He had it reset in a Tiffany type setting, and his wife loves having a family diamond as her engagement ring.

selling gold right now will get really good money the gold rate is high.

I did have several pieces and sets that my husband has given me over the years that I would no longer wear, so for our (his) granddaughters 16th birthday I bought a beautiful jewelry box and filled it with all the jewelry he has given me that I wanted to pass down to her, and gave it to her as part of her gift. I also gave her one of my really nice tiaras to have for her proms. She was speechless. When she opened the tiara box her mouth fell open and tears were in her eyes. I don't have children of my own so it makes sense to pass it to her because it was given to me by my husband. She is the oldest girl so she got it. Any thing I got through my family will be willed back to family members there.

Anything costume I guess someone will have to figure out some day if it's still around, or I don't sell it or give it away.

I would never give fine jewelry to goodwill or any other similar place because it likely will never make it to the store.

Most gold rings range from 12 to 18 karat because pure gold (24 K) is too soft. The gold content can be lower.

If your jewelry has gem stones for example, diamond, ruby, emerald, garnet, topaz, tourmaline, aquamarine, or any of the beryls, remove these before selling for the gold content. Sell the gems separately or remount in new settings.

Give the costume stuff to Goodwill or granddaughters.

We have a local jeweler who claims he pays better prices than scrap for good pieces, because if the piece is useable, he cleans, repairs it, and resells it rather than send it to the metal reclaimer.

There are some stones that have appreciated lately due to change of taste or increased rarity.

Colored diamonds having good light return and transparency command a higher price than clear ones. The exception is if the color clouds and dulls the stone, it also reduces its value. The more the sparkle, the higher the price. Good colored diamonds are more rare than the clear ones.

A good ruby is more expensive than an equal sized diamond.

Tanzanite is a rare stone. It is not as hard as the corrundums, diamonds, and diamond simulants, but it has georgeous color. It is found mainly in Tanzania and that source is drying up. The restriction of supply has increased its price.

Another stone, alexandrite, is not well known. Good examples are color changing stones. They appear reddish under incandescent or candle light, and then shift toward the blue, green and purple hues in sunlight. Not many people have seen a natural alexandrite. Its value is on par with emerald, rubies, and saphhires. Simulants of lesser value have been lab grown and are more common. I do not know if the cyrstal structure of alexandrite has been duplicated,

If you have good stones, do not give these away with the scrap metal.

Costume jewelry I bring to work and let my co-workers take what they want and whatever is left over I donate to the Goodwill. Gold, I sold it and was happy with the amount of money I got for the pieces I had.

Tally, we do give most things of quality and use to Goodwill. Sometimes we save things for friends, but I hate just throwing out something that has been gently used.

YogaLady, what a great idea to have a day with your daughters. I am sure it will be fun for all. I'm sorry to hear of your brother's passing. I'm glad you have your father's ring though. I'm sure it will hold both of their memories.

Ravencajun, what a sweet and special thing you did for your granddaughter. :)

Thanks to everyone for their thoughts and stories so far.

I gave most of my old costume jewelry to a friend who owns a little shop that sells "junk".

I have a wonderful collection of good jewelry (including all of my mother's jewelry), that is just sitting in the safety deposit box. I have two grandsons, but no sister, daughter, granddaughter, or niece, so I'm praying I live long enough to have a great-granddaughter or two.

My engagement ring diamond (an almost 3-carat marquise) will be sold when I die, to avoid any fighting over it.

I've sold 'lots' of fine jewelry and 'lots' of costume jewelry on eBay. Even the broken things will sell. People use old costume jewelry to repurpose into other things... so even if it looks like junk to you, someone may want it.

Very nice Raven!!!

The last antique show I went to, I was surprised at the number of dealers who had mostly vintage costume jewelry. I started collecting it for my daughter when she was about 12...and she kept it through college but not long ago, she brought most of it back because she no longer wears it. For the time being, I am keeping it. I thought I might have a granddaughter some day, but that doesn't look like it will happen.

I had some jewelry that I had trouble selling for the price I wanted. Rather than dealing with the hassle I decided to donate to https://www.collectibleswithcauses.org. It's a great way to get a tax deduction and help out others. Make sure to check out their website if interested in donating. I had a good experience and was glad to know they are an IRS certified 501(c)3 organization. Finding a reputable charity can be challenging and their staff put my mind at ease by answering my questions.

Last winter I sold several pieces of 14k jewelry. Remember gold nugget jewelry? I had a pendant. And remember herringbone necklaces everyone wore around turtlenecks? Sold one of those. Got more than I'd paid for them. :0)

After my husband passed away. I had the jeweler take out the substantial center diamond in my wedding ring and picked out a setting to put it in for a cocktail ring. The smaller diamonds in the ring guard were set in a ring they had designed for them. When I had this done I went through the different rings that I just never wore that often and they bought them too. I applied that money on my new rings.

When cleaning out my sister's apartment I gathered enough jewelry to fill 2 1/2 small flat bins used to store Christmas bulbs. She loved costume jewelry, so many clip earings, some that I remember she wore when I was a child like chandilier earings. Rings, watches, bracelets, brooches. Some pieces are good. She ordered some from shopping channels. The jewelry I cared most about finding was my Grandmother's wedding ring set that my sister wore but couldn't find it. We put a lot of clothing items in the apartment's recydling room before we realized a few days later we should have checked pockets. I have been slowly going through the jewelry and bought a magnet to help decipher what may be gold or silver. One thing I plan on doing with some of the earings is to make some wall art. My friend made a beautiful Christmas tree on velvet that she framed using her Mom's jewelry. You can also get some tall styrophone cones or cardboard cones and wrap them in velvet and cover them with pieces. So beautiful. You can also make some bouquets of jewelly flowers with some pieces.

Gave it to my daughter. I still have my wedding set that I keep planning to turn into a necklace for her. Someday I'll get around to doing that.

I donated a lot of costume jewelry I was no longer wearing to the Assistance League resale shop. It sold quickly. The income from the shop helps with the main charity project--a new school clothing store for needy children in our communities. Everything is free to qualified families.

Interesting to see this thread. I don't have to deal with that anymore lol.

Since the people who came to clean out the house after the flood threw away my entire jewelry box including my wedding rings which I was not wearing because my hands were too swollen. So I had one pair of earrings that I was wearing and one Fleur-de-lis silver ring that was big enough to wear. I bought a couple of pairs of earrings so I can change occasionally.