That's a beautiful ring, I love the design of the band and how the stone is nestled in the setting. I've been going to the same jeweler for over 20 years and I asked for his advice about selling some old gold pieces. Just before my Mother passed away she gave me some gold necklaces and rings and wanted me to have something made for my DD out of them. My jeweler told me that it's not practical to take specific pieces and 'melt' them down to make something new. Even though he does custom work he doesn't used old pieces, he sells them to his supplier. That's probably why the jeweler you're checking out advertises that he resells it. His advice to get the most money from your gold is to just trade it in on something else. He buys the gold and then if the seller wants to buy jewelry from him he'll add an additional 10% to 20% to the value of the gold on the trade-in. He also resells the best pieces that he gets as trade ins, others he resells to lower price jewelers and broken or out of date pieces he sells to his supplier. He also said to take the gold to several reputable jewelers for estimates. The mark up on jewelery is quite high. It's usually 100% so it's unlikely that you'll be able to get what was paid for the original piece.

Just last week I finally took a 3 ring wedding band set in to sell. The wedding bands were 18Karat, the engagement ring's band was 14K. I decided ahead of time to keep the 1/4 karat diamond that was on it because it was a good one that I can use on another ring in the future. I also took in an old watch that had a small gold case (although it's band was not gold), 4 silver SW button covers, a 10K ring I got when I was 16 y/o and a drop-dead gorgeous, very intricate inlaid turquoise and silver Zuni belt buckle & bolo set I won locally almost 30 years ago from a very reputable organization. I had them appraised by a jeweler then and knew they were the real thing and worth a lot. They've been in our safe deposit box ever since because, although valuable, they were not the more subdued style my DH wears. I did as much research as I could on the many gold buyers in the area. I was very disappointed in the lack of much worthwhile customer feedback on any of them, though. I did manage to narrow the field down to what I felt were the 3 top places. I felt that it was really important to tell each of them at the start that I was comparison shopping for the best offers, but hadn't made up my mind whether to sell or not (which was true). I also asked for them to price the items separately so that I would know how much they were offering for each. At the first place I took them to, the woman was friendly and very knowledgeable and explained everything to me as she was weighing and inspecting my jewelry. I felt her offer was very reasonable on everything but the Zuni buckle & bolo. She told me that she didn't believe they were real silver. Wrong! I liked that the location and shop itself felt safe (more on "safety" in a minute). The second place I went to runs lots of ads on tv. They tout that they have the highest rate of customer satisfaction, the most knowledgeable buyers and an armed guard for your added safety. I was extremely glad for the armed guard as the clientele in there worried me a lot! The guy just ahead of me was accused by the owner of perhaps trying to sell stolen goods. The place wouldn't buy whatever he was trying to sell. It frightened me that he was still out in his car (next to mine) when I started to leave. I honestly think he was going to rob me or follow me to rob me and apparently, so did the armed guard. He walked me to my car and then stood in front of the other guy's car with his hand on his holstered gun, staring him down, until the guy drove away. The guard told me to not go straight home and to watch to make sure that I wasn't being followed. I did as he told me, but that was scary! But, in the shop itself, the woman who looked at my jewelry came across as friendly, but told me that my button covers were not silver. When I insisted they were, she then offered me $1 for the four of them. She also initially told me that the buckle and bolo were not silver and offered me $75 for both. Since they were made and signed by (historically) one of the premier Zuni artists in the past 100 years, I was floored. She obviously was trying to con me. She also offered me, what she said was the highest offer I'd get in town for the rings, which was about $200 less than the other offer I'd just received. The third place I went to, after driving around for quite a while to make sure I wasn't being followed, is a fairly new place. Their ad also stated that they also bought old Native American jewelry, NOT to melt down but that they sold to collectors around the world. That their buyers were knowledgeable and experienced in gold, silver and old NA jewelry. And they were. They offered me $250 more than the last place for the rings, button covers and small gold watch case. Happily gave me prices and reasoning behind them for each piece. Never once questioned that any of them weren't "real". BTW, all 3 places did the testing on the silver before offering me their price. This third place also had an armed guard inside the shop, but the clientele were mainly retiree-type people, which weren't alarming to me. The buyer at this third place also spent about 15 minutes telling me everything he knew (which was a lot!) about the famous Zuni artist who'd made my buckle and bolo. His offer was very good on everything, almost $300 over Shop #2's offer for just the rings, watch case and button covers! I took it for those, but am holding onto the buckle and bolo. He offered me $500 for them both. Ones like it are listed on Ebay for up to twice as much and I'm trying to decide it I want to go that route instead. A dealer needs to make a good profit, but I'm not sure how much is "good" versus "a steal of a deal" (LOL). There are pluses and minuses to going each way. So, that's what I've learned. 1. Do as much research as possible ahead of time on the places available AND the pieces you want to sell. 2. Don't come across as desperate to sell or uninformed. 3. Ask for individual pricing for each piece, and write it down for comparison. 4. THINK SAFETY FIRST!!. Take another adult with you, if possible, that stays in the car while you go in and will make sure that you get back in your car safely. Keep watch that you're not being followed. Don't forget that crooks sometimes watch these places. They know that customers going in are coming out with one of two things: either a valuable piece they wanted to sell but didn't or the cash they got for it. Both are very attractive to a crook. So be aware of your surroundings as you leave and drive around for a bit to make sure that you're not being followed before you head home. Lynn

I post mostly on the trees & shrubs forum. When I include a pic I include something to indicate size such as a coin. Are the linked pieces 1" or 3"? or what? The brass pieces are somewhat coarsely made here's a guess to add to the pile: 19th Century American regalia for mounted cavalry, chain to connect saddle to breast plate. Too coarse for human jewelry, were these items buried? OP get back and indicate size of links.

Seattle, we had very early cable in my area or we would have had no television at all in most of my town. We lived at a relatively high spot in town and my neighbor up the street (who built his own TVs from scratch (early color) had a huge aerial tower with an additional pole on it with an antennae on top of that and I remember it falling off the tower and swinging down into the yard and burying one of the ends in my neighbor's leg (the homeowner). All when there were little kids standing around watching it happen. (We also played with Jarts and bow and arrow so we lived dangerously). Anyway we mostly had early cable, but it was still only the 3 networks and then public TV. When cell phones came in I had to get a carrier that had service where I grew up (one of the last dead spots in the country it seems like) and there are still significant dead spots for cell service. (And the satellite radio would go out for a second at one spot in our driveway and at one spot downtown at least until 2018, which is the last time I was there. And this is in PA, not anything too remote.