What's My Jewelry Worth? A Real Pricing Guide

Jewelry splits into two categories that get priced completely differently, and mixing them up is the most common mistake at an estate sale: fine jewelry (real precious metal and stones) and costume jewelry (base metal, glass, or synthetic stones) — and a piece looking expensive tells you almost nothing about which one it actually is.

First question: fine or costume?

Look for a hallmark. A tiny stamp — "925" or "sterling" for silver, "10K"/"14K"/"18K" for gold, "PT" or "950" for platinum — is usually stamped somewhere discreet: inside a ring band, on a clasp, on the back of a pendant. No hallmark doesn't automatically mean costume, but a genuine hallmark is the fastest, most reliable signal that real precious metal is involved.

Weight and feel are a rough secondary signal — real gold and platinum have a distinct heft — but hallmarks and, when in doubt, a jeweler's acid test or an XRF reading are the reliable ways to confirm, not a guess by feel alone.

For fine jewelry: two separate values

Melt value — what the precious metal itself is worth at current market prices, independent of design or maker. This is the floor for anything with a confirmed precious-metal hallmark.

Design and maker premium — a signed piece from a recognized jewelry house or designer, a distinctive design era (Art Deco, mid-century, etc.), or notable craftsmanship can be worth significantly more than melt value alone. A signature or maker's mark alongside the metal hallmark is what unlocks this.

Stones change the picture further — a genuine, well-cut stone (checked by a jeweler if size or clarity suggest real value) can be worth more than the metal setting itself, while a piece with synthetic or glass stones set in real gold is still priced primarily on the metal.

For costume jewelry: signed pieces are the exception

Most costume jewelry is worth relatively little individually — but pieces signed by a known costume-jewelry maker have an active collector market that pays real, specific premiums for the right maker and design era, completely independent of the (non-precious) materials used. Check the clasp or the back of a brooch or pendant for a signature the same way you'd check for a metal hallmark.

Price it by what it actually is

A full jewelry box at an estate sale usually mixes both categories, which is exactly the situation where sorting by eye is slow and error-prone. Paste the sale's listing into WorthAPick, or scan an individual piece, and get pricing based on real comparable listings — priced as what the piece actually is, not what it looks like from across a display case.