Wide Assortment of Unique Items Available at Michigan’s MiBid

Just because you live in San Diego, doesn’t mean you can’t take advantage of MiBid (Michigan State’s Budget Office’s online auction Web site), which is now offering a wide and weird variety of used items to the highest bidder. Read more

Treasure Trove To Be Auctioned Dec. 16th and 17th

San Diego buyers of precious metals get prepared. Jewelry, stacks of gold and silver coins, and assorted medals are among more than 3,000 lots of unclaimed property treasures the state is auctioning off at James G. Murphy Inc., located at 18226 68th Ave. NE in Kenmore, beginning at 9 a.m. on Dec. 18 and 19.

The auction will continue each day until all lots for that day are auctioned off. Interested parties can preview items between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. on Dec. 16 and 17, or online at www.murphyauction.com. Online bids can be made during the auction.

Pocket watches, bars of silver, and assorted souvenirs are samples of items turned over to the State Department of Revenue after banks and credit unions lost contact with owners who rented safe deposit boxes and held the boxes without rental payment for at least five years. The department has sought out owners of the safe deposit contents, but by law must auction off the property within five years of receipt.

The state now holds $650 million in unclaimed property, belonging to three million people, accumulated since the 1950s. In addition to safe deposit contents, unclaimed property includes uncashed payroll checks, savings and checking accounts, and stocks and bonds. Each year more unclaimed property is turned over to the department. An online searchable database and claims system makes it easy to check for property – a system that has enabled the Department to return more than $112 million to about 240,000 rightful owners over the past three years. The database is available at ClaimYourCash.org.

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For those interested in the fine print regarding the trade of gold and silver jewelry, then we have just what you are looking for. Go to the following article for the details: Essential Guide to Trade in Gold & Silver Jewelry.

How San Diego Pawn Shops Work

Featured at the website HowStuffWorks.com is a good article about How Pawn Shops Work. The article rightly points out that pawn shops don’t really deserve the “shady” image that many people hold of them–often due to the way Hollywood depicts them as fence operations for stolen goods. For centuries, pawn shops have been the quick and convenient way for people to borrow money. Read more

California Pawn Shops Increase Business

According to a recent report by Bloomberg, California pawn shops have seen a dramatic increase in business over the past several months. The CEO of Beverly Loan (sitting in an office strewn with 18k gold bracelets, Rolexes, diamonds, and other luxury items worth thousands of dollars) is quoted as saying, not surprisingly, that business is booming. Read more

San Diego Jewelry Buyers Publishes Brief History of Pawn Shops

San Diego Jewelry Buyers (SDJB) has announced this week’s addition to its Knowledge pages for consumers interested in selling or collateralizing their fine jewelry, diamonds, watches, and gold. The article is titled “A Brief History of Pawn Shops,” and it adds to SDJB’s growing list of helpful information, facts, and tips involving jewelry, precious metals, timepieces, and luxury brands. Read more

Stephen Webster: Diamond Fanatic

The one exciting thing about shopping for jewelry at pawn shops, be they in San Diego or any other part of the country is that owners sometimes undervalue what they have in their showcases because they don’t realize what kind of item they have. This is especially so when it comes to hot new jewelry designers like diamond fanatic Stephen Webster.

From a modest start in the small town of Gravesend, near London, Webster has become one of today’s most recognized celebrity jewelry designers, attracting a wide range of famous clients, including Elton John, Kate Moss, Johnny Depp, Sharon Stone, Jennifer Lopez, and Nicholas Cage. His unique talents have been regularly recognized by his peers. He is a four-time winner of the “Luxury Jeweller of the Year” award (2001, 2002, 2003, and 2005) in the United Kingdom. He has also been the UK’s “Jewelry Designer of the Year” four times, most recently in 2006.

Unconventional and quirky, Stephen Webster blends the traditional values of jewelry craftsmanship with a love for modern fashion, street styles, and contemporary music. His career began at 16 when he attended a jewelry and silversmith course at Medway College of Design. He later studied under Tony Sheperd (a former Prime Warden of the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths) before heading out on his own to work as a craftsman for several London design houses–during which time he was twice commissioned to set the De Beers Diamond Stakes Trophy.

Stephen Webster set up his first studio in Canada in 1982, returned to England briefly in 1984, and then set off to California to explore the sun-drenched streets of the West Coast. In 1988 he once again returned to England to establish his current company Stephen Webster Ltd., which has become one of the largest jewelry manufacturing and design studios in London’s West End. Webster has also established independent boutiques and concessions around the world, including stores in Moscow, Hong Kong, Seoul, and St. Petersburg.

So what this all means is this: if you see a piece of Stephen Webster jewelry going for a couple hundred dollars at a San Diego pawn shop and you are sure it is the real deal, buy it!

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If you have some Stephen Webster diamond jewelry, then you might be thinking about having it appraised. Before you do, read: Beware of Jewelry Appraising Values.

7 Tips For Selling Diamonds & Diamond Rings in San Diego

Walking into a San Diego pawn shop or jewelery buyer’s office can be an intimidating experience if you have a diamond ring, earring, necklace, or bracelet that your looking to get a cash loan on or sell outright. You might be shocked by the amount of cash that is offered you. Before you walk through those doors, here are some things to keep in mind:

1) Understand that the price a San Diego buyer offers you will be substantially less than the retail price, because the buyer has to assume a great deal of added risk in buying your diamond or diamond ring. In other words, buyers have no assurance of the money they will receive when they try to resell your item, or how long they will have to hold onto your item before selling it at an acceptable profit.

2) The shape of your diamond will affect the price. For example, a round Brilliant cut diamond is often much easier to sell than a fancy shaped diamond like a Marquise, Heart, Trilliant, or Victorian cut. The more confident the buyer is that they have a ready buyer for your diamond the easier it is for them to assess the price. If there isn’t sufficient demand for the shape of your diamond in the current market that will lower their buying offer.

3) When a diamond is accompanied by certification this assists the buyer in pricing that item because this eliminates the need for them to grade the diamond themselves, the results of which may or may not perfectly match the findings on the certificate.

4) Keep in mind that the appraisal value of your diamond is the retail replacement cost. This figure has no bearing on the price which you will be offered should you decide to sell a diamond ring.

5) San Diego Pawn shops in general operate a business that requires greater liquidity. That is, they often need to turn around items much quicker than an established jewelry or diamond buyer. Thus the offer you might receive for a loan on a diamond at a pawn shop is likely to be lower than if you were to sell the item outright to a jewelry or diamond buyer.

6) Be wary of those San Diego diamond buyers who say that it is only the diamond that holds high value and that they just sell the ring for the scrap value of the precious metal. While mass market rings are valued at scrap value, branded fine jewelry that bears handcraftsmanship often holds substantial value and should not be chopped apart and melted down.

7) If possible, look for opportunities to sell your diamonds or diamond ring to a relative, friend, or friend of a friend in San Diego, as you may receive a higher price for your item by selling it privately in this manner.

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San Diego jewelry lovers probably know that Burma rubies are among the most coveted gemstones around. These gems now will become even more rare in the States with the start of the: Burma Ruby Ban.

NAWCC Announces SW California Regional

The National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors (NAWCC) Chapter 59 today announced the dates for its 2008 Southwest California Regional: November 20 through 22 at the Del Mar Fairgrounds.

This annual event, which Chapter 59 manages every November with co-host Chapter 136, attracts watch and clock sellers and buyers from all over the world. Many antique dealers attend the Southwest California Regional to replenish their inventory of vintage clocks and watches, making it one of the few major events at which the average collector can discover true “wholesale” deals on collectible timepieces.

The venue in the Del Mar Fairgrounds’ Wyland Center holds more than 250 tables, each laden with items for sale. In addition to complete collectible watches and clocks, you can find parts and tools for restoration and repair, horological books from technical manuals to lavishly photographed coffee table tomes, hard-to-find watchstraps and bracelets, and good old-fashioned one-man’s-junk treasure dealers. Whether you need a correct set of weights for a Black Forest cuckoo clock, a new mainspring for an old-fashioned pocket watch, or a museum-quality antique mantel clock, you’ll probably find it at the 2008 Southwest California Regional.

As the date of the event approaches, registration forms will be available online. For the latest information about the Southwest California Regional, visit:

http://www.nawcc59.org/regional.html.

About NAWCC Chapter 59

The NAWCC is a non-profit organization, and Chapter 59 is the San Diego chapter of the NAWCC. Its members come from all over San Diego County. Visit NAWCC Chapter 59′s website to learn about monthly meeting times and member benefits.

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If you are in the San Diego pawn shop industry, then the following news will be of special interest to you: Pawns Shops May Benefit from Fall of Jewelry Giants.

Pawn Shops May Benefit from Fall of Jewelry Retailers Friedman’s & Whitehall

Local San Diego pawn shops stand to profit from having two less competitors in the crowded retail jewelry market. National Jeweler Magazine reports that Friedman’s Jewelers filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in January, with Whitehall following suit in June. Read more

New Auction House to Sell Masterpiece Watches

Patrizzi and Co. Auctioneers, a new auction house founded by former Antiquorum chairman Osvaldo Patrizzi, has announced its first-ever auction.

The National Jeweler Network reports that the sale of watchmaking masterpieces will take place on Nov. 18 at the Hotel Richemond in Geneva, with collectors also participating via the Internet.

A trio of Breguet timepieces are among the lots to be auctioned off, with Breguet No. 2807, an 18-karat gold and enamel astronomical, equation-of-time pocket watch, among the offerings. The watch was one of an edition of three created by Breguet, but No. 2807 is the earliest of the three and the only one known to still be in its original condition. The watch features mean and true solar time, manual perpetual calendar and phases of the moon. The watch was sold to General Yermoloff in 1817 and is expected to sell between $1,400,000 and $1,850,000.

Breguet No. 2396 is a fine and extremely rare 18-karat gold watch with a “Garde Temps” four-minute tourbillon regulator. The timepiece’s regulator features constant force escapement that has been converted, as well as independent seconds, a 36-hour power-reserve indicator and fast-frequency balance. The watch was also sold to General Yermoloff in 1815 and is expected to fetch between $550,000 and $850,000.

The Breguet and Fils “Horlogers de la Marine Royal,” Breguet No. 3787, is one of three of the world’s first “Garde Temps” deck chronometers with double barrels known to have survived. Made in silver, the watch is one of the first practical deck watches ever made. It is estimated between $160,000 and $180,000.

Additional highlights of the sale include a Vacheron Constantin extra flat minute repeater and a Patek Philippe Ref. 1518, each expected to realize between $180,000 and $360,000.

For highlights and more information, visit the Patrizzi and Co. Web site, PatrizziAuction.com.

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If masterpiece watches are not your style but hip hop jewelry is, then the following article from the San Diego Luxury Pawn Shop Report is right up your alley: Hip Hop Bling Goes to Auction.

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