Many of my clients have valuables that their children and grandchildren simply don’t want. Let me tell you a story about Rhoda.
Rhoda was downsizing and moving from a large north shore home into a brand new, empty-nester condominium. She had quite a bit of sterling silver and old gold jewelry she decided to sell.
”My kids and grand kids just don’t want this stuff,” said 75-year old Rhoda. “They don’t want to polish the silver. The gold rings, bracelets, and necklaces are a bit old fashioned and the girls don’t like yellow gold,” she said.
“Got it. I will buy whatever you want to sell.” I said.
I went to work and separated out her sterling silver items from her silver plated. First, I reviewed her 12-place setting set of Wallace Grand Baroque sterling silver flatware.
“It constantly gets tarnished and nobody wants to clean it. They prefer stainless steel. Better yet, plastic!” Rhoda chuckled. Then, she showed me a Gorham sterling tea set, Wallace sterling candlesticks, and a wide assortment of sterling serving pieces and odds and ends. I weighed all the sterling items to calculate value.
Next, I tested and separated her jewelry into piles of sterling, 10K, 14K, and 18K. I took out the larger diamonds and other gemstones she wanted to keep and gave them to her in a baggie. Then, I weighed all the piles separately to calculate value.
At the end of the day, Rhoda walked away with over $15,000.
She told me she used the money to buy items for her downsized condo like a new, smaller sized sofa and dining room set. She also gave a portion of the money as a gift to her grandchildren for their college tuition funds.