How to sell a lot of vintage (mostly) cuff links

I would sell the Krementz cufflinks & the ones in their original box by themselves. All the other cufflinks, tie clasps & other men's jewelry I would lot together. The fraternity & honor society type medals can probably sold together as a lot unless there is one that turns out to be 10K or 14K gold or the particular organization sells well all by itself.

For example a few years back I came across a tiny pennant shaped University of Pennsylvania pin & it sold for $168.50 all by itself so research them before you lot them together.

 

Ah, I appreciate that. I went ahead and did individual Krementz listings. However, I just listed the tie clasp and collar clip individually also. Too late to take your advice this time around. We'll have to wait and see now. Thank you!

On the medals, the Honor Society one is marked 14K. I'm going to show the University one to a jeweler friend on Thursday. Because it looks like gold, and is engraved with the owner's initials and a date ('33).

 

Just FYI - items marked 1/20 or sometimes 1/10 are all gold-filled, a heavy gold electroplate. Pieces marked 14 (18, 10, 22 etc) KP are the real deal - plumb gold. It's exactly on the karat marking. There's some leeway allowed, but plumb pieces are precise. It ups the value by a bit.

 

Just to correct evelyn's description of GF as electroplate here is a bit of an explanation of rolled gold or 'gold filled'.

1/20th GF (or rolled gold) is a sandwich of (say) 1 inch of copper or brass and 1/20th inch of gold sweated together (in effect glued with solder) and then rolled out thinner and thinner till it reaches the required thickness for use, say 2/100ths of an inch thick. That original 1/20th inch sheet of gold is now 50 times thinner or 1 thousandth of an inch thick.

Thicker than plating which can be only a few atoms thick and as durable as cotton candy, but still the same proportion of gold to base metal as it started off. The quality of rolled gold items is measured by that 1/20th or whatever figure.

Pocket watch cases used to be rated as so many years wear (before the brass substrate showed through), a cheap case would be 5 years, a top quality case 25 years.

Obviously the carat of the gold casing would be whatever they started with in the original gold sheet, so gold filled can be any carat.

With the high price of gold even gold filled items may be worth scrapping, but prices will be pretty low due to the pot luck effect of various standards of gold filled and the variable amounts of gold that will have worn away. The only fair way to do it is to refine first and pay according to the amount of gold recovered. This is not something usually available to the average punter.

Terms for 'goldish' stuff are all over the place nowadays with the obnoxious term 'gold tone' so common. You can pretty well rely on anything not being clearly defined in relation to some common standard like fractional gold filled values will, if it has any gold at all, be of that cotton candy durability and probably contain less gold to weight than the gold ore originally mined.

 

As an afterthought, Sheffield Plate (using the term correctly, now often called Old Sheffield Plate) was the same principle as rolled gold, copper and silver bonded together as thick sheet, then rolled out thin enough to use like sheet silver. This made possible a silver plate like result before electricity was available for electroplating.

Obviously the pre-rolled material was made as a sandwich of silver/copper/silver as is most rolled gold, hence the 'gold filled' term with 'sandwich' dropped but implied.

 

Af - I wish I had a printer! Have been looking for an intelligible definition for the above for ages! Thanks!

 

Silver, I'll be happy glad to print it for you. Send me your address.

 

Happy to help. I just turf out the junk from head and write it down, but it's still a ways off empty.

 

Darn! Thank you, Northern, much appreciated. I tried sending a message, but something went caterwumpus. Call when you have a moment.

(signed) Fumble Fingers

 

AF's right about the distinction. It's not that important to the average joe; you have to get an awful pile of it together before it amounts to much.

 

Hi Silver. Check your inbox messages. I tried calling just now, but did not get you.

 

Hi,
Your Hitchkok is not a tie clasp it is a collar clasp it goes under your tie knot at the top of your shirt. Just an added look of being swanky.
greg

 

Thank you, and hello, gregs! I am loving seeing so many old friends on this terrific site. As it turned, I had learned that in time, before I started the listing.

 

I also have a collection of cuff links and I am looking for a buyer. Some are sterling most gold are sold. Huge amount. I need to down size these and jewelry too. Help

 

Hi! You've been here since 12/14.
Wonder why you're noted as a new member on your avatar???
Any Navy or Statue of Liberty items in that group?

 

I'd put them out in lots of three or so pair each and let fly. Sterling cuff links tend to do rather well this time of year.