7 Signs Your Vintage Jewelry Isn’t Vintage - Episode #171

[00:00:00] Welcome to the Jewelry Resellers Podcast, your go-to source for all things shiny, sparkly, and of course, profitable. I'm your host, Desiree, and I'll be your guide on this dazzling journey through the world of reselling jewelry. We'll be diving deep into the art and science of reselling, uncovering valuable tips, insider secrets, and sharing stories from successful jewelry resellers. We'll explore market trends, industry news, and even discuss the jewelry reselling.

[00:00:30] How to find those hidden gems just waiting to be discovered in thrift stores, estate sales, and beyond. So, if you're dreaming of turning your hobby into a hustle, or if you're a seasoned pro looking to stay at the top of your jewelry reselling game, join me each week for insights, stories, and more on the Jewelry Resellers Podcast.

[00:00:53] So, how do you know if your vintage jewelry is actually vintage? How do you know if you have an authentic piece, or maybe a fake piece, or maybe even a reproduction? These are the questions that I get asked a lot. And in this episode, we're going to talk about some of the signs that you want to pay attention to about whether or not your jewelry is vintage.

[00:01:18] Now, this is not an episode that is going to tell you that you have to become a jewelry appraiser, or an authenticator, or a gemologist, or anything like that. But what I'm going to do is share in today's episode some of the things that I think you need to pay attention to, because so many resellers get tripped up on this.

[00:01:41] And one of the things that a lot of us have been noticing, and we've been discussing this, at least some of the resellers that I know, is that a lot of fake vintage jewelry has been flooding the resale market. Now, we're not going to get into a debate about what is fake, what is real, and who supplies what.

[00:02:02] But what I am going to do is hopefully give you a little bit of information and some knowledge to help you recognize when something needs further investigation. Alright, so that's the direction we're going today, jewelry friends. Hello, my name is Desiree, and you already know that I am your jewelry reselling bestie.

[00:02:27] So, like I said, we're going to get into the seven signs that your vintage jewelry may not necessarily be vintage. But I don't want you to feel overwhelmed or confused or feel like you have to become an expert, because you really don't. Now, as usual, I have a lot of notes that I'm going to be sharing today.

[00:02:48] And if you do have some specific questions that maybe I don't touch upon today, or maybe there's something that I didn't cover that you would like me to maybe do a deep dive on, please don't hesitate to leave me a comment, because you know I always love hearing your feedback and getting some input from you as it relates to future episodes. Alright, so let's get into the seven signs that your vintage jewelry may not necessarily be vintage.

[00:03:17] But of course, before we get into that, you know I like to always remind you to make sure you visit our website, JewelryResellersPodcast.com, because over there you can opt in to our newsletter. And when you do that, you will get instant access to a download that I created, and it's titled The 20 Best-Selling Vintage Jewelry Brands That I Think All Resellers Should Know. Alright, so like I said, you don't have to be a jewelry historian to recognize when something may be questionable,

[00:03:47] especially as it relates to vintage jewelry, or jewelry that is just in the retail market, or resale market, I should say. So, what we're looking for are inconsistencies. What we are looking for are things that maybe individually it may not be anything, but collectively when we notice all of these things, these should kind of, I don't want to say sound off alarm bells,

[00:04:16] but like I said, it may be something that you want to devote a little bit more time and energy to do some research. Alright, so sign number one is the backs look molded instead of assembled. Now, what do I mean by this? Well, one of the first things that a lot of us do as resellers is we always check the back of the piece, right? Depending on what it is, you always want to study and examine the construction of the jewelry,

[00:04:44] because the front may be beautiful, but the back can tell you a lot more about how the piece was put together. Many older pieces of quality costume jewelry were assembled from individual components. So, separate stone settings and decorative pieces were put together and soldered into the finished design. Now, some reproductions, on the other hand, are more likely to be cast or molded in larger sections.

[00:05:13] So, when you look at the back, instead of seeing individual components that were assembled together, you may see one continuous piece of metal. Now, of course, the casting itself doesn't mean that something, you know, is newer, but people have been casting jewelry for a long time, and so what you are looking at is the overall construction. Does the piece look carefully assembled from different parts,

[00:05:40] or does the entire thing look like it popped out of a mold? So, you don't have to know exactly what decade the jewelry came from to notice that difference, or to notice some of these, you know, irregularities, you know, in the piece. And this is why I always tell people, look at the back of the jewelry. Look at how the pieces are put together. Is there congruency? Is there neatness?

[00:06:09] All right, because a lot of these vintage pieces, the designers were very picky about not only the materials that were used, but how the pieces are placed and how they are held together. All right, sign number two that your vintage jewelry may not necessarily be vintage. This one is all about the prongs, and we're talking about prongs that are unusually thick or oversized.

[00:06:38] Now, looking at prongs, if you are not familiar with what prongs are, they're kind of like those little hooks that basically hold stones in place. All right, some reproduction jewelry has prongs that are wider and thicker and longer than what you may see on an older original piece. And sometimes those prongs extend much further over the stone than they really need to.

[00:07:05] Now, on better made quality, or I should say high quality vintage costume jewelry, the prongs tend to be more precise, and they're there to secure the stone, not necessarily cover it. So you want to really, really look closely at the prongs, because a lot of times, too, you can look at the condition of the prongs, and you can tell if they have been manipulated in some way.

[00:07:34] I've seen this on jewelry pieces where you can tell the prong maybe has been bent because either the stone was replaced, or maybe it's just an older piece and the stone got damaged, or the prong could have been damaged. But you really want to look closely at the prongs, okay? And some of the things you want to pay attention to are the stones surrounded by small, carefully formed pieces of metal,

[00:08:00] or are there big, chunky prongs stretching far across the stones, all right? It's not going to look sloppy if it is a well-made piece. And I do want to say, though, that thick prongs alone don't prove that something is not original or authentic, but a piece that is supposedly a high-quality, collectible, vintage design

[00:08:26] won't have oversized, sloppy prongs. I guess that's the best way to say it, all right? So that's something you definitely want to pay attention to. All right, sign number three that your vintage jewelry may not be vintage are the prongs aren't actually holding the stones. Now, this one is interesting because I've seen this in a lot of the mass-produced,

[00:08:54] kind of lower-end, lower-quality jewelry pieces, because sometimes a piece will look like it has prong-set stones, but you can actually see glue that is holding the stone in place. And the prongs are more there just for decoration, not actually for a useful utility aspect of the jewelry piece. So you want to look at those prongs again.

[00:09:22] Are they actually bent over the edge of the stone, holding it in place? Or are they just standing straight up around it, all right? On some reproduction pieces, the stone may be actually glued into the settings, like we talked about, while the prongs are basically just decorative. And I do want to emphasize and be clear about something, though, that sometimes stones will be glued into place.

[00:09:51] And it doesn't necessarily mean it's fake, but that should kind of raise your eyebrows in the sense in thinking like, well, has this piece been repaired? Has the stone been replaced or maybe switched with something else? So again, these are things that you want to pay attention to when you are looking at the overall piece of jewelry, all right?

[00:10:19] Now, like I said, there's plenty of genuine vintage costume jewelry with glued stones. So that's not instantly something that I would question the authenticity. But if it's sloppy or if it looks like, you know, it's kind of gunked up, because I've seen that too, where it looks like someone has repeatedly glued a stone in place, again, that's something that you want to pay attention to, because it could mean that maybe the piece is damaged in some way. All right.

[00:10:48] So actually setting stones and bending individual prongs takes more time. So with the inexpensive mass produced pieces, manufacturers will skip that step and they will use glue. All right. So I think that's it. Is that all I got in my notes? Yes, it is. All right. So let's move on to sign number four, that your vintage jewelry may not necessarily be vintage. And that is the maker's mark.

[00:11:18] Now, remember, not all vintage jewelry has a maker's mark. And just because something is unmarked, it doesn't mean that it's not authentic or it's not vintage or that it's not real. But the maker's mark of certain known pieces are going to be another indicator about whether or not you have a reproduction piece or if you have a true vintage piece. All right.

[00:11:45] So a signature on jewelry does not automatically make it authentic either, because I'm sure a lot of us have seen where, you know, sometimes signatures, stamps, maker's marks, those can be faked to some degree as well. Now, this is especially important with collectible brands, because once a maker becomes, you know, valuable enough, the name will become valuable too. So you want to look closely at how the mark was made.

[00:12:14] An authentic older maker's mark may have been dye stamped into the metal, which can create a cleaner, sharper impression. On a reproduction piece where the signature is part of the casting, the letters may look softer, less crisp, or almost like they didn't blend into the surrounding metal. Or sometimes you will see variations of the maker's mark,

[00:12:40] like maybe the first letter will be strong and crisp. And then towards the end, it kind of gets, you know, faint or it kind of fades out. So these are things that you want to look at, because like I said, they could warrant some additional investigation. I guess I want to say that you need to look at the quality of the maker's mark. Does it look clean and intentional like we talked about?

[00:13:07] Does it look soft, uneven, or maybe the spacing is weird? Because I've seen that a lot, especially on Tiffany pieces. You know, sometimes the positioning of the stamp will not be perfectly centered, or it will be crooked or something like that. Now, of course, this isn't a foolproof method. But again, it's going to be, you know, one of the things we're going to look for and examine when we are trying to figure out whether or not we have a true vintage jewelry piece,

[00:13:37] or if we have something that could be actually authentic, or maybe not. All right, so let's move on to sign number five, whether or not, wait, sign number five of whether or not your vintage jewelry might not be vintage. Now, this is one I've kind of already talked about, and this is the construction of the piece. Is it sloppy or poorly done?

[00:14:05] This is usually the one that strikes me the most, especially when I am outsourcing. I can tell by looking at a piece how well it's made or how poorly it was made. You can also see how certain pieces come together, like on the clasp or maybe on the pinback, if it's a brooch or something like that. Or sometimes you just look at the materials and how they're, you know, how they're made and how they are holding together.

[00:14:30] So this one I think is probably one of the easier clues that you're going to find when you are trying to distinguish whether or not your piece is actually vintage and whether or not your piece could be real or fake. All right, so this one ties together several of the earlier clues, like we talked about, with quality vintage costume jewelry, especially pieces from respected designers and manufacturers.

[00:14:56] There was often a tremendous amount of workmanship involved, even though the jewelry wasn't made from precious metals and gemstones. So look at the settings. Look at how the pieces connect. Look at the soldering. You know, look at the back like we talked about, and look at how much unnecessary metal is there. And also another thing that I want to point out is you, if you can, you want to feel the piece.

[00:15:24] Because not only will a high quality piece be put together really well, but it's not going to have any sharp or jagged edges. It's going to be really comfortable to wear. And it's not going to have pieces that are just kind of, you know, randomly unfinished, sticking out, or rough. Now, I do want to add to that, that sometimes over time and over years,

[00:15:53] the wear and age of the piece could cause a few rough or uneven spots. But again, this is just one thing you want to pay attention to when you are looking and evaluating the entire piece. All right. So some reproductions can look heavier and less refined because more of the design has been cast together instead of being built from individual components.

[00:16:22] And that's something that we talked about earlier. And here's something I want to throw out there too. I think beginners sometimes get fooled by weight because there's this idea that, you know, heavy automatically means good quality. And in most cases it does, but not all the time. You know, heavy can be good, but heavy can also mean there's just a lot of metal because the piece was cheaply cast. All right. So again, we're going to look at all of these things

[00:16:51] and we're going to try to make a determination about whether or not this is a high quality piece. And then we're also going to try and figure out whether or not it's actually vintage. All right. So what matters more is whether or not the construction looks intentional and refined. Okay. So something is supposedly a beautiful vintage designer piece, but the backside looks rough.

[00:17:19] The settings are uneven or there's excess, like there's too much. And I've seen this on fast fashion jewelry pieces where the metal just kind of looks like a big glob on the back. All right. The workmanship is just not there. And that's when you want to, like I said, really, really question not only the age of the piece, but also the quality of the piece.

[00:17:50] All right. Let's move on to sign number six as it relates to seven signs that your vintage jewelry may not be vintage. There are suspicious numbers of identical pieces. Now, this is something I've seen online. I've also seen this in live shows, right? Because I'll probably have to do another podcast episode about this particular topic.

[00:18:16] But there are a lot of jewelry resellers doing live selling now. And there's been a lot of talk about fake vintage jewelry pieces flooding the resale market. And I have seen this in live shows. Of course, I'm not going to call anybody out because I don't know for sure.

[00:18:36] But just from my own experience and my own knowledge, I have seen some pieces where the seller has made the claim that this is an authentic vintage whatever. And just looking at it, it doesn't quite match what you would expect to see if that piece truly were what the seller claims it is. All right. And I'll just leave it at that. Like I said, I'm probably going to have to do an entire episode discussing this.

[00:19:04] But if you have any thoughts about that, again, feel free to leave me a comment. So this is what I'm talking about. I have seen even online where someone says, oh, I have a Miriam Haskell brooch or a necklace or whatever bracelet. And they have three in stock or they have six of them in stock. Now, could this be dead stock vintage jewelry?

[00:19:34] Absolutely, it could be. But for the most part, I would always question that. Because as we do know, some authentic jewelry pieces have been sent overseas so they can be copied and mass produced. And I've talked about that on the podcast before. So this is something we need to be aware of, even if maybe we haven't come across it yet.

[00:20:00] Understand that there are real, true vintage jewelry pieces that are right now currently being copied and made in the hundreds or thousands. And then they're being sold as true vintage, true antique or true authentic jewelry. All right. So I think this is more one to just kind of keep in your mind.

[00:20:25] Because most sellers, they will have one of whatever that particular jewelry piece is. But if they have 20 or 30 of those, then that's going to raise a flag. That's going to raise a red flag for me. All right. It doesn't automatically mean that the jewelry is fake. But I do have some questions. Because like I said, I know dead stock exists. Jewelry companies made thousands of pieces back in the day.

[00:20:50] And old warehouses, you know, do inventory lots of these pieces that may have been packed away for decades. I'm not saying that that can't happen. But it does have to make sense, right? And it does have to kind of pass through my filters of all the things that we're talking about today about whether or not the piece actually is what the seller claims it is. All right.

[00:21:18] So the quantity needs to make sense with the rest of the story. If somebody tells you a piece is extremely rare, highly collectible, 70 years old, or difficult to find, but somehow they have four of them or they have 10 of them or they have 100 of them, whatever the case may be. Then you got to see that there's an inconsistency there.

[00:21:46] You got to see and question like, okay, if it's so rare, how do you have so many? All right. Don't be afraid to ask questions and don't be afraid to kind of say no to something if it's not making sense or maybe your spidey senses are telling you, you know, something isn't quite right here. All right. So this is where basic common sense becomes part of jewelry evaluation, jewelry authentication, you know, studying the piece.

[00:22:16] You don't have to know everything about everything as it relates to jewelry, but you do have to, you know, really feel confident that you are purchasing what you believe the seller is claiming it to be. All right. So that's the thing is you just have to be very careful because especially in live selling and I will just close this section on this in live selling.

[00:22:45] A lot of times you look at a jewelry piece and you don't have very long to see it. So it's real easy for a piece to kind of quickly be shown and then the seller says it's whatever and then you bid on it and now you're kind of locked in to buying it without even really knowing truly, you know, or having time to really assess and examine the piece. All right. So just do your due diligence and be very careful.

[00:23:12] All right. Sign number seven. And this is the last one that we're going to talk about today. This is when you find that exact piece being sold as new. Now this happened to me and it actually happened with a piece of jewelry I bought in a live sale. All right. So the seller said that it was a vintage Avon.

[00:23:35] Now to her defense, it was a necklace and it had a pendant on it and the actual necklace change was vintage Avon. But I wasn't quite sure about the pendant. The pendant was beautiful and I'm probably going to throw up some pictures here. The pendant was beautiful, but it did look newer to me. But the seller claimed that the necklace and the pendant were both vintage.

[00:24:03] Now the necklace was vintage Avon because it was marked as such. And I could tell by looking at it that that's actually what it was. But the pendant was something that, you know, made me question. But because the price was right, I was willing to take a chance. And of course, when I did receive the necklace, I could clearly see that the pendant was not vintage, even though she said it was. You know, maybe she didn't know. Maybe she thought it was.

[00:24:32] Maybe someone told her that the pendant was also vintage. But with trusty Google Lens, I was able to find the exact same pendant and it was actually being sold as a hairpin. It's the same exact design, but the stone colors are a little bit different.

[00:24:51] So again, you want to do your due diligence and use the tools that you have accessible to you to make sure you're actually getting what you are paying for. Right. Right. So you don't want to look for something. Because here's the thing. I know there are modern pieces made to look like they're vintage.

[00:25:20] And, you know, that's fine as long as, you know, you're selling them as such or the seller is selling them, you know, saying these are not vintage pieces. They're made to look vintage. But you just have to be very careful. All right. And I know doing research sometimes is a pain. And that's one of the things I hear a lot of jewelry resellers say that they don't like to do because it does take a lot of time.

[00:25:44] And sometimes you can spend, you know, a good 20, 30 minutes, maybe even hours on just one piece. And I'm not saying that's what you have to do all the time with every piece. But if you have something that you think could be worth a decent amount, then you may want to spend the time to research it. Okay. And use the tools that you have available. Of course, Google Lens. You all know that I have Jewelry Bestie.

[00:26:08] Or you can join my group, Jewelry Jumpstart, and you can post a picture in there and we will all chime in and help you figure it out. But for the most part, nowadays, there's too much information out there between Google, YouTube, AI tools, Facebook groups. Like I mentioned, there's my group.

[00:26:34] There's so many ways to get information about jewelry nowadays that, you know, you should not get scammed or ripped off or anything like that. I know it still happens that I'm not saying, you know, everything is perfect. But, you know, you have a lot at your disposal to help you make a very thorough and educated and informative decision. All right.

[00:27:00] So, like I said, sometimes modern companies reproduce genuine old designs. Sometimes older designs get reissued. Sometimes a modern manufacturer copies an antique or a vintage piece. That's totally fine. I'm sure we've all seen that. So, I think it's all about transparency and about communicating exactly what it is that the seller is selling.

[00:27:25] And then for those of us as buyers, you know, if we're sourcing, whatever the case may be, then we need to make sure that we are asking questions. And if, again, if there's any type of confusion or hesitation, you know, don't be afraid to walk away from the deal. I promise you there's another deal right around the corner. You will find another jewelry lot. You will find another brooch.

[00:27:50] You will find another seller that will, you know, match exactly what it is that you're looking for. All right. So, try not to fall into the scarcity trap of thinking, oh, my gosh, this is, you know, the only time I'm going to be able to get this piece. You know, that does happen, but it doesn't happen that often. Right. And I'm telling you, you will always be able to find another deal. You will.

[00:28:17] Maybe not those exact pieces, but with all the sellers out there, not to mention antique malls and thrift stores and yard sales and estate sales and auctions, you will find more jewelry. I promise you. All right. So, instead of asking, is this a pretty old looking brooch or is this pretty old looking brooch vintage?

[00:28:42] You want to ask, is this an original vintage version, a reproduction, a reissue, or is it a modern piece? All right. Keep that in mind when you are making your assessment and making your evaluation. All right. So, I think the most important thing is that we're not only relying on one of the things that we're talking about today. We're kind of putting all of these things together.

[00:29:08] And we're trying to put together a story that makes sense for us to take the next step of buying, you know, that particular jewelry piece, that jewelry lot, whatever the case may be. All right. We're going to ask questions. We're going to focus on, you know, our own knowledge.

[00:29:28] And even if we're not experts, you know, we still can have a basic foundational knowledge about how the piece should look, the quality of the piece, what it should feel like, how it should flow, the construction, and all the things that we talked about today. All right. All right. So, we're not going to use condition alone to date jewelry. All right.

[00:29:55] And the same thing, too, kind of goes in the reverse in that something can look old without actually being old. I've seen that happen a lot, too. So, you want to just do the best you can. And I'm not saying that, you know, what we're talking about today is a foolproof method to guarantee you're never going to buy something inauthentic, fake, or whatever.

[00:30:22] But I think it should give you enough so you're confident so you can at least look at some things and you can pick out inconsistencies or things that just don't make sense. All right. So, let me go over my notes and make sure that I did not forget anything. So, I just want to remind you, too, that, you know, this will take time.

[00:30:52] It takes time to learn this. Right. And I'm still learning and I've been doing this for a long time. But I just want you to be comfortable and I want you to be confident that you can do this and you can source jewelry and you can find jewelry. And I want you to be confident that you can find jewelry and you can find jewelry and you can find jewelry.

[00:31:11] And hopefully not get misled or, you know, fall into a buyer being dishonest or a seller being dishonest or something like that. All right. So, that's all I got for you in today's episode, jewelry friends. Let me know your thoughts on this one. You know, do you have trouble recognizing vintage jewelry pieces or do you have some additional tips that maybe I did not cover? Let me know.

[00:31:41] All right. So, I want to thank you so much for spending this time with me and I'll check in with you again really soon.