The 8 Biggest Myths About Jewelry Reselling! - Episode #41

[00:00:00] Welcome to the Jewelry Resellers Podcast, your go-to source for all things shiny, sparkly

[00:00:06] and of course profitable. I'm your host Desiree and I'll be your guide on this dazzling

[00:00:11] journey through the world of reselling jewelry. We'll be diving deep into the art and science

[00:00:17] of reselling, uncovering valuable tips, insider secrets and sharing stories from successful

[00:00:24] jewelry resellers. We'll explore market trends, industry news and even discuss how to find

[00:00:31] those hidden gems just waiting to be discovered in thrift stores, estate sales and beyond.

[00:00:36] So if you're dreaming of turning your hobby into a hustle or if you're a seasoned pro looking

[00:00:43] to stay at the top of your jewelry reselling game, join me each week for insights, stories

[00:00:49] and more on the Jewelry Resellers Podcast.

[00:00:55] Alright, welcome to another episode of The Podcast. Today is going to be very interesting

[00:01:01] because we're going to talk about some myths, maybe some assumptions, maybe some things

[00:01:06] you've randomly heard as it relates to being a Jewelry reseller. So if this is your

[00:01:13] first time listening to the podcast, I do want to say welcome and my name is Desiree

[00:01:20] and I am really excited that you are here because I think this is definitely going

[00:01:24] to be a fun topic. And I think it's going to get you thinking because some of these

[00:01:30] things we may have heard, some of these things maybe people have tried to, I don't want

[00:01:36] to say argue but you know how when people try to make a point and so they will throw

[00:01:42] things out there that may or may not necessarily be accurate. So that's what we're going to talk

[00:01:48] about today. We're going to talk about 8 myths as it relates to being a jewelry reseller

[00:01:55] or having a jewelry reselling business because there's a lot of misconceptions about what

[00:02:02] we do and let me tell you how the idea for this topic came about. So I was talking to someone

[00:02:11] the other day and she's not a reseller at all. As a matter of fact, she doesn't really

[00:02:18] understand the business of reselling and I don't know if she is even into thrifting

[00:02:26] or yard sailing or anything like that. She has a regular corporate job and that's her

[00:02:31] thing and that's fine but when we were talking about my podcast because you know we were

[00:02:38] catching up and so I had shared that I had started a podcast and I'm still doing the reselling

[00:02:44] thing. Her first, I guess question was well can you actually make money at that? You know

[00:02:56] because she doesn't understand she doesn't understand that this is something people do

[00:02:59] and that this is something that people like us do full time at least some of us do. So we

[00:03:06] got to talking and we went back and forth a little bit. I mean it wasn't an argument or anything

[00:03:11] like that but she just did not understand and she had all of these ideas about what jewelry

[00:03:18] reselling is and a lot of it was just plain wrong or totally off the mark. So I said you know

[00:03:29] what let's talk about this. Let's let's let's talk about this and figure out what actually is true

[00:03:40] when it comes to jewelry reselling, having a jewelry reselling business, being a jewelry

[00:03:46] reseller at whatever level you're at. It doesn't matter because we're all trying to make this work in

[00:03:53] some way shape or form. But I really want to talk about like I said the myths, the misconceptions,

[00:04:01] the inaccuracies about what we do and some people have these unrealistic visions about what a

[00:04:09] jewelry reselling business is when they get started and then they learn once they really get into

[00:04:16] doing this that it's not exactly what they had thought it was. All right so I did some thinking

[00:04:23] I came up with the list of actually seven things but I'm throwing in one extra one so I guess eight

[00:04:32] myths about what we do or misconceptions or whatever and so I wanted to talk about those and then

[00:04:40] let me know what you think. Do you think that people have these ideas about jewelry reselling? Do

[00:04:48] you think people really understand what it is we do now reselling in and of itself is already

[00:04:56] something that's kind of hard to explain to other people especially other people they don't do it.

[00:05:00] I mean pretty much everyone understands eBay or selling stuff on Facebook marketplace. I think

[00:05:06] people understand that but they really don't understand how to do what what we do with jewelry especially

[00:05:15] for those of us who sell vintage and antique jewelry pieces. All right so let's go ahead and get started.

[00:05:22] Now the jewelry reselling business just like any other trade or business is surrounded by a lot

[00:05:31] of misconceptions like I said and sometimes people who do want to get into this.

[00:05:39] I think some you know people have these unrealistic expectations about exactly what you have

[00:05:45] to do and how much money you can make because we all know there's no limits really on this

[00:05:52] but it does require some work and it requires some type of knowledge and I've talked about that

[00:05:58] in many many episodes but let's go ahead and start with some of these top myths about

[00:06:08] jewelry reselling and I'm going to do my best to debunk each one. All right so the first one

[00:06:16] that I thought of was a lot of people think you need a really large investment to start this.

[00:06:24] I think because people they hear the word jewelry and so they automatically assume

[00:06:33] well jewelry is a very expensive business to get into because they probably think we're selling all

[00:06:38] gold or all silver or whatever or luxury or high-end pieces. So one common myth is that starting a

[00:06:47] jewelry reselling business requires a significant upfront investment. Now while having

[00:06:58] capital upfront can help many successful resellers start small and I put myself in this category.

[00:07:08] You know they begin by sourcing undervalued pieces from estate sales thrift stores online marketplaces

[00:07:16] and then we gradually build our inventory and business with careful reinvesting of our profits

[00:07:28] and we're also building our knowledge too as we're doing this right so

[00:07:33] and I know for me I started with my own personal jewelry that's how I really got started doing

[00:07:39] this because I had a lot of jewelry and so it didn't cost me anything because the jewelry I was

[00:07:44] selling when I first started was my own so I didn't have to source it or anything. So you don't

[00:07:51] need a large investment to start. Now I'm not saying if you have an investment you know if you

[00:07:57] have the money upfront to go ahead and start this I'm not saying that it won't work but it's just

[00:08:03] not necessary right it's not necessary to have a lot of money upfront in order to start a jewelry

[00:08:10] reselling business all right so that's number one. All right the second thing I thought about was

[00:08:18] that a lot of people think only luxury jewelry is profitable and that's kind of like

[00:08:26] when I was talking with with my girlfriend she didn't understand that selling pre-owned vintage

[00:08:36] jewelry pieces can sometimes be way more profitable than selling luxury jewelry pieces. Now of

[00:08:42] course that's not always but you know in her mind she only thought of gold silver diamonds that kind

[00:08:51] of thing so while luxury and designer jewelry can yield very high returns there's also a huge market

[00:09:02] for costume jewelry vintage jewelry antique jewelry as well as unique and handmade jewelry right like

[00:09:14] we all know this so many buyers are seeking out certain styles or materials or maybe certain

[00:09:24] eras rather than just brand names or designers and so this creates a lot of opportunity across a wide

[00:09:35] range of price points. So this definitely is not true it's not only luxury jewelry that is profitable

[00:09:45] and we all know that right but that's what a lot of people think especially people who don't do

[00:09:51] or understand what we do. All right so the next myth I want to bust is some people think that

[00:10:04] being successful as a jewelry reseller is all about being lucky being in the right place at

[00:10:11] the right time being at the thrift store when they put out that fabulous piece that you know you

[00:10:17] just happen you just happen to be lucky if you were there and you found it first. Now I'm not saying

[00:10:24] that can't happen but that is not what makes a successful jewelry reselling business and anybody

[00:10:31] who's done this for any length of time will tell you that but again a lot of people believe that

[00:10:39] finding valuable pieces for reseal is really about luck. Now like I said luck can play a part

[00:10:50] but success most often comes from doing the research having knowledge about jewelry as well as

[00:11:02] the jewelry market and like I've said many times before networking and relationships.

[00:11:11] Now to some degree we also have to follow and keep up with certain trends although I don't think

[00:11:16] that is as important but also knowing where to look knowing where to source

[00:11:23] and then being able to accurately assess jewelry pieces their value their condition all of those

[00:11:33] things those are skills that are developed over time. Now once you have those skills that can create

[00:11:41] more lucky opportunities that reminds me of a quote that I heard years ago and I don't know

[00:11:53] who to give credit to but I'll just share it with you and it is the harder I work and the more I

[00:12:00] know the luckier I get and I think that's where the luck comes in and I'm sure we've all heard

[00:12:06] that quote too where it says luck is just prepared preparedness meeting opportunity or something like

[00:12:14] that so that's really where the luck is it's like we're creating our own luck by doing our homework first.

[00:12:23] So that is a huge myth finding jewelry that you can reseal for a profit

[00:12:29] but it's not about luck it's just not about luck. All right

[00:12:41] I'm on number four now and this is another myth that my friend kind of alluded to when we were talking

[00:12:49] to him and that is online sales are easy money. Now this is not specific to jewelry reselling I

[00:13:01] have seen a lot of people who just come into reselling selling whatever and they come in with the idea

[00:13:07] that oh I'll just throw something up on eBay or I'll just throw something up on Poshmark or wherever

[00:13:16] and it'll sell and tons of people will bid on it or I'll be able to sell it for whatever price I want.

[00:13:25] Now we all know that's not how it works but you'd be surprised when

[00:13:31] people come in with that preconceived idea that that's how this works. Now I'm not going to say

[00:13:38] online selling is extremely difficult but it's not easy money either especially if you want

[00:13:49] if you want consistent money and you want to make this work long term you're going to have

[00:13:55] you're going to have to have some kind of system set up you know we've talked about that in other

[00:13:59] episodes and you're going to have to have some type of structure in place in order to

[00:14:06] make sure your money does come in every day every week every month whatever.

[00:14:12] All right so selling jewelry online does offer some accessibility

[00:14:19] and you can reach a broader market but that's not a guarantee of easy profits not at all.

[00:14:27] Effective online selling does require high quality photography, engaging product descriptions,

[00:14:36] knowledge of SEO in some cases really strong customer service skills and a lot of times we all know

[00:14:45] patience right especially with jewelry because yes there are some things that do have a quick

[00:14:53] selfie rate but a lot jewelry in general takes a little bit longer to sell than say you know clothing

[00:15:01] or maybe some I don't know things like you know video games and books and stuff like that

[00:15:09] so you know we have to be patient and and that's why we need a good consistent supply of inventory

[00:15:17] so while we are awaiting for some things to sell we have other things that are selling you know

[00:15:22] and it's kind of like a cycle I guess. And the other thing about online sales as it relates to selling

[00:15:29] jewelry is that it can be very competitive and for those of you who are just starting you know

[00:15:36] it may take you a while to really find your groove to really establish your brand and to let people

[00:15:43] know who you are and what you're doing and what you're selling so online sales

[00:15:50] and I'm not saying that this is only jewelry but online sales just are not easy money

[00:15:55] it does take some type of skill and knowledge and like we mentioned patience.

[00:16:05] All right moving on to the next myth as it relates to jewelry reselling or being a jewelry

[00:16:12] reseller and that is you need to be a jewelry expert. Now I thought about this one because

[00:16:23] in some ways I think being a jewelry expert can be helpful but it's not necessary

[00:16:32] I am in no way shape or form a jewelry expert and I have figured out how to do this at least to

[00:16:39] the best of my ability. So while having an expertise in jewelry can certainly give you an

[00:16:47] edge or an advantage many successful resellers start off with a passion for jewelry and learn as

[00:16:55] they go and that is exactly how I have navigated this journey in my own personal or I guess I should

[00:17:04] say reselling career life. All right so it's not like I had all this knowledge, it's not like I was

[00:17:14] an expert in anything jewelry related to be honest I mean it really was

[00:17:22] me just kind of learning as I go and researching as I go and then building upon that.

[00:17:29] So there's numerous resources available for self-education and this includes books online courses,

[00:17:38] videos, workshops even just kind of just going out and looking at jewelry in person that is hugely

[00:17:48] educational and it is also fun. Now networking and meeting other people who are experts

[00:17:58] you know for advice or education or tips or whatever that will also help too and that's one of the

[00:18:05] things I try to do on this podcast is I try to bring you people who are experts who can share their

[00:18:13] knowledge with us so we all can learn and we all can grow. All right but that is a huge myth

[00:18:20] to sell jewelry online you do not need to be an expert you can learn as you go as a matter of fact

[00:18:28] I'm pretty sure that 99% of us that's what we're doing. All right let's continue on

[00:18:39] this next myth now this one was kind of surprising to me because I think at one point I actually

[00:18:44] believed this and this myth is that all antique jewelry is valuable

[00:18:53] and I used to think that about vintage jewelry too I used to think well just because it's

[00:18:57] vintage somebody's going to want it somewhere or just because it's antique somebody's going to

[00:19:02] want it right that's not entirely accurate that's not entirely true and I've made mistakes with

[00:19:12] this because I have purchased some things that were vintage and I and this was is recently as a year

[00:19:22] ago where I just thought you know wow these are some really nice vintage pieces everybody's going

[00:19:28] to want this stuff and so that just was not the case it just was not the case for me. So just because

[00:19:37] a piece of jewelry is old doesn't automatically make it valuable the value of antique jewelry depends

[00:19:45] on factors like condition, rarity, the demand, the craftsmanship and the provenance and we've

[00:19:57] talked about provenance which if you don't know that means who owned it before

[00:20:04] it was put up for sale and that doesn't only apply to antique jewelry that could be vintage

[00:20:10] jewelry or estate jewelry as well and I broke all of that down in another episode where I talked about

[00:20:20] you know what is the difference between antique vintage and estate jewelry. I want to say it's

[00:20:26] probably only like two or three episodes before this one so if if you're curious about how that

[00:20:32] is all you know how that's explained go back and listen to that episode. I don't know right off

[00:20:39] the top of my head what episode number it is but it's not too far back. Now some antique jewelry

[00:20:48] pieces might have more sentimental value than actual monetary worth and sometimes you will see

[00:20:56] this play out at estate sales or maybe you know people individuals selling their jewelry collection

[00:21:05] or maybe some jewelry that's been in the family whatever. So when it comes to recognizing the value

[00:21:11] of certain types of jewelry you have to understand that just because it's old it doesn't mean that

[00:21:17] it's going to be in demand and that people are going to want it okay so that was something I had

[00:21:23] to learn and I had to learn that the hard way so now I am very much more careful when I'm sourcing

[00:21:30] antique vintage jewelry. I mean some things you can look at right away and you can say oh yeah

[00:21:34] this is definitely something that's valuable but if you don't know you're better off doing as much

[00:21:41] research as you can beforehand before purchasing something that you plan to resell because you want

[00:21:48] to make sure that you can sell it okay all right so now we have moved on to myth number seven

[00:22:01] and that is and I hear this all the time that the market is too saturated for new resellers

[00:22:10] now in some ways this is not a myth but in a lot of ways it is because there are tons of resellers

[00:22:23] on all of the platforms but that doesn't necessarily mean they're good resellers and I use the word

[00:22:33] good with quotes because I'm not saying like you know the person is good bad or whatever

[00:22:40] but you know how there is resellers who are more educated about the business of reselling

[00:22:50] as opposed to someone who is new and doesn't know anything about reselling or the platform they're

[00:22:55] selling on or anything like that so yes there are a lot of resellers jewelry resellers specifically

[00:23:04] but not all of them are knowledgeable about jewelry reselling right so the competition

[00:23:12] yes it's out there but it may not be as strict well it may not be as tough as you think

[00:23:23] all right while the jewelry reselling market is very competitive I'm not saying it's not

[00:23:29] saying that it's too saturated overlooks the constant demand for jewelry and the ever-changing trends

[00:23:38] that create new opportunities all right so finding a niche whether it's a specific type of jewelry

[00:23:46] a specific jewelry era or style can really help new resellers establish themselves away from the

[00:23:55] crowd so I hope that that's encouraging for those of you who are new because sometimes it's just about

[00:24:10] doing something different than what everybody else is doing

[00:24:14] or sometimes it's about just being the one who knows the most you know I mean there's a lot of

[00:24:20] ways you can give yourself an advantage as it relates to doing this okay and depending on what

[00:24:27] your skills are what your strengths are you want to figure out what that is for you and how you

[00:24:34] can apply it to being a jewelry reseller okay so those are the main myths that I thought of

[00:24:44] after I had that conversation with my friend but then I thought about this one and so I'm

[00:24:52] making this one number eight because I know this technically may not apply to a lot of us

[00:24:57] but number eight is that there's a myth that physical stores are no longer viable when it comes

[00:25:05] to jewelry reselling now I know I know a lot of us do not sell in brick and mortar stores

[00:25:12] I get that but some of us want to do that some of us want to have little jewelry boutiques or maybe

[00:25:21] we would like to sell our jewelry on consignment in little stores or whatever maybe we maybe some of

[00:25:29] us want to open up our own jewelry store you know our own pre-owned jewelry store you know whatever

[00:25:36] the case may be so with the rise of online marketplaces there is a myth that brick and mortar stores

[00:25:43] for reselling jewelry are a thing of the past however for those of you who maybe have long-term

[00:25:52] visions or long-term goals of doing this physical stores can offer benefits like personal customer service

[00:26:01] the ability for buyers to see and try on the jewelry in person

[00:26:05] and the immediate gratification of making the sale right then and there so combining online

[00:26:15] and physical sales can create a much more robust business model right and this can be something that

[00:26:23] you can do you know even temporarily because if you saw the episode I did with Vanessa from Vanessa's

[00:26:32] vintage she does these little pop-up shops and they are in the store I think it's called West

[00:26:42] Elm so she has an online business where she sells her vintage jewelry but then I think a couple

[00:26:50] times a month or something like that she sets up in these stores and so even though it's not her

[00:26:58] opening up her own store it's kind of the same thing where she's there in person showing her jewelry

[00:27:06] pieces and she's making sales now I'm not sure how it's set up like if if she just handles the

[00:27:12] purchase herself or if it's done through West Elm I don't know how that part works but I think

[00:27:19] that's really nice that she has her online store and then she has these little pop-up shops that she

[00:27:27] does every once in a while and I know people who do that here locally in Las Vegas too because we have

[00:27:33] these like like crafter fairs or craft shows or whatever and so there's people who sell they sell

[00:27:42] online but then they come out to these craft shows and these craft fairs on the weekends and they set

[00:27:49] up a table with their jewelry there right so you can definitely kind of make a hybrid model of

[00:27:57] selling your jewelry online and in person you just have to figure out how it's going to work for you

[00:28:03] you know obviously what you can handle and what you have time to manage but I just wanted to throw

[00:28:09] that out there because a lot of people think that stores are going away or that selling in in person

[00:28:17] or in a store is not as profitable but I don't know if that's entirely true because I know a lot of

[00:28:23] people who do it and they do it specifically with jewelry whether it's handmade jewelry antique vintage

[00:28:30] jewelry or a state jewelry okay so those are the myths that I believe are are I guess I should

[00:28:43] just say not true and I'm going to go over them again right so myth number one was that you need

[00:28:49] large investment to start we already talked about that that's definitely not the case myth number

[00:28:55] two was that only on only luxury jewelry is profitable again we know that's not true because a lot of

[00:29:04] us make profits not selling luxury jewelry myth number three was that it's all about luck now

[00:29:13] luck is nice when it happens but that is definitely not something that any of us can depend on

[00:29:20] when it comes to selling our jewelry myth number four online sales or easy money we know

[00:29:26] that's not true a lot of us are still trying to figure it out and we're still trying to make it work

[00:29:32] and it's not easy money and it's definitely not fast money either myth number five you need

[00:29:39] to be a jewelry expert well no you don't and I'm proof of I'm I'm proof of that because I am in

[00:29:45] no way a jewelry expert but I'm doing this and I'm making it work myth number six all antique jewelry

[00:29:54] is valuable again we know that's not true and I've made this mistake buying stuff just because it was

[00:30:02] old not doing my research and not knowing any better myth number seven is the market is too

[00:30:09] saturated for new resellers again I disagree with this I do think that there is still plenty of

[00:30:16] opportunity especially if you're going to approach this differently and you're not just doing the

[00:30:21] cookie cutter copycat things that everybody else is doing it's really about finding a way to stand out

[00:30:28] and then using that to your advantage and then finally myth number eight was that physical

[00:30:34] stores are no longer viable but I went into great detail discussing how you can have a physical shop

[00:30:43] in you know in your town and in some way as it relates to your business you know whether you do

[00:30:50] the little craft shows whether you do the pop-up shop or whether you decide to open your own brick

[00:30:56] and mortar store at some point in your jewelry reselling career all right so deep bunking

[00:31:03] these myths reveals it reveals a lot and it reveals that jewelry reselling is basically like

[00:31:12] any other business in that it requires hard work dedication and a willingness to learn

[00:31:20] and adapt all right success comes from understanding the market utilizing your strengths

[00:31:27] and offering the best value that you can to your customers all right so those are the myths those are

[00:31:41] the eight big lies about jewelry reselling and who knows there's probably more maybe there's

[00:31:47] more out there that I missed if you guys can think of any please leave me a comment because maybe

[00:31:53] I'll do a part two to this episode but I would love to get your feedback and I would love to know

[00:32:00] what you think can you think of any more myths as it relates to jewelry reselling and doing

[00:32:08] what we do and how we do what we do I'd love to get your input so I hope you enjoyed this

[00:32:16] episode I hope it was helpful I do want to thank you so much for spending this time with me

[00:32:23] and I'll check in with you again really soon

[00:32:46] you