Selling silver flatware and old jewelry

A drawer of silverware and a box of old jewelry look like the most valuable things in a house, and they're the easiest to get taken on. The metal is worth something. The story attached to it usually isn't. Separate those two before you talk to anybody.

Three piles, not two

Pile one is marked sterling or gold. Pile two is plated, which is a thin layer of silver over brass or copper and is worth close to nothing as metal. Pile three is costume — glass stones, base metal, the stuff from a mall in 1988.

You'll need good light and a magnifying glass for this, and you'll need to turn every piece over. Marks hide on the rim, at the end of the handle, and inside the clasp of a chain.

Marks that mean something

• Sterling or 925 — solid silver.
• Coin — older American silver, often worn soft.
• 800, 835, 900 — European silver standards, still solid.
• EP, EPNS, silver plate, quadruple — plated, not solid.
• 14K, 18K, 585, 750 — gold content.
• GF or rolled gold — a gold layer over base metal.
• No mark at all — treat it as costume until somebody who knows says otherwise.

Don't polish it

Tarnish comes off and silver comes off with it. Every rub with polish and a cloth takes a little metal with you, and a buyer is paying for metal. Leave the black in the pattern and let the next owner decide.

Handle the pieces with clean hands and keep them in separate bags. A sterling spoon rattling against a plated one for a month is a scratched spoon.

Knives and the scale

Knife handles are often hollow and filled with cement or pitch to balance the blade. That filler weighs a lot and isn't silver, so if somebody prices the whole set by total weight, the knives are doing the earning and you're being paid for cement.

Ask directly: how are the knives handled, do the stones come back to me, and is this price for the metal or for the piece.

A jeweler and a refiner see different things

A jeweler sees a piece and may pay more for a signed setting or a good stone. A refiner sees weight and doesn't care about the pattern. Get one of each kind of quote on the same day, and don't let anything leave the house while you decide.

Count the set and pull out the serving pieces. A service for eight with the ladle and the sugar shell is a different sale from nine odd forks, and somebody restoring a set will pay for those pieces.

Keep what you'd actually use

Set aside the spoons you'd eat with and the ring you'd wear before anything goes in a bag. Once a grandmother's fork is in the melt pile it's gone, and you can't buy the pattern back for what the metal brought.

If two siblings want the same pieces, settle it before the buyer arrives. A referee is cheaper than a redo.

The thing that goes wrong is the ballroom buyer or the parking-lot offer to weigh it all right now. You don't have to decide in the room. Get two written quotes on the same pieces, keep a receipt that lists what left, and photograph everything before it goes into the bag.