Timing

Has this been a week, or what? Flew back on Monday (crazed by airline-stress), had a first class on Tuesday (driven insane getting materials together), and helped a friend go through some jewelry on Wednesday (finally a fun time!). And did I mention both the a/c for the house and my car went out? Today, so far, I've fielded an inspector who should have been here four months ago when the electrical work was done, made appointments for car (house fixed), watered every tree and herb in the yard, and scanned and printed more materials for the second-day-of-the-new class (which I need to go to very soon). Hardly a moment to myself, so I'll try to sum up what's on my mind:

Look closely.

No, not here - at your rings, bracelets, necklaces, stickpins, and cufflinks. Yes, the ones you already have in your drawers, the ones you're seriously considering bagging up and selling at that yard sale. Hey, you bought it for nothing, or your mom wore it (and you know how cheap she was!), or your dad accidentally hammered it, so it must be crap, right? Wrong!

I hit six yard sales in my in-law's territory last Saturday, and spent exactly 55 cents. For that money I got a bunch of mad scientist things to play with (studs with clear stones or dangly things, all crap but useful), a made-mostly-of-plastic fob watch (nice fob, though), a stray clip-on earring that might be topaz (pretty), and ... a pair of 14K studs (hearts, to match my bracelet) and the entire inner workings of a Lady Waltham pocket (or pendant) watch. The studs weigh about a gram, and are clearly marked (that's about $18 in scrap value alone), and the watch bits will probably earn about $10-20 on eBay (if I so desire).

Look closely.

My friend, too, said her stuff was "one step away from the trash" on Wednesday - no sentimental value for most of it, and no expectations on her part. Based on this, I figured I'd see costume (got it), singles and broken (got them, too), and nice vintage watches. What I didn't expect (and neither did she) was well over half of it was gold or platinum, set with diamonds, topaz, rubies, and goodness knows what else. Seriously. A vintage watch with a rose-gold bezel and band. A 14K ring and necklace of opal and diamond. A pendant watch with an unknown case (gold?) but with a (well-marked) Swiss company's mechanisms. True, not all was well-marked - some had no markings at all, or marks that were rubbed nearly out, or marks inside clasps (a string of pearls that was to die for), or covered by ring sizers (which is why I removed them) - and, frankly, some was the ugliest stuff I've ever seen. But it was not junk.

It might have been, at first glance, though. That's why I'm so incredibly glad I had that lesson last week, because the second look showed me a sharpness in the stones of the first piece, and put me on point like a bird dog - a huge ring, one of those from the 'sixties that was sort of shaped like an alien's head, inset with nine diamonds. The gold alone ... wow.

Look closely.

I'm not judging in any way, shape, or form, here - remember, I didn't know until I began my quest that I had at least five pairs of gold earrings, necklaces, and rings. I had never looked! And as for our parents, well, of course they have no taste - the hair alone clued us in, right? (Except that our kids are saying the same things about us right now.)

Look closely.

We're going to have a cleaning party soon, then take them to my buddy to assess all the values. I could tell gold from gilt, CZ from diamond, but I have no idea what the stunning platinum (900) and diamond wedding set is worth. That she'll sell most of it, I have no doubt. But at least she won't get hosed.

And she won't sell it for 10 cents.