Gold & Silver Forum - Hey Jewelr JOE, Question?

I'm not jeweler Joe but I can say that there has been a big rush to sell gold in SE Michigan. There have been several newspaper and TV news stories about the amounts of gold being sold. On the freeway into work I pass two billboards proclaiming "We Buy Gold" from two different jewelers. I haven't seen much silver come in, mostly scrap silver jewelery, a couple flatware sets and a sterling silver tea service set complete with serving tray. Not so much with the silver coins yet, though.

I had one guy, a real nice kid, come in and he wanted to buy a diamond so he could get engaged. He asked if I would be willing to trade some silver for the diamond, I said, "Sure".

He went out to his car and came back with two flatware sets and about 30 serving forks, and spoons. He explained that when he told his mother he wanted to get engaged she gave him all this silver she had inherited from her mother and some of her aunts to put towards the purchase of a nice diamond.

It took quite a while to go through and identify manufacturers and patterns and I felt bad when I had to tell him that although it was all very old, it was all silver plate. I wrote down a couple patterns that I identified for him and told him he might want to try ebay because it probably has value to some collectors, but I wasn't interested. At that point I was sure I lost the sale because he had been anticipating a big trade in for all his flatware. He thanked me and said that I was the only guy he had talked to who was willing to even look at all his flatware, let alone spend time giving him a little education about it. Surprisingly, he still bought the diamond!