Though any pawn shop can clean your jewelry for you, you want it looking its best when you take it for sale or loan. Dirty pearls aren’t going to make a great impression if they look like far less than the gleaming gems they should be. And if you’re taking it to sell or pawn…
Several legends seek to explain the origins of Valentine’s Day; they may not all be true, but they are all romantic. Some say the day has links to the feast of Lupercalia in ancient Rome, where young people paired up by drawing names from a hat. The feast was later renamed for St. Valentine, a…
Could be. Which is probably a better answer than you expected, given that that costume generally is taken to mean “fake” which often equates to worthless. Take the time to go through Grandma’s jewelry and you might find some surprising treasures. While some costume jewelry isn’t worth much, other stuff—especially that kind made by actual…
If you’re planning to take Grandma’s ring to a pawn shop to sell, it might help to know if the stone is real or Grandma was just fooling everybody all these years. Some simple home tests can illuminate the truth: Print that: Place a loose stone on top of magazine print; if you can read…
If you’ve never stepped foot in a pawn shop, you’re likely forming your opinions about them from their depictions in movies and on television. Unfortunately, the most regular customers at pawn shops—shoppers looking for value or people needing fast loans—aren’t as dramatic as thieves and addicts looking to score money for a fix. Here’s a…
We talked last week about the various places you can sell your jewelry, and how a pawn shop is the best place to go if you’re looking for fast cash. While pawn shops may give you less for the item than selling it direct, you don’t have to accept whatever they offer. Not only are…
When we lose a loved one, we often worry that they won’t be remembered, particularly if we’re talking about our children and a grandparent they may not have had many years with. It’s important for parents, even as they’re coping with their own grief, to know that the task of keeping Grandma’s memory alive falls…
Doing an annual cleanout? Before you take the boxes to the nearest charity, be sure you don’t have any of these valuable items in them. Old Lego sets: Seriously, they don’t even have to be that old. My son has five box sets in the basement, and we checked the going rates on Amazon and,…
Whether you’ve got your own collection of jewelry castoffs, or you just inherited a boxful from a relative, selling off unwanted pieces is a great way to make some fast cash—if it’s actually worth something. But how do you know? While an expert like those we have at Loudoun Jewelry on Maple Avenue can give…
For the past couple of weeks, we’ve been talking about vintage jewelry, first defining it, and then talking about eras through the nineteenth century. This week, in our last post on the topic, we’ll cover the twentieth century, which is probably most of what you’ll find in pawn shops in Northern Virginia. Arts and Crafts…