Here’s a dandy of a story, oh wait, they aren’t dandelion flowers, they are Edelweiss flowers.
Edelweiss Sterling Silver Earrings were at an inside estate sale.
I bought these little beauties from an inside estate sale. It was one of the first of the season in March. As I was walking through the house I didn’t find what I was looking for…until I found the kitchen. There on the center island was the jewelry…JACKPOT, just what I was after. My heart was racing as I was looking at all of it. Most of it was common modern day costume jewelry. But, then I saw these beautiful flowers. I knew they had to be sterling silver. The lady running the sale said, “This is the second day of the sale so everything is half price”. The sticker on these said $5, so for $2.50 I bought these big, gorgeous flowers. She told me they were Edelweiss flowers, (the truth comes out – of course I didn’t know what type of flowers these were either), you know like the song in the “Sound of Music”. “Edelweiss, edelweiss / Every morning you greet me / Small and white / Clean and bright / You look happy to meet me”…okay okay, enough singing the song…back to my story.
Edelweiss Earrings marked $5, but they were half price, since it was the second day of the sale.
Here’s the inside scoop: They weigh 2.55 grams and measure 1 inch by 0.75 inches wide. When I looked these earrings over with my loupe (at home), their was the faint mark “STG”, followed by the maker’s mark. Oh Ya, sterling silver, I was right!
Edelweiss Flower Earring Post is Marked STG for Sterling, with the maker's mark after the STG. It is very faint and hard to see.
On Jan 2nd, these fabulous earrings sold on eBay for $19.99 + $4 shipping and handling. That’s a profit of $17.49, minus the selling fees; it was an overall profit of about $15. Since there was nothing wrong with these earrings, they were worth more selling them, rather than scraping them for the silver content. So you could get more money with a little more work.
Here's the Ebay Sold Page for the Edelweiss Earrings that sold for $19.99.
Here’s the take away lesson: Even though it is the 2nd day of a sale, there might be some silver and gold jewelry waiting to be found. Plus, the sellers might even be running a half price sale or you can negotiate a better deal. The price of the jewelry might have been too high for some people to buy the items the day before. What’s not to like about that – saving more money?
Sneak Peek Alert: There was another jewelry package I got out of this inside estate sale, that has another lesson, but I’ll save that for another blog article.
Good Luck and Happy Hunting,
~Vicki Priebe
Author of “Cheap Gold and Silver”