Inherited items can sometimes be worth more than people expect. There are several reasons for this:

Rarity and collectability - Items that are rare, unique, or have historical significance can be valuable. People may not always be aware of the rarity or historical importance of an item they inherit.

There are times when you inherit a piece of jewelry or a watch that holds great value for you because it belonged to someone you loved. When that happens, you put it away somewhere safe and take it out and wear it on special occasions. You would never think of selling it. 

If you are on the lookout for platinum – and you should be because, at the time of writing this post, the precious metal is currently trading for $1,334 per Troy Ounce – you should be looking for small items of jewelry that are made of the metal. 

You can find several kinds of platinum jewelry at estate sales, junk shops, and even in the places where you store jewelry in your home. 

What kinds of small pieces of jewelry are most likely to be made of platinum? Some examples include: 

Forty or fifty years ago, men were apparently wearing a variety of small jewelry items that are no longer very popular today. 

In a moment, we will list what some of these items are and how you can recognize them when you go hunting for gold, silver, and platinum items that are worth recycling. But before we give you a list of these items, we would like to mention the following fact . . . 

“I have a collection of jewelry that belonged to my grandmother,” a precious metal investor wrote us recently. “It is a mix of costume jewelry and nicer items that are made of gold and silver. I suspect that the value of the collection exceeds the dollar value of the precious metals it contains, because many of the items are interesting historical pieces.”

Frankly, we do not completely understand why the Metropolitan Museum in New York, one of the greatest art museums in the world, has chosen to host its annual Met Gala. The coverage of the event is extensive, with news crews outside the museum shooting video of some of today’s biggest celebrities as they arrive and walk up the staircase into the event. But why is this happening at an art museum? It doesn’t have anything to do with art really, so it must have something to do with money. And sure enough, the event raises money for the Museum’s Costume Institute.

Over the last few years, people have become skeptical about importing and exporting just about anything.

Due to high tariffs on goods imported into the U.S., doing so has become less attractive and more difficult for American companies. Plus, simply transporting foreign goods into the U.S. has become more difficult. Off the coast of California, ships carrying all kinds of goods from Asia, including semiconductors, electronic devices and even automobiles, are waiting to dock. Although that delivery holdup is lessening, the slowdown that was caused by the coronavirus pandemic is still exerting a negative effect on U.S. manufacturing and commerce.

With platinum trading at nearly $1,200, it stands to reason that you can make money by buying platinum items and platinum scrap and sending it to us to be recycled.

You can also profit handsomely by buying up and recycling platinum jewelry. But what kinds of platinum jewelry should you be on the lookout for, and how much platinum do they contain? Let’s explore further.

If you like to hunt for old gold jewelry that’s worth recycling, chances are you have seen some items that match this description . . .

“It’s an old ring that’s just a piece of costume jewelry. It’s got a big fake stone in it that’s probably just made of glass. Why should I pay attention to it, when it’s probably worthless?”

Recently, a man wanted to sell some old gold filled jewelry that he had inherited from an elderly aunt. There were actually quite a few items - a bracelet, a few old rings, a necklace with a pendant attached, a small decorative pin, and a few other items. So the man put all those items in a Manila envelope, got in his car, and drove to a store that displayed the sign, “We Buy Gold.”

There are many reasons to avoid buying stolen items of jewelry. One practical reason is that if you do buy items that were stolen, they could be confiscated by law enforcement agencies. Another, more important reason is that even if you buy “hot” items without knowing they were stolen, you are supporting a number of criminal gangs that engaged in violent crimes. Even if you buy those items from pawn shops or legitimate jewelers and have no idea that you are trading in stolen goods, you are contributing to a form of crime that is big and getting bigger.

A client of ours recently found an interesting piece of gold jewelry. It was a brooch, probably more than 100 years old, that he found in an estate sale. He bought it for $40.00, took it home, and tested it using a gold testing kit.

“My grandfather was a master jeweler and jewelry repairman,” a caller told us recently. “Unfortunately, he recently passed away, and now we have the job of emptying his workshop. Can you give me some advice on what we should be looking for?”

Have you ever worked for a company that was run in a somewhat unusual – maybe even crazy – way? Here are some stories of companies that were . . .

If you go shopping for platinum jewelry, you are going to find an awful lot of it. You’ll find it listed in online local ads and on online auction sites. You might even find platinum engagement rings listed in ads in local newspapers. And if you peruse the display cases at an antique store or mall, you might see that is labeled as platinum.

As people age, they tend to acquire a growing number of aches and pains. Yet if they have lived good lives, they often end up with something much more valuable . . .

Over the years titanium has been used mostly in aerospace and industrial applications, and with good reason. Titanium is nearly as hard as steel, but it weighs much less. It is extremely resistant to corrosion and wear. It resists deformation -  you are going to have to jump up and down pretty hard on a titanium ring or pipe to get it to flatten.

Do you have a quarter, a silver dollar or another coin that you would like to have made into a ring?

If so, you can quickly find a company that will refashion your coin into a ring, just by searching online. It seems that lots of people are starting businesses that do it.

We enjoyed “10 Most Famous Engagement Rings in History,” a post on the TheKnot.com blog. It offers entertaining descriptions of 10 of the most jaw-dropping engagement rings ever given. One was a Van Cleep & Arpels engagement ring that JFK gave to Jacqueline Bouvier. It boasted both a 2.84-carat emerald and a 2.88-carat diamond. Not too shabby. Other astonishing rings are mentioned in the blog post too, including immense rings given to Mia Farrow by Frank Sinatra, to Marilyn Monroe by Joe DiMaggio, to Elizabeth Taylor by Mike Todd, to Beyoncé by Jay Z, and even to Queen Elizabeth II by Prince Philip. We can hardly keep up.

If you have an elderly relative who is about to enter a nursing home or assisted living, chances are you are already working with a counselor who is helping you deal with their financial assets. Today’s post is not meant to serve as a substitute for the expert advice you can get from those counselors, who know the ins and outs of Medicare and other factors that can impact on financial planning for elders.