I bought a necklace at a thrift store for $4.99 – it’s worth 90x more, my wet wipe trick helps me find real pearls
A BARGAIN hunter has revealed their jewelry thrift store find that’s worth 90 times more than what they shelled out for it.
The experienced thrifter shared her tricks for recognizing real gold and pearls while showing off her secondhand find.
Redditor Tinselpandora opened up about her thrifting hacks and why she likes to carry around wet wipes in a viral post.
She explained that she paid $4.99 for a necklace that ended up being 14-karat yellow gold with real pearls.
After getting the necklace appraised, she was thrilled to report that it was worth around 90 times more than what she paid for it.
“I’ve seen around $450-$600 max, but I’ll be keeping this for a while as I don’t have pearls to clutch when I see a scandal!” she said.
Photos of her vintage jewelry charmed viewers, who praised her stylish and intuitive eye.
“Congrats! I think it’s beautiful, and I don’t normally like pearls, but I love how modern this is,” said one commenter.
Even if she changed her mind about keeping the piece, they noted that she still walked away with a huge win.
“Gold is around $2,300 an ounce, so if you don’t like it enough to wear it, gold prices are insane right now,” they explained.
“I took a bunch of gold in November, and it was under $2,000, and at that time, $2,000 seemed a long way away.
“Then again, about a month ago, it was still over $100 lower than it is today. [There is] not a ton of gold on this piece, though, so I do hope you are going to keep it and enjoy wearing it.”
Many asked the Redditor for advice on how to spot a hidden gem.
“Did you know they were real? I always wonder what to look for,” said one commenter.
FINDING GOLD
The Redditor explained that a common trick for identifying real pearls is to rub them against your teeth and check for a gritty feel.
“I’m usually super hesitant to put anything in my mouth from thrift stores,” she said.
“But what I’ve done in the past is I carry a small pouch of wet wipes, and I’ll wipe one pearl and then try the grit test on my teeth!”
I noticed it had in tiny writing ‘585’ and immediately knew it was 14k gold.
Redditor
The Redditor wasn’t selfish with her advice and also revealed her go-to trick when searching for authentic gold pieces.
“I always look for hallmarks. I don’t have all of them memorized so I’ll open Google and find a guide while I’m walking around,” she said.
“Hallmarks tend to hide sometimes. I look at the links near the clasp to see if it’s stamped on the actual link because sometimes it’s veeeeeerrryyyy tiny on there.
“If I don’t see a tag with the hallmarks on it, I then look at the clasp itself; with this necklace, I noticed it had in tiny writing ‘585’ and immediately knew it was 14k gold.
“I tend to inspect each necklace, ring, bracelet, etc… for a good five minutes to make sure I didn’t overlook any stamps! I also comb through EVERY single piece of jewelry at the thrift store and inspect it!”