The best preparation is none
It sounds like an evasion, but it is practical advice. Jewellery is valued on the material and condition it arrives in — and almost any intervention you make at home reduces the value rather than raising it. Gather the pieces, put them in a box, and come. We establish purity, weight and metal type on the spot, free of charge.
Five mistakes made before the visit
- Polishing and cleaning. On antique and collectable pieces the patina is part of the value. On coins, polishing destroys it irreversibly and the collector price falls with it. Dust off with a soft cloth is the maximum.
- Dismantling jewellery. A prised-out stone and a distorted setting reduce the offer by more than selling the metal separately gains. The same applies to parures — the whole is usually worth more than the sum of its parts.
- Sorting by guessed purity. Separating gold from silver makes sense. Guessing which is 585 and which is 750 does not — nobody can tell by eye, and you only narrow your own expectations.
- Throwing out the „worthless" pieces. This is the costliest mistake. Gold-plated costume jewellery genuinely is worth little, but „costume jewellery" regularly turns out to include real silver, or a piece with an old hallmark nobody managed to read. Bring the things you think are nothing.
- Re-plating or repairing before selling. Refinishing white gold costs several hundred crowns and does not register in the buying price. The same goes for replacing a missing stone.
What to bring
- Everything you are considering — including damaged, incomplete and odd single pieces. A snapped chain earns the same per gram as an intact one.
- Certificates and documents, if they exist. On diamonds, signed pieces and bullion coins they speed up assessment and sometimes raise the offer.
- Original boxes and cases, particularly for parures and antiques — they belong to the whole and affect saleability.
- ID card or passport. Precious metal buying is subject to record-keeping obligations and cannot proceed without one. The valuation alone requires no document.
When to come
We are open Monday to Thursday, 10:00–12:00 and 13:00–18:30. We are closed on Friday and at weekends, which is worth planning around — plenty of people discover it standing at a locked door on a Friday afternoon.
The quietest times are mid-morning after opening and just after the lunch break. If you are bringing two rings, the hour makes no difference; with a larger quantity it pays to arrive when there is time to go through everything unhurried.
When there is more of it
For estates, coin collections and larger assortments, get in touch beforehand by phone or through the contact form so we can set time aside. Sorting and assessing fifty items is not a ten-minute job, and you do not want to be rushing it just before closing.
With larger holdings, also make your own list with photographs before anything leaves the house. This is not distrust but ordinary prudence — with dozens of pieces, nobody recalls precisely what was there a week later.
What you take away
Besides any money, information: the measured purity and weight of each group. That stays with you even if you decline the offer, and you can take it elsewhere to compare. The valuation is non-binding and costs nothing.
How purity and weight become a specific figure is described in How the gold buying price is calculated. You will find us at Kotlářská 28, Brno-střed; service details are on the jewellery buying Brno page.
