How to sell Bvlgari Jewelry

Make sure you get the best price when you resell your Bvlgari Jewelry

Bvlgari jewelry is some of the most beautifully designed and crafted jewelry in the world. Since it was founded in 1884, Bvlgari has focused on selling only the highest quality gemstones and providing a beautiful experience when shopping.

But tastes and circumstances change and we don’t need to hold on to our Bvlgari jewelry forever.

If you are looking to sell Bvlgari jewelry and want to make sure that you get the fairest price for your piece, this blog will show you how.

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The bottom line when selling your Bvlgari:

The key to getting the best price when you are reselling your Bvlgari jewelry is to work with someone who knows the true value of the jewelry and eliminate as many layers as possible between you and the buyer.

Auction houses, online marketplaces, etc act as middlemen and take a cut, reducing the amount they will pay you.

Our recommendation is Alon at The Diamond Oak – a fine jewelry specialist who will give you the best price possible, avoiding middlemen and fees. Get in touch with Alon here

Why Bvlgari is so prized

Bvlgari was originally founded on the Greek island of Corfu, before Sotirios Bulgari first moved his workshop to Naples, and then to Rome in 1881. Note the ‘u’ in Bulgari at this time – the name was changed to BVLGARI with a Roman V to honor the new Roman home of the brand when the company moved to its new, and still current, home.

As a brand it has a rich history, with jewelry produced to match the styles of the day in the early 20th century. This means that Bvlgari pieces from the 1920’s until the 1960’s, Bvlgari jewelry covers a range styles – from Edwardian to Art Deco to Retro to Modern.

But it was in the ’30s that Bvlgari started to find fame as they defined their own style, with designs such as The Trombino (‘little trumpet’) introduced. The Trombino allowed the gemstone to stand proud, while Bvlgari used a variety of less commonly used gemstones in the cabochan cut to stand out from other jewelers of the time:

In the ’60s, Bvlgari began to attract international attention with Hollywood stars such Elizabeth Taylor and Sophia Loren wearing their jewelry to film premiers and festivals.

The jewelry they chose continued to feature large cabochon-cut or emerald-cut gemstones in bright and adventurous color combinations:

While Bvlgari had become a favorite of both traditional royalty and Hollywood royalty, it wasn’t until the third generation of Bvlgari children entered the business that it began to find wider commercial success.

From the late ’70s onwards, Bvlgari started to create and define its own signature style, inspired by Indian, Iranian, and Egyptian influences with modular jewels like the Parenthesi series became signature pieces:

Today, Bvlgari has jewelry with a wide range of influences that allow jewelry lovers of all types to be able to experience a taste of the brand – from one-off high jewelry pieces like the Barocko necklace below, to more attainable rings that are still unmistakably Bvlgari:

Bvlgari Barocko necklace

Bvlgari Serpenti bracelet

Bvlgari Zero ring

Of course, like many luxury brands, Bvlgari has also branched out into watches, sunglassses, bags and even fragrances, but it is in jewelry that Bvlgari made its name and it is in jewelry that it remains most distinctive and most well-known.

What type of Bvlgari jewelry can be sold?

Over its history, Bvlgari has produced a huge variety of types and styles of jewelry, and the good news if you are looking to sell your Bvlgari jewelry is that no matter what it is, you will be able to find a buyer.

The power of the Bvlgari brand means that the jewelry is worth much more than the sum of its parts, unlike non-branded jewelry, or even some ‘designer’ names which aren’t as desirable as Bvlgari.

One thing to know though, is that the price you receive for your Bvlgari jewelry when selling is that can be dependant on a couple of factors:

  • Condition
  • Provenance

Condition

Even if something has been lovingly cared for, it’s likely that any jewelry that has been worn will have picked up the tiniest flaws associated with age. It’s part of owning something that has a history.

Commonly used terms to describe pre-owned jewelry are:

  • mint condition
  • excellent condition
  • good condition
  • fair condition
  • poor condition

If you are selling to a jewelry professional, it’s likely that they will try to improve its condition and then sell it on, but the better condition it is in, the higher the price someone will be willing to pay will be.

Provenance

Being able to demonstrate the provenance of Bvlgari jewelry is important for a couple of reasons:

  1. It shows a potential buyer of jewelry that it is yours to sell
  2. It shows the potential buyer that it is genuine

If you have your receipt, box, jewelry bag and all of the other accoutrements that came with you Bvlgari jewelry, it will give the buyer confidence about the provenance of your jewelry:

While having all of these may not increase the price considerably, what it does do is ensure that you pass the first hurdles of getting accepted as a legitimate seller.

Your options when considering where to sell your Bvlgari jewelry

Once you’ve made the decision to sell, it’s understandable that you would want to get the best price possible for you Bvlgari jewelry.

But it can be hard to know where to start.

In this section, we’ll look at the different options for where you can sell, and some things to take into consideration when deciding which is the best fit for you.

When selling your Bvlgari jewelry, there are a few things to consider:

  • What you are selling
  • What is more important for you – price or speed of sale
  • How much you value certainty

Understanding what your Bvlgari jewelry is worth

One of the first things to understand is how much your jewelry is likely to be worth when selling it.

You may have a jewelry appraisal with a value attached to it which you have used for insurance. While here are a few types of appraisal, it’s likely that yours will list the price that it would cost to replace the item with a new or equivalent piece.

Unfortunately the value on your appraisal isn’t the same as the amount that someone would be willing to buy the jewelry from you for. The reason why this is is that anyone who would buy it from you would then be looking to sell it as used for lower than the price of a ‘new’ replacement item and still make a profit.

They amount that someone is actually willing to pay for an item is known as the ‘fair market value’.

Determining the fair market value of something can be tricky, and many people look online to try and understand how much their Bvlgari jewelry might be worth.

One of the most famous sites for high quality vintage jewelry is 1stDibs.com, which specializes in selling from professional jewelry dealers to the public.

Many jewelry lovers love to browse the wares on 1stDibs and it’s not uncommon to assume that if you see a piece of jewelry being sold on there, then you may be able to receive a similar price for your own piece.

Unfortunately however, the prices on 1stDibs are not a good guide on how much you are likely to get when you sell your jewelry as the prices advertised are the prices that a jewelry dealer is selling them for, including making a profit once 1stDibs’ fees and all their other costs have been taken out.

However, it can be useful to get a ballpark figure of how much a jeweler may be willing to pay for your item.

For example, a Bvlgari Parentesi watch may be listed for $12,000:

However, as with buying many vintage pieces, prices aren’t fixed and dealers are usually open to negotiation.

Underneath the ‘Purchase’ button, you can see there is a ‘make an offer’ button, which says that sellers are most likely to accept offers of 5% – 20% off the $12,000 price:

A 5% to 20% offer below the listed price is a $600 to $2,400 reduction on the original $12,000 price.

This reduces the amount that the jeweler is likely to receive for the watch to between $9,600 and $11,400.

Then 1stDibs’ commission fee needs to be taken into account. This is a 15% commission fee plus a 3% processing cost, which would reduce the price that the seller actually receives to between $7,872 – $9,348.

Most jewelers will look to buy jewelry for around half of what they are sure they can sell it for, so in order for this to make sense for the dealer, it’s likely that they would aim to buy a watch like this for around half of the $7,872 – $9,348 figures.

This would mean that a jeweler is likely to pay around $3,900 – $4,600 for this watch.

If you have an extremely high end or one-off piece, consider an auction house.

Bvlgari has produced a huge range of jewelry over its history, from one-off bespoke pieces for royalty, to more attainable rings and bracelets which can be purchased in their boutiques all over the world.

If you are selling an extremely rare or high-end piece, then it may make sense to use an auction house, as they can result in a higher price achieved due to the competitive nature of several bidders pushing the price up.

Two of the most well-known auction houses for jewelry are Sotheby’s and Christies:

When considering whether a traditional auction house is the right choice for you, it’s important to understand tat the final ‘hammer price’ you see for past sales is not the amount that the sellers actually received.

  • Sotheby’s commission for the seller is typically 20% of the final sale price
  • Christies commission for a seller is also 17% of the final sale price, with an additional 2% ‘performance commission fee’ if it goes over the agreed ‘high estimate

These high-end auction houses also charge the sellers an additional 10-15% of the final sales price, which can mean that they are less willing to bid high amounts.

The other thing to consider with auction houses is the length of time that these organisations will take to sell your item.

As the snippet from an email below shows, it can take around a month for them to assess the value of an item, and you would then have to wait for a suitable auction to be held, which could be an additional one or two months.

Tacori Christies Email

The other potential wait could be if you list your item and it doesn’t reach your desired price, in which case it will be passed in and returned to you. This uncertainty can put off some buyers who are more comfortable with a fixed price.

For the reasons listed above, if you are keen to sell your item reasonably quickly, high end auction houses are unlikely to be able to help.

But, if you are willing to wait, you have an item that fits their high requirements and you are happy with the commission % that the auction houses charge then they could be the best solution to get a great price if your item is subject to a bidding war that drives the price up.

Selling using online auction sites

There are two types of online auction websites that deal with high quality jewellery:

  1. Auction sites that sell to consumers e.g. 1stDibs.com
  2. Auction sites that buy from consumers e.g. worthy.com

Bvlgari and Worthy.com

Worthy.com is a marketplace which works the opposite way to 1st Dibs.

Instead of connecting professional jewelry traders to customers, it connects ordinary people who are looking to sell jewelry with a network of nearly 1,000 jewelry traders who can bid on their items.

Worthy is much faster than selling through a traditional auction and it does put you in contact with a range of jewelry buyers who could bid the price of your item up, if they like it.

The cost to access these buyers is Worthy’s ‘success fee’ commission, which is only payable on the completion of the auction.

These fees are:

  • Up to $5,000 = 18%
  • 5,001 – 15,000 = 14%
  • 15,001 – 30,000 = 12%
  • 30,000 and above = 10%

Worthy can be a good option as it means that your jewelry can get out in front of as many people as possible, who will then bid against each other to increase the possible price you receive.

Bvlgari and IdonowIdon’t.com

I do now I don’t operates on a similar business model to Worthy.com, but has a slew of bad reviews on Trustpilot with reports of them not paying sellers for the goods that have been sold.

Tacori I Do Now I Dont Review

As a result I would not recommend that you use their service.

Selling Bvlgari direct to a jewelry dealer

The best way to get the most money for your Bvlgari jewelry is to eliminate as many layers between you and the person buying it as possible.

In essence, to talk directly to the type of people who are buying through worthy.com, but without having to pay Worthy the commission and reduce the amount you make.

Our recommendation is The Diamond Oak. 

The Diamond Oak is a family run business with multiple generations in the jewelry industry, based out of the Diamond District in New York.

Best of all, working with Alon you will get a fair price extremely quickly, instead of having to wait for an auction to run its course and then pay the fees out of the sales price. Alon’s process is:

  1. Complete a form on The Diamond Oak’s website
  2. Alon will get back to you with an estimate, usually the next business day
  3. If you like the estimate, Alon will provide a pre-paid and insured shipping label
  4.  Once he’s received it, Alon will check that all looks OK, and then pay straight away.

If you have Bvlgari jewelry that you are looking to sell, Alon at The Diamond Oak will guide you through the process and ensure that you receive the very best price possible – just click through and fill out the form and he’ll get straight back to you with an offer for you to consider.

Even if you don’t end up working with him, you will receive a guide price back extremely quickly, which can then help you understand whether you are getting a better deal through other avenues.