Everything you need to know before you buy—or sell—gems and jewelry at auction.
A source of expert guidance to help you enter today’s fastest-growing marketplace for gems and jewelry. This definitive guide to buying and selling at auction covers both the unique risks and opportunities to be found—how to make a profit on yesterday’s treasures or find a valuable treasure of your own.
Entertaining, informative and packed with tips from an "insider," this practical, easy-to-understand guide makes available—for the first time—detailed information on:
- What distinguishes auction buying and selling from other methods
- How to buy and sell at auction: The rules of the game
- What you need to know before bidding on:
- - Diamonds
- - Colored gemstones
- - Pearls
- - Gold and platinum
- Design and style: Great jewelry periods and great jewelers
- Special concerns when buying and selling on Internet auction sites
- How to avoid the pitfalls when buying and selling at auction
- What auctions do guarantee, and how to protect yourself against what they don’t
- … and much more.
With comprehensive price charts and auction results, as well as resource information on auction houses and websites, Jewelry & Gems at Auction is a book no potential auction buyer or seller can afford to be without.
Antoinette Matlins, P.G., is an internationally respected gem and jewelry expert, author, and lecturer. Her books are widely used throughout the world by consumers and professionals in the gem and jewelry field. Ms. Matlins' books include Jewelry & Gems: The Buying Guide (over 250,000 copies now in print--the only book of its kind ever offered by Consumer Reports); The Pearl Book: The Definitive Buying Guide; Gem Identification Made Easy; Engagement & Wedding Rings: The Definitive Buying Guide for People in Love; Diamonds: The Antoinette Matlins Buying Guide; and the forthcoming Jewelry & Gems at Auction: The Definitive Guide to Buying & Selling at the Auction House or on the Internet.
Gemology Editor of National Jeweler magazine for almost a decade, her articles and comments on buying and selling gems and jewelry and on gem investment have appeared in many national and international consumer and trade publications. She is also the author of the "Gemstones" chapter in the Encyclopedia of Investments.
Ms. Matlins has gained wide recognition as a dedicated consumer advocate. She has spearheaded the Accredited Gemologists Association's nationwide campaign against gemstone investment telemarketing scams. A popular media guest, she has been seen on ABC, CBS, NBC, and CNN, educating consumers about gems and jewelry and exposing fraud.
In addition to her educational work, Ms. Matlins is retained by clients worldwide to seek fine, rare, or unusual gems and jewels for acquisition.