Selling your jewellery at auction can be a little intimidating if you’ve never done it before, so understanding how the process works is critical to ensure it achieves a strong result.
Selling jewellery via online marketplaces like Facebook or Gumtree can be risky, and jewellers won’t always give you the best price for your treasured pieces. This is why selling your jewellery with First State Auctions promises to be safer, more secure, and designed to achieve the market price for your jewellery. In addition to those benefits, First State Auctions will also take care of the evaluation, professional photography and cleaning, cataloguing, and shipping of your jewellery, making it a compelling way to sell any unwanted pieces in your jewellery box.
Every step of the way has been carefully considered to ensure a seamless experience. To properly understand the process of selling your jewellery at auction, we would like to to offer some more detail on exactly what happens behind the scenes at First State Auctions.
Submission
If you’re looking to sell your jewellery, First State Auctions is here to help. From the moment you arrive at the First State Auctions website, we’re working for you to achieve the best result possible for your jewellery.
The first step is to share exactly what it is you want to sell at auction and the best way to do this is the First State Auctions online submission form. Here, we encourage you to include between three and five images of the jewellery piece you want to sell, including any additional accessories and information you might have (such as the box, valuation certificate, gemstone certificate, and so on).
An accurate description of the jewellery piece will give our experts a clear understanding of the condition and value of your jewellery. This includes information such as the jeweller or brand that made the piece, and any information you have about the materials and gemstones including purity, carats, weights, cut, colour, and beyond. Information about the age of the jewellery and where it is located is also important. It is worth noting that First State Auctions does not auction silver jewellery, lab grown diamonds and lab grown gems.
Estimation
Once we have all of that information, we should be able to provide you with an estimate on the value of the jewellery, as well as the reserve estimate. For 95% of the jewellery sold at auction with First State Auctions, we can provide an accurate estimate based on the information provided in the submission form.
This is when you’ll also be informed about the First State Auctions’ lotting fee, which includes the costs of photography, inspection and cataloguing. First State Auctions will also quote a commission based on the value of the jewellery piece or collection.
Shipping
At First State Auctions we pride ourselves on handling and inspecting every single piece of jewellery that we sell. Many other auction houses will simply list jewellery for sale without inspecting it and using photos taken by the seller, meaning there is no verification process about the authenticity of the jewellery, undermining the confidence of potential buyers.
Once we have taken in the details of the jewellery and have agreed to sell it, we will arrange shipping to get the jewellery to our office. For most pieces of jewellery and smaller collections, shipping via AusPost is possible up to an insurance valuation of $5,000. For jewellery valued above $5,000, First State Auctions will arrange a private secure courier.
First State Auctions also offers free international shipping to the buyer, ensuring a smooth sales process from start to finish.
Gemmologist & Diamond Grader Check
To confirm the details of your jewellery — or perhaps even uncover any unknown special details about it — First State Auctions will inspect each piece with its team of GAA and GIA-certified gemmologists and Diamond Graders. First State Auctions offers a full suite of gem and metal testing equipment, including XRF (X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy) machines, microscopes, synthetic diamond testers, and refractometers.
In addition to First State Auction’s in-house expertise, we also provide analysis and certification of particularly rare and valuable gems from an independent gem testing laboratory. The report from this independent laboratory will be available online to bidders.
Cleaning
Once inspected, each piece of jewellery will be lovingly and carefully cleaned, to ensure it is in showroom condition before it’s photographed, auctioned, and shipped to its new owner.
Photography
While many sales channels use photos from the sellers themselves, all jewellery sold by First State Auctions is photographed professionally to showcase the jewellery in its best light, giving buyers an accurate understanding of the condition of each lot.
Cataloguing
Cataloguing is an important part of any auction sales process, but at First State Auctions we offer detailed descriptions of the jewellery we sell, as well as analysis and certification of rare gems from an independent gem testing laboratory. These reports are displayed online for bidders.
Marketing
While First State Auctions is proudly based in Australia, we are an international auction house with clients worldwide. As a result, we market all of the jewellery we sell around the world, using several different channels to attract international buyers.
In addition to more than 100,000 registered bidders on the First State Auctions’ database, we also attract 200,000 visitors to our website every month, and market our auctions across social media platforms. This ensures your jewellery is seen by the greatest number of potential buyers.
Auction Timelines
At First State Auctions we hold a jewellery auction every week, with a catalogue released every Monday and an auction concluding every Sunday. This means your piece of jewellery will go to auction between three and four weeks after First State Auctions receives it, with payments made to sellers in the first week of every month for pieces sold in the month prior..
In the event that your jewellery does not meet its reserve price and is not sold after being first listed for auction, First State Auctions will proactively contact the underbidders in an attempt to sell your jewellery directly to them. If the underbidders do not purchase your jewellery directly, your piece will promptly be relisted for another auction. .
Once your jewellery has sold, we receive payment from the bidder and will ship the jewellery to them without charge to you. Bidders are also not charged credit card fees and international bidders will receive the GST included back, offering a greater incentive to our database of bidders to purchase.
Guarantee
The strength of our buyers' confidence in the First State Auctions process is an important element to successfully selling jewellery. We have built this confidence over many years and further underscore our buyer's peace of mind by guaranteeing the description of every piece of jewellery we sell. This means every piece of jewellery is a genuine example of the brands we sell, with the description of gems guaranteed to be accurate.
Why does this matter to you as a seller? The more confidence our buyers have in the jewellery we sell, the more likely they are to purchase a piece of jewellery without hesitation.
If you have any further questions about the details of our auction process, please don’t hesitate to contact one of our knowledgeable jewellery specialists directly via email or phone.
