Sell Costume Jewelry in Fullerton A north county jewelry box is mostly earrings, and most of them were made for ears that were never pierced.
No minimum · free house call · cash the same visit
California Vintage Buyers buys costume jewelry across Fullerton, Yorba Linda, Brea and Placentia on a free house call: every clasp and earring back read under a loupe, signed pieces priced individually in front of you, the rest bought as an honest lot, and cash paid the same visit. Call (949) 449-1255.
North county is older than most of Orange County and grew up all at once. The Amerige brothers founded Fullerton in 1887 and it became a city in 1904; Placentia incorporated in 1926 around the packing houses that followed the Santa Fe’s 1910 reroute; Brea was an oil town, a city since 1917, on land Union Oil began buying in 1894. Then the postwar years filled it in. Beckman Instruments came to Fullerton in 1954, Hughes Aircraft opened a plant near Sunny Hills in 1957, and the college that became Cal State Fullerton held its first classes in the fall of 1959. Yorba Linda went from 1,198 people in 1960 to 11,856 in 1970 and became a city in 1967.
Those were the years a woman bought earrings to match every outfit, and most of them clipped or screwed on, because ear piercing only came back into fashion from the late 1950s and was not widespread until the early 1970s. So the box we open here is usually deep in clip-ons and screw-backs, with the brooches, beads and rhinestone sets of the same decades around them. We read all of it at your table. Text photos to (949) 449-1255 and we will tell you the same day whether a visit makes sense.
What a north county jewelry box turns out to hold
Clip-on and screw-back earrings
The bulk of most boxes from these decades. Read pair by pair for a maker’s name on the clip or the back, and bought with the rest, signed pairs priced on their own.
Text us a photo Send us a photoSigned designer costume
Trifari with the crown over the T, Miriam Haskell’s hand-wired pearls, Eisenberg, Weiss, and Coro with its Vendome line. On an earring the mark is usually on the clip arm or the back plate, small and often worn.
Text us a photo Send us a photoRhinestone sets
Necklace, bracelet and earrings bought together and kept together. A set is read as a set and priced that way, so leave the pieces together even if one earring has lost a stone.
Text us a photo Send us a photoBrooches, beads and Bakelite
Cocktail brooches, glass bead necklaces, and carved bangles tested at the table with hot water, never a hot pin, with the result shown to you.
Text us a photo Send us a photoThe fine pieces in the same drawer
Rings and chains that are not costume get a free identification and, if you decide to sell them, a pointer to the reputable specialist buyer we would use ourselves. The rest of the drawer gets a real offer the same visit.
Text us a photo Send us a photoFullerton, Yorba Linda, Brea and Placentia, on our north county days
North county is a scheduled run for us from the Laguna Hills warehouse, so we group calls into north county days rather than promise same-day visits we cannot keep, and a call early in the week usually becomes a visit within days. In Fullerton we work the bungalow streets near downtown, the neighborhoods around the college, and Sunny Hills; in Placentia the older streets near the tracks and the tracts that grew out of the groves; in Brea the hillside neighborhoods above the old oil fields; and in Yorba Linda everything from the first tracts of the 1960s to the hills off Imperial Highway. The evaluation is free with no obligation, family is welcome at the table or on speakerphone, and our warehouse at 23011 Moulton Pkwy, Suite G-11, Laguna Hills, CA 92653 is open by appointment if you would rather bring the box to us.
Read the earring back before anything else
The back of an earring is the quickest clue to when and for whom it was made, and it is the part families most often want to change. This is what we look at first, and what we ask you to leave alone.
| What is on the back | What it suggests | What to do with it |
|---|---|---|
| A hinged clip that presses against the earlobe | Made for unpierced ears, the way most women wore earrings until piercing spread from the late 1950s into the early 1970s | Keep it in its pair and leave the clip as it is, even if it is stiff |
| A small screw that tightens against the lobe | Also made for unpierced ears | Do not force a frozen screw; we read it as found |
| A post or wire that passes through the ear | Made for pierced ears, so most often from the years piercing was common | Keep the backs with the pair if you still have them |
| A post soldered where a clip used to be | A later conversion: the earring was made as a clip-on and changed for pierced ears | Tell us, and do not convert any more; original hardware is what collectors look for |
| A maker’s name on the clip arm or back plate | Signed costume: Trifari, Haskell, Eisenberg, Weiss, Coro and others mark here | Priced as its own pair, never folded into the lot |
Piercing dates from published histories of the earring read November 2026. The rows describe construction, not prices. Signed pieces are valued against the dated figures in our maker guides, and we make one cash offer at your table after the whole box is sorted.
A Jewelry House Call, in a Seller’s Words
“They were very professional, friendly, and extremely fair on pricing some jewelry for us. I was very comfortable having them in our home.” Mica Clark, Google review
How it works
Call or text photos.
A real conversation about what you have, no pressure to sell.
We come to you.
We look at everything, at your pace. We know what we're seeing.
Cash offer, same visit.
A fair price on the spot, or a full estate sale run for you.
Common questions
Who buys costume jewelry in Fullerton, and do you come to Yorba Linda, Brea and Placentia too?
We do, all four on our north county days. California Vintage Buyers is based in Laguna Hills, and we group north county calls so a call early in the week usually becomes a visit within days. One jewelry box is reason enough for the trip, there is no minimum, and the evaluation is free with no obligation. Every clasp and earring back is read under a loupe, signed pieces are priced one by one, the rest is bought as one honest lot, and cash is paid the same visit if you accept. Text photos to (949) 449-1255 first if you would like a quick read on whether a visit makes sense.
Almost all of Mom’s earrings are clip-ons and screw-backs, and nobody in the family wears those. Is anyone still buying them?
Yes. Clip-ons and screw-backs are simply how most earrings were made before ear piercing came back into fashion, which started in the late 1950s and was not widespread until the early 1970s, so a drawer full of them is usually a sign of an older collection, not a lesser one. Signed pairs from Trifari, Haskell, Eisenberg, Weiss or Coro are priced on their own, and the unsigned pairs are bought with the rest of the box. Keep each pair together, leave the clips and screws as they are even if they are stiff, and do not sort out the ones that look plain, because the maker’s name is often on the back of the plainest pair.
Some of her clip-ons were converted to pierced posts years ago. Did that ruin them?
Not ruined, but changed, and it is worth telling us which ones. A conversion is an alteration: the earring was made as a clip-on and someone replaced the clip with a post. On an unsigned pair it makes little difference. On a signed pair, collectors look for original hardware, so a converted pair is read as a converted pair. The thing to avoid now is doing any more of it, or converting a pair back. Bring them out as they are, mention any you know were changed, and we will point out the solder marks and price each pair honestly.
Mom bought most of these in the 1950s and 60s. How do you tell which earrings are worth pricing on their own?
The back and the mark decide it. We look for a maker’s name on the clip arm or back plate first; a crown over the T is Trifari from the years collectors chase, and Pat. Pend. or a patent number points to the 1930s through the mid-1950s, while a small c in a circle means 1955 or later. Signed mid-tier pieces are listed at roughly $25 to $100 against $1 to $25 a piece unsigned (asking prices in a secondary guide, August 2026), so the signed pairs get priced individually and the rest go into the lot. Construction matters too: prong-set stones and heavier plating read better than glued stones on a thin back.
Know what it’s worth before you sell.
Our field guides explain how the market actually prices these things. No fishing, no hype: real ranges and the details that move them.
One call. We’ll take it
from there.
(949) 449-12555.0 on Google · Free visit, no obligation · Cash the same visit
Mon-Sat 6 am-8 pm · Sun 8 am-5 pm
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