Sell to Us · Costume Jewelry · Huntington Beach
Huntington Beach jewelry boxes were filled in the sixties, and nobody has read them since.
Free visit · cash offers · no obligation
California Vintage Buyers buys costume jewelry across Huntington Beach, from Huntington Harbour to Huntington Landmark, on a free house call: every clasp read for a maker’s name, signed pieces priced individually in front of you, the plain remainder bought as an honest lot, and cash paid the same visit. Call (949) 449-1255.
Huntington Beach was an oil town first. The field came in on May 24, 1920, and for forty years the city stayed small around the derricks and the pier. Then between 1960 and 1970 the population grew from about 11,500 to about 116,000, and for a stretch of that decade Huntington Beach was the fastest growing city in the continental United States. McDonnell Douglas dedicated its space campus in November 1963, Huntington Harbour was being dredged out of the Sunset Bay wetlands the same year, and thousands of young households moved into new houses with new dressers.
That is the jewelry we are asked to read now: enamel flower pins, Lucite bangles and chain belts from the mod years, the Monet and Napier that went with a work wardrobe, Sarah Coventry from a neighbor’s home party, and underneath them the older brooches a mother or grandmother brought from somewhere else. We are the team behind Old 44 Vintage, and we read it at your table with a loupe on every clasp, each layer named as we go. Text photos of the box to (949) 449-1255 and we will tell you the same day whether a visit makes sense.
What Huntington Beach dressers turn out to hold
Signed designer costume
Trifari with the crown over the T, Miriam Haskell’s hand-wired pearls, Eisenberg Original, Boucher, Weiss and Coro. Usually the oldest layer of the box.
1960s and 70s mod
Enamel flower pins, oversized Lucite bangles and rings, chain-link belts, hoop earrings in white, orange and lime. Priced honestly and bought as a group.
The home-party and counter tier
Sarah Coventry from the neighborhood party, Monet and Napier from the department store. Made well and in quantity, and we say plainly what that means for the price.
Bakelite and early plastics
Carved bangles, cherry and figural pins, dress clips and buckles, tested at your table with hot water. Celluloid and Lucite get named as what they are.
The 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.
From the downtown grid to Seal Beach, on the same trip
Our Huntington Beach calls run the whole city: downtown and Oldtown, Seacliff, the islands of Huntington Harbour, Sunset Beach, and the tract streets off Adams, Brookhurst and Goldenwest. Huntington Landmark, the 55-and-over community of 1,238 homes built between 1972 and 1986, is a regular stop as residents downsize. Fountain Valley, Westminster and Seal Beach schedule onto the same day, including units inside Leisure World Seal Beach, where the resident calls us in at the gate. The drive from our warehouse at 23011 Moulton Pkwy, Suite G-11, Laguna Hills, CA 92653 is a half hour to forty-five minutes depending on the 405, so a morning call usually becomes a visit within a few days. The evaluation is free with no obligation, and the warehouse is available by appointment if you would rather bring the box to us.
The ordinary signed tier, priced honestly
Most Huntington Beach boxes are heavy with these three names. They are real makers with real histories, and they are also the tier the market prices modestly. The figures are what marketplaces and guides show, not what we pay, and we will beat a modest number at the table far more often than we will meet an inflated one.
| Name | Years and how it was sold | Published figures, read September 2026 | What lifts a piece above the tier |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sarah Coventry | From 1949, Newark, New York. Sold only at home parties, never in stores; the largest direct-selling jewelry company in the world through the 1960s and early 70s. Gone by the early 1980s. | Most pieces $15 to $60 in a collector guide; much of it sells in lots at $5 to $50 apiece | A complete set on its original card, or one of the scarcer designs that sold poorly when new |
| Monet | The Monet name dates from 1937, launched by Monocraft of New York with a factory in Providence, Rhode Island. Known for heavy gilt chains and clean plating. | Gilt-finish bracelets $30 to $80, asking prices on eBay and Ruby Lane as of August 2026 | The 1937 to mid-1940s pieces marked Monet Jewelers, and unusual figural or enamel work |
| Napier | The Napier name dates from 1922; the Meriden, Connecticut plant closed in October 1999. Modernist chain and link designs through the 1950s to 70s. | Modernist necklaces $40 to $100, asking prices as of August 2026 | Large sculptural mid-century pieces, complete parures, and anything with its original tag |
| Unsigned 1960s and 70s enamel and Lucite | Mass produced for department stores and the beach wardrobe; most never carried a mark. | $5 to $50, usually sold in lots | Big, bright, undamaged enamel flowers and thick carved Lucite bangles, which the market is buying again |
The Sarah Coventry range is from a published collector guide read September 2026; the Monet and Napier ranges are the asking-side figures in a costume jewelry value guide drawn from eBay and Ruby Lane, read August 2026. None of these is our price. We make one cash offer at your table after the whole box is sorted.
How We Work
We evaluate everything in front of you, explain what we’re seeing, and pay cash before we leave. No consignment, no waiting on a sale.
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
The box is all 1960s and 70s mod: enamel flower pins, big Lucite bangles, chain belts. Is that a market or a garage sale?
It is a market, a modest one, and livelier than ten years ago. Bright enamel flower pins, thick carved Lucite bangles and chunky chain belts from the tract years are worn again, so undamaged examples sell readily, usually as a group. Chipped enamel, yellowed or cracked Lucite and missing links drop a piece to almost nothing, so do not glue or touch up anything. Most of the tier brings $5 to $50 apiece in lots, and the older signed pieces almost always sit in the same drawer.
There is a lot of Sarah Coventry in the box. Is it valuable?
Modest, and we would rather say so than let a search result promise otherwise. Sarah Coventry launched in 1949 in Newark, New York, and sold only through home parties, never in stores, which is why a 1960s Huntington Beach tract household has so much of it. A published collector guide read in September 2026 puts most pieces at $15 to $60, with lots going lower. A complete set on its original card lifts a piece. We buy it as an honest lot rather than leaving it behind.
Half of it is signed Monet and Napier. Does a signature mean it is worth real money?
A signature tells you who made it, not what it is worth. Both are real companies, the Napier name from 1922 and the Monet name from 1937, and both made well-plated jewelry in volume for department stores, which the market prices modestly. As of August 2026, marketplace asking prices run about $30 to $80 for a Monet gilt bracelet and $40 to $100 for a Napier modernist necklace, and asks are not sales. Early marked Monet Jewelers work and large sculptural Napier pieces climb above that.
The house is a block from the beach. What has forty years of salt air done to the jewelry?
Less than you fear, and the damage is specific. Salt air attacks plating first, so base metal shows through on high points and green verdigris blooms where copper alloy meets damp. It gets behind foil-backed rhinestones and grays them, and it softens old glue so stones loosen. Lucite and Bakelite shrug it off; celluloid can craze. Do not scrub, soak or polish anything. Bag loose stones with their piece, move the box out of the garage, and let us read corrosion as condition, not a verdict.
We already split the box into a good pile and a beach pile. Should we put it back together before you come?
Yes, please, and do not throw the beach pile away. Families sort by sparkle, which is the wrong signal: a dull hand-wired Haskell brooch reads as junk while a flashy 1980s piece reads as good. The mod enamel and Lucite that gets called beach junk is the tier the market is buying again, and the lot offer on the plain pieces depends on seeing all of them together. Resist splitting the box between two buyers or two sale days too. One reading at one table is how nothing gets missed.
My mother is in Leisure World Seal Beach. Can you come to her unit for one jewelry box?
Yes, and one box is reason enough. Leisure World Seal Beach has been guard-gated since it opened in 1962, so the resident or a family member calls the gate ahead with our name and the time, and we work at her table. Seal Beach sits on the same run as our Huntington Beach calls, so the wait is usually a few days. Family out of state can join by speakerphone, the evaluation is free, and selling only a few pieces is a normal visit for us.
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
A real person answers seven days a week, weekends included. Photos sent today are usually answered the same day.
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