Sell to Us · Costume Jewelry · Laguna Niguel
Laguna Niguel jewelry boxes look like all costume. That is why they deserve a read.
No minimum · free house call · cash the same visit
California Vintage Buyers buys costume jewelry across Laguna Niguel and its neighbors, Aliso Viejo, Laguna Beach and Laguna Hills, on a free house call or at our Laguna Hills warehouse by appointment: every clasp read for a maker’s mark, signed pieces priced individually in front of you, the rest bought as one honest lot, and cash paid the same visit. Call (949) 449-1255.
Laguna Niguel was planned before it was built. Cabot, Cabot and Forbes formed the Laguna Niguel Corporation in 1959 to lay out one of the first master planned communities in California, on land that had been the Rancho Niguel grant of 1842. The city grew up through the seventies and eighties, incorporated on December 1, 1989, and counted about 44,400 people in the 1990 census. Aliso Viejo followed the same pattern later: the Mission Viejo Company bought the last of the ranch land in 1976, sold the first homes in 1982, and the city became Orange County’s 34th on July 1, 2001. The people who bought those houses new brought their jewelry with them, added to it for decades, and are now deciding what fits in a smaller place.
Most of what comes out of those dressers is costume, and it is easy to decide the whole box looks fake and there is too much of it to bother with. That is the box we most want to see. Signed pieces hide in volume, and the marks that matter are small and often worn: a crown over a T, an oval plaque, a patent number pressed into the back of a clasp. Over the hill in Laguna Beach, where local artists founded the Laguna Beach Art Association in 1918, the same drawer may also hold handmade pieces bought from the people who made them.
We are California Vintage Buyers, and Laguna Hills is our home city. The warehouse on Moulton Parkway is ten to twenty minutes from everywhere on this page, so most families have us to the house and some drive the box over by appointment. The read is the same at either table: a loupe on every clasp, each piece named out loud, the reasoning behind every number said plainly, and no obligation to sell any of it. Text photos of the box to (949) 449-1255 and we will tell you the same day whether it deserves a visit.
What south county jewelry boxes turn out to hold
Signed designer costume
Trifari with the crown over the T, Miriam Haskell’s hand-wired pearls and glass, Eisenberg Original, Coro and its Duettes, Boucher and Weiss. Each priced on its own, with the mark shown to you under the loupe.
Text us a photo Send us a photoWhat was bought new here
Monet and Napier chains, later Trifari, and the clip earrings and statement pieces of the seventies and eighties, when these houses were new. Modest money, said plainly, and bought as a lot rather than left behind.
Text us a photo Send us a photoHandmade and festival pieces
Enamel, beadwork, glass and mixed-media jewelry from Laguna’s studios and art festivals, read for how it was made and for any stamp or initials, and named plainly as factory costume, studio work or souvenir.
Text us a photo Send us a photoBakelite and early plastics
Carved bangles, figural pins and dress clips, tested at the table with hot water, never a hot pin. Celluloid and Lucite get named as what they are.
Text us a photo Send us a photoThe leftovers
Single earrings, broken strands, loose stones, and whatever an estate sale or a first sort left behind. Bought as one honest lot, so nothing is left for you to sort.
Text us a photo Send us a photoThe fine pieces in the same drawer
Rings and chains that are not costume, and studio pieces made in silver, get a free identification at the same table and, if you decide to sell them, a pointer to the reputable specialist we would use ourselves. The rest of the drawer gets a real offer the same visit.
Text us a photo Send us a photoTen to twenty minutes from the warehouse, in every direction
Laguna Niguel shares more than a name with Laguna Hills, where our warehouse sits on Moulton Parkway: both cities stand on the old Rancho Niguel, granted to Juan Avila in 1842. Every city on this page is ten to twenty minutes from our door, so a morning call is usually a visit within a day or two and sometimes the same day. In Laguna Niguel we work from Niguel Summit to the golf course streets of El Niguel and down Crown Valley to Pacific Island Drive; in Aliso Viejo, from Town Center to Glenwood; in Laguna Beach, from North Laguna to South Laguna and up the canyon; and across Laguna Hills, a city since December 1991 and our home. A visit is quiet, nothing is posted anywhere, and it is free and without obligation. If you would rather come to us, the warehouse at 23011 Moulton Pkwy, Suite G-11, Laguna Hills, CA 92653 sees sellers by appointment only, so call first and we will set a time.
Four signed names and the marks that date them
Most south county boxes hold at least one of these names, usually on a clasp or the back of a brooch, and the mark tells you the decade before anyone talks about money. The figures sit at the middle of the market on purpose. They are asking prices, not sales, and none of them is our offer.
| Name on the clasp | What the mark dates | Published figures, read August 2026 | What lifts a piece |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trifari | A crown over the T marks the Alfred Philippe years; he was head designer from 1930 to 1968, and most published accounts date the crown to about 1937. A plain Trifari with a copyright symbol and no crown is later work. | Crown pins $50 to $150; the best jelly belly animals $200 to $600; later plain Trifari $15 to $60 | Figural jelly bellies, and early pieces carrying a patent number rather than a copyright symbol |
| Miriam Haskell | Almost nothing was signed before the late 1940s. A horseshoe plaque appears about 1948 for a couple of years, then an oval cartouche stamped MIRIAM HASKELL from about 1950 through the 1970s. The name is still used on new jewelry, so a mark alone does not make a piece vintage. | Signed bead necklaces in good condition $100 to $300; elaborate signed work higher | Glass pearls and seed beads hand-wired onto brass filigree, with a back as finished as the front |
| Eisenberg | Eisenberg Original runs about 1935 to 1945, a lone E about 1942 to 1945, and Eisenberg Ice in script from 1970 on. | Eisenberg Original $100 to $300; fur clips in excellent condition $100 to $200 | Large prong-set stones with their foil backs intact; liquid grays them for good |
| Coro | Duette frames often carry patent number 1,798,867, granted March 31, 1931 to Gaston Candas of Paris, the mechanism Coro built its Duette on. Corocraft was the better line from the 1930s, and Vendome the top line from 1944. | Duettes in good condition $75 to $125; scarce figurals above that | A Duette complete with both clips and its frame, and Corocraft enamel and rhinestone figurals of the late 1930s and 40s |
| Any maker, or none | A small c in a circle means designed in 1955 or later, after Trifari won its copyright case against Charel. Pat. or Des. Pat. with a number, or Pat. Pend., points to the 1930s through the mid-1950s. | Unsigned pieces $1 to $25; signed mid-tier $25 to $100 | A patent mark on a well-made piece, which is the era collectors chase |
Figures from a secondary costume jewelry value guide built on eBay and Ruby Lane asking prices, moderated to the middle of the market and read August 2026. Mark dates from published maker histories, the Duette patent itself and the 1955 Trifari v. Charel decision. Asks are not sales, and none of these is our price: we make one cash offer at your table after the whole box is read.
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
We live in Laguna Hills and would rather bring the jewelry to your warehouse. What should we bring?
Everything, in whatever it lives in now: the box, the trays, the zip bags, and the pieces you were about to throw away. Bring broken halves with their partners, loose stones in a small bag beside the piece they fell from, and any pouch or box a piece came in. Leave it exactly as it is. Call (949) 449-1255 to set a time, because the warehouse sees sellers by appointment only. At the table the read is the same as a house call: every clasp under the loupe, signed pieces priced one by one, the rest as one lot, and cash paid there if you accept.
How long does the read take? Should we clear the whole afternoon?
For one jewelry box, plan on about an hour at the table, at your house or at ours. A dresser full of trays takes longer, and if you tell us roughly how much there is when you call, or text a photo of it, we will say how long to set aside. Stay for all of it if you can. Every piece is named out loud as it comes off the tray and the signed ones are priced in front of you, so by the end you know what the box held whether you sell or not. The read itself is free either way.
My mother lived in Laguna Beach and bought handmade jewelry at the art festivals. Is that costume jewelry too?
Some of it is and some is not, and telling them apart is part of the read. Laguna Beach has been an art town for more than a century. Local artists founded the Laguna Beach Art Association in 1918, and at the Sawdust Festival, running since the 1960s, local artists sell their own work, jewelry included. So a Laguna drawer can mix signed factory costume with one-off pieces in enamel, beads and glass. We read each for how it was made and for any stamp or initials, and name it plainly. Pieces made in silver get a free identification and, if the family decides to sell them, a pointer to a reputable specialist. Everything else in the drawer gets the same loupe as the signed costume beside it, and a real offer where a market exists.
The estate sale is over and the jewelry table was picked through. Is what is left worth a call?
Often, and finding out costs nothing. People at a sale move fast and take what they recognize: the sparkly brooch, the name they can read without a loupe. What tends to stay behind is the tangle, the dull pieces, the single earrings, the strand with a broken clasp, and that is exactly where a worn mark gets missed. Text a photo of the remainder to (949) 449-1255 and we will say the same day whether it deserves a visit. If it does, we read every piece, price anything signed on its own, and buy the rest as one lot, so nothing goes back in a box for the donation run.
Mom has moved into memory care and her jewelry is still at the house. What should go with her, and who can sell the rest?
Have the box read before anything moves, then choose. Memory care packing guides advise keeping valuable jewelry secure elsewhere and sending a few favorites that would cause no distress if lost, and the read tells you which favorites are which: the bright pin she wears every day may be ordinary costume, while the dull brooch beside it is signed. Selling the rest is for Mom if she can still decide, or for whoever holds legal authority for her, often a trustee or an agent under a power of attorney. Whether that paperwork covers a sale is a question for the family’s attorney, not for us, and we are glad to wait for the answer.
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.
Or send your photos online Photos on your phone? Text them to (949) 449-1255
Also from California Vintage Buyers
- Orange County jewelry boxes are full of names nobody checked.→
- We buy costume jewelry. The whole box, read free at your table.→
- Estate buyers for Laguna Niguel, ten minutes from your door.→
- Estate buyers for Aliso Viejo’s first turning generation.→
- Sell vintage in Laguna Beach, where the houses were built by artists.→
- Laguna Woods jewelry boxes hold sixty years of dressing up.→