Sell to Us · Costume Jewelry · Mission Viejo
It all looks fake, and there is fifty years of it. That is a Mission Viejo jewelry box.
No minimum · free house call · cash the same visit
California Vintage Buyers buys costume jewelry across Mission Viejo, Rancho Santa Margarita, Ladera Ranch and Coto de Caza on a free house call: every clasp read for a maker’s name, 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.
Mission Viejo was O’Neill family cattle land until the 1960s. The first families moved into the Deane Homes in 1966, and through the 1970s the town grew roughly fourfold, to 50,666 people at the 1980 census. Lake Mission Viejo opened to its members on June 3, 1978, the Mission Viejo Mall opened the next year with Bullock’s, Robinson’s, May Company and Montgomery Ward, and the city incorporated on March 31, 1988. Families came to raise children here, and many stayed for decades.
When a household stays put, its jewelry box is never culled by a move, so the whole run of it sits in one drawer: department store Monet and Napier on top, a neighbor’s Sarah Coventry, a Christmas tree pin for every December, the horse pins, and underneath them the older brooches a mother brought from somewhere else. It looks fake and there is so much of it, which is exactly the box worth one free reading before anything goes into a donate bag. We read it at your table with a loupe on every clasp. Text photos to (949) 449-1255 and we will tell you the same day whether a visit makes sense.
What a Mission Viejo dresser turns out to hold
Signed designer costume
Trifari with the crown over the T, Miriam Haskell’s hand-wired pearls, Eisenberg, Weiss, and Coro with its upscale Vendome line. The mark is a few worn letters on a clasp, and it is usually where the money is.
Text us a photo Send us a photoFigural and motif pins
Horses and riders, Christmas trees, animals and flowers, added one occasion at a time. Crown Trifari jelly bellies and Bakelite figurals sit at the top; unsigned novelty pins are honest lot pieces.
Text us a photo Send us a photoThe counter and home-party decades
Monet, Napier and later Trifari from the department store counters, and Sarah Coventry from a neighbor’s party. Modest, priced plainly, and bought as a group rather than left behind.
Text us a photo Send us a photoThe dress-up box and the broken
Pieces handed down to grandchildren to play with, pins with bent stems, loose stones in an envelope. Bought as an honest lot, with anything signed pulled out and priced on its own.
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 photoFrom the lake to Coto’s gates, ten to twenty minutes out
Laguna Hills shares a border with Mission Viejo, so these are some of the shortest calls we make: ten to twenty minutes from our warehouse to most front doors, and a morning call usually becomes a visit within a day or two. We work the whole city, from the Deane Homes and the streets around Lake Mission Viejo to Aegean Hills, Madrid and the neighborhoods above the 241, including Casta del Sol, the 55-and-over community of 1,927 homes the Mission Viejo Company built between 1972 and 1987. Rancho Santa Margarita, a city since January 1, 2000, Ladera Ranch, built from the late 1990s, and Coto de Caza, guard-gated and home to the equestrian center that held the riding event of the 1984 Olympic pentathlon, all sit on the same short run, and Lake Forest is just on the other side of us. The evaluation is free with no obligation, 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.
Figural pins: what the published record actually shows
Decades of birthdays and holidays leave a Mission Viejo box heavy with figural pins, and most of them are modest. These are the published figures for the kinds we stop on, each labeled with its date and what kind of number it is, so nobody mistakes an asking price for a sale.
| Pin | What to check first | Published figure | Kind of figure and date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Crown Trifari figurals and jelly bellies | A small crown over the T on the back; a clear Lucite belly on the jelly bellies | $50 to $150 for a crown pin in excellent condition; the best jelly belly animals $200 to $600 | Asking prices on eBay and Ruby Lane, moderated to the middle of the market, as of August 2026 |
| Bakelite figurals | Carving, weight and a hot-water test at the table | A Scottie $765, a cherry pin $318.75, a two-horse lot $280.50; most ordinary figural pins bring under $100 to a few hundred | Realized with premium at a dedicated Bonhams Bakelite sale, January 12, 2022 |
| Horse and rider motifs | The maker’s mark, then any missing stones | A late-1930s Eisenberg gilt prancing horse brooch $1,500; a Coro Duette with two horse heads, missing two stones, estimated $150 to $200 and unsold | Realized as reported, Ripley Auctions, September 12, 2020; auction estimate, Skinner, March 18, 2009 |
| Christmas tree pins | Script Eisenberg Ice means 1970 or later; Weiss made its trees until it closed in 1971 | The more desirable Eisenberg Ice Christmas pieces under $150 | Published range, Antique Trader, February 2, 2021 |
| Unsigned novelty and rhinestone pins | Pat. Pend. or a patent number means 1930s to mid-1950s; a copyright symbol means 1955 or later | $1 to $25 a piece unsigned; mid-century rhinestone $5 to $50, usually sold in lots | Secondary price guide built on asking prices, August 2026 |
Asking prices are what sellers list, not what pieces sell for. The Bonhams, Ripley and Skinner figures are single results or estimates from named sales, and the Antique Trader figure is a published range. None of these is our price. 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
Do you come to Rancho Santa Margarita, Ladera Ranch and Coto de Caza, or only Mission Viejo?
All of them, plus Lake Forest, on the same calendar. Laguna Hills shares a border with Mission Viejo, so most of these calls are ten to twenty minutes from our warehouse, and a visit within a day or two is normal. Coto de Caza is guard-gated, so the resident leaves our name at the gate the way they would for any guest. One jewelry box is reason enough for the trip, the evaluation is free, and if you would rather drive the box over, the warehouse is open by appointment.
Mom rode in Coto for years, and half her jewelry is horses: horse heads, horseshoes, riders. Is horse jewelry worth anything?
Some of it is, and the maker and material decide which, not the horse. The documented results run wide. A two-horse Bakelite lot brought $280.50 at a dedicated Bonhams sale in January 2022. A Coro Duette with two horse heads, missing two stones, was estimated at $150 to $200 at Skinner in March 2009 and did not sell, which is what missing stones do. A late-1930s Eisenberg gilt prancing horse brooch from a collection pictured in a reference book brought $1,500 at Ripley Auctions in September 2020, as reported. Unsigned horse-head pins and horseshoe brooches belong in the honest lot, and the signed ones get priced on their own.
Grandma’s costume jewelry has been our kids’ dress-up box in Ladera Ranch for years. Is it too late to have it read?
Not too late, but take it out of play now. Children are hard on exactly what sets value: they bend pin stems, pop stones and snap clasps, and a piece with missing or replaced stones reads as damaged. There is a second reason. Much 1930s costume was cast in pot metal, a cheap zinc alloy that often contains lead and feels heavy for its size, so the oldest pieces in the bin are the ones to move first. Do not glue anything back; put loose stones in a small bag with the piece they came from. Then bring the whole bin, plastic beads included, and we will pull out anything signed and price it on its own.
Mom kept some of her jewelry in the safe and the rest in a dresser drawer. Is the safe where the value is?
Not reliably. The safe holds what a piece cost or meant when it went in, and the vintage market prices something else. Vendome, Coro’s top line from 1944, sold through stores like Saks Fifth Avenue that did not carry ordinary Coro, so it often earned a place in the safe, yet a price guide published in March 2024 put its beaded earring clusters under $30 a pair. Miriam Haskell, meanwhile, signed almost nothing before the late 1940s and sold with paper hang tags, so an early Haskell necklace looks like nothing in particular and lives in the dresser. Open both at the same table. Anything that proves to be fine jewelry gets the free identification and specialist pointer described above.
Mom wore a different Christmas tree pin every December. Is a box of tree pins worth anything?
Usually modest, occasionally more, and the back of the pin decides. Weiss, which made Christmas tree pins until the company closed in 1971, is a name to look for. Eisenberg is another, but read the mark: script Eisenberg Ice dates from 1970 on, and a 1990s revival issued limited tree pins of its own, by one dealer’s account a 1994 edition of 80 per color. Antique Trader reported in February 2021 that the more desirable Eisenberg Ice Christmas pieces sell for under $150, in the same range as ordinary early Eisenberg Original pieces. A copyright symbol on the back means 1955 or later, and unsigned trees belong in the honest lot.
We bought a 1970s house in Mission Viejo and found a bag of costume jewelry in the attic during our remodel. What should we do with it?
Start with the family that left it. Your agent or the escrow company may be able to reach the sellers or their relatives, and a bag forgotten in an attic is sometimes exactly what a family has been looking for. If they tell you to keep it, or cannot be reached, we read it free like any other box: every clasp under a loupe, the signed pieces named and priced on their own, the rest valued as one lot. Do not wash anything first, since water that gets behind a foil-backed rhinestone grays it for good.
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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