Sell to Us · Costume Jewelry · San Clemente
A San Clemente house can stay in one family for fifty years, and the jewelry box stays with it.
No minimum · free house call · cash the same visit
California Vintage Buyers buys costume jewelry across San Clemente, Dana Point and Capistrano Beach 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.
San Clemente was built to a rule. Ole Hanson, a former mayor of Seattle, founded it in 1925 as a Spanish Village by the Sea, and its early buyers agreed to his white walls and red tile roofs. The 1929 crash emptied much of the town and the rule did not last, but the houses did. Camp Pendleton opened on the city’s southern edge in 1942, the postwar decades filled the hills, and by 1970 San Clemente held about 17,000 people. Just up the coast, the first Capistrano Beach homes were built on the bluff in the 1920s, Dana Point Harbor was dedicated in 1971, and in 1989 Dana Point, Capistrano Beach and Monarch Beach became one city.
When a house has stayed in one family since those years, the jewelry in it spans every decade the family lived there: rhinestone brooches and clip earrings bought new in the fifties and sixties, beads and bright plastics from later years, pieces brought home from trips, all in one tangle. The usual verdict is that it looks fake and there is far too much of it. Much of it is modest. A crown-marked Trifari or a Haskell necklace can sit in the same tangle, and the only way to know is to read the backs. When the children who now hold the key live in other states, it is easy for the box to wait until escrow forces a decision. Text photos to (949) 449-1255 before it gets that far, and we will tell you the same day whether a visit makes sense.
What San Clemente and Dana Point dressers turn out to hold
Postwar rhinestone jewelry
Cocktail brooches, collars, bracelets and clip earrings from Weiss, Kramer, Hobe, Vendome and Regency, plus the unsigned Juliana pieces that are read by their construction rather than a mark.
Text us a photo Send us a photoThe signed houses everyone has heard of
Trifari with the crown over the T, Miriam Haskell’s hand-wired pearls, Eisenberg, Coro and Corocraft. Usually the oldest layer of the box, and where the individual prices come from.
Text us a photo Send us a photoPieces from trips and resort shops
Souvenir and gift-shop jewelry from vacations and cruises. Priced honestly as part of the lot, with any signed piece among them pulled out and priced on its own.
Text us a photo Send us a photoBakelite and early plastics
Carved bangles, figural pins, dress clips and buckles, tested at your table with hot water. Celluloid and Lucite get named as what they are.
Text us a photo Send us a photoWhatever turns up outside the box
Single earrings, loose clips and broken strands from evening bags, coat pockets and button tins. They join the lot, and now and then a signed piece is among them.
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 Talega to the harbor, one run down the 5
Our San Clemente calls run the whole city: the Pier Bowl and the original streets of Southwest San Clemente, Shorecliffs, Forster Ranch and Talega. Capistrano Beach and Dana Point sit on the same run, from the Lantern District and the harbor to Monarch Beach, so one jewelry box anywhere along the coast here is reason enough for a visit. The drive from our warehouse at 23011 Moulton Pkwy, Suite G-11, Laguna Hills, CA 92653 is roughly twenty to thirty minutes down the 5, depending on traffic, so a morning call usually becomes a visit within a few days. When the family lives out of state, a realtor or key-holder can open the door while the family watches on video. The evaluation is free with no obligation, and the warehouse is available by appointment if you would rather bring the box to us.
The postwar rhinestone houses, priced from the record
San Clemente filled after the war, and households that arrived then bought their jewelry new in the rhinestone decades. These are the published figures for the names that belong to that layer, each labeled with its kind and date. Most sit at modest money, and none of them is our offer.
| Name or tell | Years and what to look for | Published figure | Kind of figure and date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Weiss | Founded in New York in 1942 by Albert Weiss, who had worked at Coro; closed in 1971. Black japanned settings and figural butterflies and insects sit at the top of its range. | A worn black crystal butterfly brooch estimated at $40 to $80 | Auction estimate, The Benefit Shop Foundation, July 10, 2024; not a sale |
| Kramer of New York | Founded by Louis Kramer in New York in 1943; in the 1950s it also made the pieces marked Christian Dior by Kramer. Closed around 1980. | Ordinary 1950s Kramer $75 to $225 | Price guide estimate, Antique Trader, April 2, 2024 |
| Hobe | William Hobe established the American company in New York in 1927; his father’s house, Hobe et Cie, was founded in France in 1887. | 1960s art glass set $100 to $150; 1960 faux pearl earrings $45 to $65 | Price guide estimates, Antique Trader, March 14, 2023 |
| Vendome | Coro’s top line, created in 1944 and sold through upscale stores that did not carry ordinary Coro. Austrian crystal, beads and heavy plating, made into the 1970s. | Beaded earring clusters under $30 a pair; multi-strand necklaces $50 to $100; elaborate rhinestone collars $500 and up | Price guide estimates, Antique Trader, March 11, 2024; no published auction result for a Vendome parure was found |
| Juliana, by DeLizza and Elster | Founded in New York in 1947 and almost never signed; a paper hang tag was used for about a year from 1967. Read by construction: five-link-and-band bracelets, figure-eight solder puddles on the back, open-backed navette stones. | A bracelet and earring set realized $180 | Realized, Ripley Auctions, April 15, 2024, as reported by Invaluable |
| Unsigned, with rainbow-coated stones | Aurora borealis coating, developed by Swarovski with Christian Dior, was introduced in 1956, so a piece carrying it was made in 1956 or later. | $5 to $50, usually sold in lots | Secondary price guide built on eBay and Ruby Lane asking prices, August 2026 |
The Weiss, Kramer, Hobe and Vendome figures are auction or price guide estimates and the Juliana figure is a single realized result, each dated in its row; the unsigned range is from a secondary costume guide built on asking prices, read August 2026. Estimates and asks are not sales. 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
Who buys costume jewelry in San Clemente, and how soon can someone come out?
We do. California Vintage Buyers reads costume jewelry at your table anywhere in San Clemente, Dana Point and Capistrano Beach, roughly twenty to thirty minutes down the 5 from our Laguna Hills warehouse, so a call usually becomes a visit within a few days. Signed pieces are priced one by one with the reasoning said out loud, the rest gets one honest lot price, and cash is paid before we leave. There is no minimum and no fee, and one jewelry box is reason enough for the drive.
I am the trustee and live out of state. The realtor has the key to the San Clemente house. Can the jewelry be read with nobody from the family there?
Yes. The realtor, a neighbor or whoever holds the key lets us in, and you join on a video call while we work, so the camera follows the loupe and you see each mark as it is read. The realtor opens the door; the trustee decides. Nothing is bought until you agree, and the offer and the payment go to you as trustee, never to the key-holder. If nobody yet has the authority to sell, the reading can still happen and the sale waits.
One of us is flying in for a single week to clear Mom’s house. When should the jewelry be read?
On the first day of the trip, not the last. A reading early in the week tells the family which pieces matter before anyone chooses keepsakes, fills a suitcase or lets a cleanout crew into the bedroom, and it leaves the rest of the week for the decisions that take longer. Send us the dates when you book the flight and we schedule the visit around them. If photos texted to (949) 449-1255 before the trip show only a modest lot, we will say so, and you can plan the week around that.
It was our parents’ second home in Dana Point, used a few weeks a year. Would they have left any jewelry worth reading there?
Yes, and it tends to be a particular layer. People leave the jewelry they will not miss in a house that sits empty: resort and beach costume, bright plastics, chunky necklaces bought for a holiday wardrobe, and pieces picked up on trips. Older things can land there too, when a main house is downsized and the spare dresser goes to the coast. Much of it is honest lot money, with the odd signed piece priced on its own. Have it read before the house is listed, because a second home is often cleared by people who never met the owner.
Half the box is jewelry from trips: Hawaii, cruise ports, resort gift shops. Is souvenir jewelry worth anything?
Usually a little, and we would rather say so plainly. Tourist-counter jewelry was made to sell cheaply and rarely carries a maker’s name, so most of it falls in the unsigned tier, which a costume value guide built on eBay and Ruby Lane asking prices put at $1 to $25 a piece as of August 2026, and asks are not sales. What lifts a souvenir is a recognized maker’s mark, a carved Bakelite bangle tested at the table, or a set still together. Keep the travel pieces with the rest: they help date the box, and they belong in the lot.
We emptied the jewelry box. Is there anywhere else in a house this old we should look before it is cleared?
Yes, and the places are predictable. Jewelry in use is wherever it was last worn or put down: evening bags and clutches on the closet shelf, the pockets of coats nobody has worn in years, the drawers of a dressing table or a sewing cabinet, button tins, a cigar box or candy tin in a nightstand, and the travel cases on the top shelf. Do not pour any of it into the main box. Set each find aside as it is, in its own bag or tin, so loose stones stay with their pieces, and we will read all of it on the same visit.
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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