Sell to Us · Costume Jewelry · San Diego
San Diego kept its costume jewelry. We drive down for it.
Free visit · cash offers · no obligation
California Vintage Buyers buys costume jewelry across San Diego County: Trifari, Miriam Haskell, Eisenberg, Weiss, Coro, Bakelite and the unsigned pieces too, sorted clasp by clasp at your table on a free house call and paid for in cash before we leave. Whole jewelry boxes and estates welcome. Call (949) 449-1255.
San Diego's costume jewelry has a particular character, and it comes from the Navy. Sailors shipping out of this port for eighty years sent home sweetheart brooches, mother-of-pearl pins, and jewelry from Pacific ports of call, and the families kept them. Add the mid-century closets of La Jolla, Coronado, and Point Loma, households that entertained through the cocktail decades, and the county's estates give up costume jewelry that is better than anyone expects.
We buy costume jewelry across San Diego County, in person, for cash. We are California Vintage Buyers, based in Laguna Hills and the team behind the Old 44 Vintage shop, and the sorting is the service: every clasp and pin stem checked under a loupe for the signatures that matter, suspected Bakelite tested properly, condition read honestly. The good pieces get priced individually and the modest pile gets a fair lot offer, with the reasoning explained as we go.
What San Diego boxes tend to hold
Sweetheart and military jewelry
Wartime brooches, wing pins, mother-of-pearl hearts, and jewelry sent home from Pacific deployments. San Diego produces more of it than anywhere we buy.
Signed designer costume
Miriam Haskell, Trifari, Eisenberg, Weiss, Coro Duette, and the other names collectors pay real money for.
Bakelite and mid-century pieces
Carved bangles and figural pins, plus the sculptural gold-tone jewelry of the 1950s and 60s cocktail years.
The whole inherited box
Unsorted, tangled, fine mixed with costume. We separate it on the table in front of you and price each pile honestly.
Regular routes from Oceanside to Chula Vista
We run San Diego routes regularly from our Laguna Hills warehouse: down the coast through Oceanside, Carlsbad, and Encinitas, into La Jolla and Point Loma, across to Coronado, and south to Chula Vista. Costume jewelry usually rides along with an estate or a downsizing, and we are glad to evaluate the rest of the house on the same visit, from jewelry to denim to the garage. The visit and the evaluation are free, with no obligation, and we pay cash before we leave.
Four ways to sell costume jewelry, side by side
The same jewelry box can go four directions. What differs is who does the sorting, when you are paid, and what happens to the unsigned pieces.
| Consignment shop | eBay | Local shop counter | Us, at your table | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| You are paid | A share when a piece sells, commonly 40 to 60 percent, months later | When the buyer pays, minus fees, after you photograph, list and ship each piece | Same day, for the pieces the shop can resell | The same visit, in cash, for the whole box |
| Fees | The shop’s share of every sale | As of August 2026, eBay’s Jewelry & Watches final value fee is 15% up to $5,000 and 9% above, plus a per-order fee | None, but the offer carries the shop’s rent | None |
| Who sorts it | You, before drop-off; unsigned pieces are often refused | You, one listing per piece | The counter, in minutes | We do, clasp by clasp, in front of you, with the reasoning out loud |
| Unsigned or unsold pieces | Come back to you | Sit relisted, or sell for the price of shipping | Passed on | Bought as a lot with an honest lot offer |
| Best fit | Patient owners with a few strong signed pieces | Owners with time, a camera and a post office nearby | One or two pieces on a shopping trip | Whole jewelry boxes and estates |
The eBay figure is read from eBay’s own selling-fees page in August 2026 and can change; consignment splits are the range shops commonly publish. Neither is our price. We make one cash offer at your table after the whole box is sorted.
A Recent Find
A 1940s Levi’s Type 1 jacket, sold to us by a former dealer who knew exactly what he had. We paid $12,000 in cash, the same day.
From the Shop
Sell Native American Turquoise Jewelry in Orange County. We Come to You and Pay Cash
Read the transcript
Hey guys, Sam here at California Vintage Buyers in beautiful Orange County, California. Today we're going to talk a little bit about turquoise jewelry. When did it start? Well, late 1800s, they started mining silver and turquoise out of the ground in the beautiful deserts of Arizona, New Mexico, and Native American tribes such as the Navajo, the Hopi, the Zuni, they started making handcrafted beautiful jewelry out of it. And it has since become pretty collectible. And so we love the stuff personally and we are purveyors of it. And as you can see, they spent a lot of time making a lot of this stuff. We have some really old stuff, Fred Harvey era kinds of things, all the way up to just new 80s, 90s fun hearts kind of stuff. So we're into it all. If you've inherited any of this kind of stuff or you have some that you don't really wear much anymore, we would love to buy it and we pay fair prices for it. Please give us a call, 949-449-1255. We can come to you. We go all over Southern California. But yeah, great examples of the kind of things we buy. When in doubt, text us photos to that number or give us a call, 949-449-1255.
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
My grandmother's box has Navy pins and brooches mixed in. Do those matter?
Yes, and please do not separate them out. Sweetheart jewelry has its own collector market, and pieces with a named ship, squadron, or a Pacific port history can carry real value. We know the difference between the common pins and the special ones, and we price them honestly.
Do you really drive to San Diego for costume jewelry?
Yes. We run San Diego routes regularly, and a good jewelry box justifies a stop on its own. Text photos of the box and a few close-ups to (949) 449-1255 and we will tell you the same day whether a visit makes sense and when we are next in the county.
How do you decide what a piece is worth?
Signature first, then construction, materials, and condition. Verdigris, missing stones, and re-glued backs move the number down; a crisp signed piece in clean condition moves it up. We explain each of those calls at the table, so the number never arrives as a mystery.
How do you tell a wartime sweetheart pin from a later souvenir piece?
The back of the pin dates it before the front does. A C-shaped hook clasp with a long pin stem that runs past the body of the brooch, or a screw-back earring fitting, points to an earlier piece, while a modern safety clasp and a short stem usually do not. Then read the material: carved mother-of-pearl, abalone and shell work brought home from Pacific ports, hand-painted celluloid, and wing or ship motifs are what families here find most often. Do not have a bent pin stem resoldered or a clasp replaced before we look, because the original hardware is part of the evidence.
There is far more here than one jewelry box. Will you still come down?
A large collection is a stronger reason to come, not a weaker one. San Diego trips earn their miles on volume, so several boxes, a dresser of drawers, or an entire household of jewelry moves you up the route. We sort everything at your table in one visit, buy in bulk as well as piece by piece, and pay the full amount in cash the same day.
Someone told me the bangles might be Bakelite. Can I test that myself?
Please do not. The home tests that circulate, a hot needle, acetone on a swab, polish rubbed hard into the surface, all leave a permanent mark on a carved bangle or a figural pin, and one bad test can end the value of the best piece in the box. Bakelite is denser and heavier in the hand than the plastics that followed it, gives a dull clack rather than a light click when two pieces touch, and shows no molding seam. We test suspected pieces properly at your table and show you the result as we go.
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.
Prefer photos? Text them straight to the same number · or send them here
Also from California Vintage Buyers
- Somewhere in the costume box, a Trifari is waiting.→
- Inherited jewelry, read before anything leaves the house.→
- Orange County jewelry boxes are full of names nobody checked.→
- Estate buyers for Coronado, the Navy’s village green.→
- Sell vintage clothing in San Diego, a city built for our trade.→
- Sell in La Jolla, quietly and without the auction wait.→