Sell to Us · Native American Jewelry
Sell Native American jewelry to people who read the maker, not just the metal.
Native American silverwork is one of the few things a family can own for a lifetime and still have no idea what it is. A heavy old cuff, a squash blossom that came home from a trip to New Mexico decades ago, a box of pieces inherited with the rest of an estate. The wrong buyer weighs all of it as scrap silver and quotes one number. We are the other kind. We read the tribe, the technique, the era, and the hand, and we price accordingly.
We are the team behind Old 44 Vintage in San Juan Capistrano, buying from a warehouse on Moulton Parkway in Laguna Hills, and this category is a genuine specialty for us rather than something we tolerate in an estate lot. Navajo, Zuni, Hopi, and Kewa work each carry their own signatures, and the difference between a tourist piece and master silverwork can be many times over in value. We explain what we see out loud, name the pieces the collector market wants, and pay cash the same visit.
The traditions we buy
Navajo silverwork
The first Southwestern silver, from Atsidi Sani in the mid-1800s onward: heavy ingot cuffs, stamped conchos, hand-pulled wire, and the squash blossom necklaces that became the signature of the whole region.
Zuni lapidary
The stonesetters. Petit point and needlepoint clusters, channel inlay, and carved fetishes, where the value lives in the precision of dozens or hundreds of hand-cut stones.
Hopi overlay
The technique Fred Kabotie and Paul Saufkie developed in the 1940s, cut and soldered over an oxidized base. Guild pieces and signed masters like Charles Loloma reach the fine-art market.
Kewa (Santo Domingo) beadwork
Hand-rolled heishi shell and stone strands, and the Depression-era thunderbird necklaces built from battery casings and old records when nothing else was to hand.
Old pawn and signed masters
Pieces worn and pawned at the trading posts, plus hallmarked work by makers whose names multiply value: Kenneth Begay, Lee Yazzie, Charles Loloma, Julian Lovato.
Please do not sell it to a scale
The costliest mistake in this category is handing a collection to a gold-and-silver counter that weighs it and pays melt. A single high-grade cuff or an early squash blossom can be worth many times its silver weight, and once a piece is melted the history is gone permanently. Before any scale gets involved, send photos to (949) 449-1255, including any hallmarks stamped on the back, and we will tell you the same day whether you have tourist silver or master work. We take attribution seriously, which under the Indian Arts and Crafts Act of 1990 is exactly the point: buying authentic pieces means being able to tell what authentic is, and identifying honestly is the whole job. Southern California families sell to us in person, and sellers farther out can start with photos.
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.
How it works
Call us.
A real conversation about what you have, no forms, no waiting.
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
How do you tell which tribe made a piece?
Technique first. Navajo work leans on stampwork and heavy silver, Zuni on precise stone cutting like petit point and inlay, Hopi on the overlay cut-out style, Kewa on heishi and shell. Construction, wear, and stampwork usually place the era and the hand before we ever look for a hallmark.
My piece is not signed. Is it still worth something?
Very often, yes. Most early Native American silverwork is unsigned, because makers did not routinely hallmark until the middle of the twentieth century. Age, construction, stampwork, and stone tell us what it is. A signature is a bonus that can multiply value, not a requirement for it.
How do I know an offer on Native American jewelry is fair?
Because the reasoning is spoken out loud, piece by piece: what tribe and era we see, whether the stone is natural, what the market pays for that form, and why. A buyer who quotes one blended number for a whole box is pricing it as scrap and counting on you not asking.
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) 449-1255Mon-Sat 6 am-8 pm · Sun 8 am-5 pm
A real person answers, Monday through Saturday. 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
- Sell turquoise to people who know Lone Mountain from Lander Blue.→
- A squash blossom necklace is worth far more than the silver in it.→
- A good concho belt is silver worth reading, not silver worth melting.→
- Old pawn is the good stuff, and the melt counter cannot see why.→
- Sell estate jewelry to buyers who read the signature first.→