Sell to Us · Old Pawn
Old pawn is the good stuff, and the melt counter cannot see why.
Free visit · cash offers · no obligation
California Vintage Buyers identifies old pawn jewelry free: whether a piece is genuine old pawn or tourist work, what the stone is, the era, and what the collector market pays, from a photo, the same day, with nothing owed. The rugs, baskets, pottery and Western art in the same house get a cash offer on a free house call. Call (949) 449-1255.
Old pawn is a phrase collectors use with real reverence, and most families who own a piece of it never know they do. At the reservation trading posts, silver and turquoise jewelry was pawned for goods and credit, and when it went unredeemed it became dead pawn and was eventually sold. The pieces that survive carry the wear, the ingot silver, and the honest age that the collector market pays the most for. A scrap buyer sees an old scratched cuff. A specialist sees the era.
This page exists so you can tell which one you have. On old pawn we identify: what makes a piece old pawn rather than tourist work, what the stone is, and what the collector market pays. It is free, it takes a photo, and you owe nothing. We are the team behind Old 44 Vintage, and the rugs, baskets, pottery, and Western art these collections travel with are things we do buy, in person across Southern California.
What makes old pawn worth it
Ingot and early silver
Silver melted and worked by hand rather than cut from sheet, with the weight and irregularity that come with it. A core tell of a genuinely old piece.
Honest wear
Softened stampwork, a warm patina, and contact wear where a piece rode against a wrist or a chest for decades. On old pawn this is value, not damage, and it should never be polished away.
Natural stone
The turquoise in old pawn is usually natural and often from mines long since closed. Depth, matrix, and color are read in person, since the stone frequently carries most of the value.
Trading post and Fred Harvey era work
We separate heavy reservation pieces from the lighter tourist silver of the Fred Harvey railroad era, and price each honestly for what it is.
Do not clean it before we see it
The single most expensive thing you can do to an old pawn piece is polish it. That warm dark patina in the recesses of the stampwork is part of what collectors pay for, and a bright shine erases decades of age in an afternoon. Leave it exactly as it is, keep any old pawn tags or tickets with it since those add to the story, and send photos to (949) 449-1255 including the backs and any hallmarks. We will tell you the same day whether it reads as old pawn or later tourist work, and roughly what that is worth, so that whoever you sell it to is dealing with an informed owner.
Our Word
One phone call is the whole process. A real person answers, we come to you, and you decide with a cash offer in hand.
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
What does old pawn actually mean?
It refers to jewelry pawned at the reservation trading posts, often decades ago, which the collector market prizes for its age and authenticity. Strictly it means a piece that once sat in pawn, but the trade uses it more broadly for genuinely old, worn, handmade Native American silver.
Should I polish or repair my pieces before selling?
Please do not. Patina and honest wear are part of the value on old pawn, and polishing or amateur repair usually costs more than it adds. Leave it as it is, original stones and all, and have it read before anyone changes a thing.
Does a pawn ticket prove how old the piece is?
No, and this catches people in both directions. The ticket records the loan, not the making: tickets from as late as the 1980s turn up on much older jewelry, and a piece can be far older than its paper. A ticket alone proves little about age; the silverwork, the stone, and the wear tell that story. Keep it anyway, because documented pawn history is exactly what collectors like to see.
What is a pawn ticket and why does it matter?
It is the original trading post tag, sometimes still tied to the piece, recording the loan against it. It is the closest thing this category has to documentation, and it moves a piece from probably old pawn to demonstrably old pawn. If you find one, keep it with the jewelry and photograph both sides. Never throw the paper away.
How can I tell old pawn from tourist silver?
Weight and irregularity. Old pawn tends to be heavy, hand-worked, with stampwork that wanders slightly and silver that varies in thickness. Fred Harvey era tourist pieces are thin gauge, light, and machine-regular, often with stamped arrows and thunderbirds. Both are collectable, and they are not in the same bracket.
Does a repair reduce the value of old pawn?
It depends entirely on who did it and when. A period repair made by the person who wore the piece is part of its history and collectors accept it. A modern solder blob or a replaced stone set with the wrong adhesive reads as damage. Do not attempt any repair before the piece is looked at.
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
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