EPISODE 13 ~ MAKE MORE: Jewelry Buyers: Know The Right Way To Sell Your Jewelry And Get More For It
Today’s topic comes from an Easy Money listener that wants to know the right way to sell jewelry
“Hi, my name is Jenny and I live in Virginia. I love what you’re doing with the Easy Money podcast and I wonder if you can do a segment on how to make the most money selling your jewelry. I’d like to know whether it’s worth paying for an appraisal and whether it’s better to sell jewelry online or in person.”
Jewelry is an asset that’s laying around a lot of homes collecting dust, when it could be collecting money, so I appreciate this question. You want to know how to make the most possible money, but you should also think about how much your time is worth and balance the two. I recommend being thorough but not obsessive.
I do recommend getting an appraisal, because you want to know the value, unless you are absolutely positive your jewelry isn’t worth much. But beware, I asked master gemologist appraiser Martin Fuller your question and he said he’s had clients come to him on numerous occasions believing something was costume jewelry, when it was actually fine jewelry! This guy was full of stories. Once a client brought him a sapphire and the old appraisal attached to it said it was worth $18,000. But the stone looked unique under his microscope, so he recommended advanced testing and it turned out to be a rare Kashmir sapphire worth about $500 thousand dollars!
Appraisals range from $150 to $350 per hour. You should choose somebody who’s a member of the American Society of Appraisers, the International Society of Appraisers or the National Association of Jewelry Appraisers. Keep in mind the appraised price represents the retail value of the item, not the amount you can actually expect to get. Ask the appraiser if he or she can give you an idea of the resale value as well.
Once you know the value, the next thing you asked is whether to sell online or in person. I can tell you now that experts I spoke with say in person is better. I also found that to be true in an experiment I conducted when I was an investigative reporter at Good Morning America. We tried selling the same jewelry at multiple places and the local jewelry shop in New York City gave us, by far, the best offer. We sent $350 worth of gold to several online buyers and one of them only offered us $90 dollars for it, another just $66 bucks! If you do decide to sell your jewelry online, for the convenience, know this: When we rejected the companies’ offers, they always made counter offers, sometimes even doubling their money. So play the game.
A more comfortable option might be to sell via an online consignment shop. This can work in your favor, because individuals typically pay more for jewelry than professionals do. Just make sure your profit isn’t eaten up by consignment commissions. One site that stands out is called IDoNowIDon’t, named after the diamond rings it receives from broken engagements. The cool thing is that as the seller you send your jewelry to the company and the buyer also sends their money. iDoNowIDont appraises the jewelry and makes sure the money clears before completing the transaction.
All that said, selling your jewelry in person to a local shop may still be the best option. There are coin shops, consignment store, pawn shops, and jewelers. The American Gemological Society keeps a list of local jewelers who buy jewelry. No matter which type of store you choose, you should get at least three estimates —more if you’ve decided it’s worth your time and/or you own high-value items. Fuller, the master gemologist has a little trick: He says to “Tell them you are required to get at least three offers for the family,” as if someone has died or something, I guess. Jewelry industry people know that means they should put their best offer on paper. A little undercover advice and a little insider advice. Enjoy!
EPISODE 12~ EASY MONEY PODCAST
EPISODE 12 ~ MAKE MORE: Make Money From Home: Check Out These Modern Home-Based Income Opportunities
As a longtime consumer reporter, when people used to ask me about work-at-home opportunities, I always cringed, because most of them were scams. So I love that, thanks to the internet, the work-at- home landscape has changed completely and not only are there legit opportunities, there are lucrative ones!
I’ve already done interviews with people who produce music and videos and write resumes and sell them on Fiverr, a woman who sells fashion on Poshmark, a guy who shoots stock photos for Snapwire, and another who teaches from home via Skillshare. If you haven’t heard those episodes, by all means, circle back to them. Great stuff if you’re looking to work for yourself from home.
But today I want to do more of a survey of several work-at- home options. Some websites connect freelancers with clients, which is a game changer and a very modern way to work at home.
Other companies actually hire employees to work from home virtually. Some even offer benefits like healthcare coverage and paid vacation. Here are several options, in alphabetical order, that I recently researched for a Washington Post piece.
First, there’s Convergys which has 3 types of home-based opportunities: customer service, sales and service, and technical support. This is one of those companies that is looking for actual employees and offers benefits.
Flexjobs is a site where companies list all sorts of jobs for freelancers to consider, many of them in somewhat technical areas like accounting, project management and engineering.
Skyword.com is an interesting one because it is looking for videographers and writers who can create content for brands. Native marketing, sponsored videos, that sort of thing.
SutherlandCloudSource.com. Ding ding! For those who like the stability of being an actual employee, this is the other of those opportunites. Sutherland has everything from entry-level jobs like call center operator to higher-level positions like business analyst and they are available to do at home.
Tutor.com is one of several sites that employee freelance tutors who are qualified to teach students and help with homework in subjects from Calculus to Zoology.
Udemy is another platform, somewhat like Skillshare, where people create and teach online courses. Classes can be technical like how to create animated graphics or homey, like how to make sourdough bread.
Wonder is for all you researchers. Wonder calls them “analysts” and assigns them to research all sorts of things for clients. The clients are real companies like Shell, PwC and Deloitte.
Zintro.com is a freelance platform for consultants. We’re talking highly specialized folks in fields like biochemistry, FDA compliance and waste water. The smart thing Zintro does is have clients deposit their payments up front to make sure consultants get paid.
And finally, we have Zirtual, which hires and trains college-educated virtual assistants. They then get assigned to assist small businesses and sole
proprietors.
EPISODE 11~ EASY MONEY PODCAST
EPISODE 11 ~ MAKE MORE: Voice Over Jobs: Turn Your Natural Talents Into A Full-Time Career
What if you could make money using the voice you were born with? Do you have a sexy, sultry voice? Are you good at all kinds of accents? Voiceover work could be your vehicle. Redd Horrocks transitioned into voiceover work a few years ago and wait till you hear how well she’s doing at it.
I’ve just introduced you as a voiceover artist, but first you ran away with the circus right?
I am a former circus-production pro, a Stage manager and technician for the circus. What caused you to drop the circus act and pursue voice work?
I had capped out at the top of my career, so I started doing voice overs. I’d always done them – more as favors for friends. It was the first thing I ever did in college. A friend was doing video game creation for his final project. He asked me to come in and do narration on the main character. He had me do this action role —what it sounded like when someone fell off of a building and did all this action. It was so much fun.
You also needed the extra income, right? Necessity is the mother of invention —or reinvention in this case!
In my 20s I was in a huge amount of debt. I needed extra income and I started narrating audiobooks. I worked in theater and had a friend who was an actress and she had been approached by a company that needed someone with a British accent. I am from the southeast of England and am British. So I did two audio books. Back then I spoke exclusively in a British accent.
You can now speak in either a British OR American accent. Please tell me —in an AMERICAN accent— how you learned to do that and how it has helped your voiceover career! I generally work in an American or British accent so that’s double the clients I can attract.
So you moved into voiceover work full-time in 2014. How many projects have you done and what are they like?
I have done a total of 35,000 projects. I do 300 a week. My range is six words to 10,000 and $5 to $500. Generally just narration. I do a lot of corporate work. I record voice mails, explainer videos, educational and instructional messages, app games, elevator messages. Everything you can think of I have done. It’s very
broad.
You mentioned $5. That’s because you do most of your voiceover work over Fiverr, the freelance marketplace where many services start at $5.
How can you make a living charging so little?
The reason why this system works for me is volume. I can do a lot of work in a short period of time. Something for $5 will take me less than a minute because I’ve really figured out how to do it. I am a really good cold reader. I can read anything accurately the first time. If I can do one of those a minute and 30 in an hour. That’s a significant amount of money. My stuff is all about volume and repeat clients. A client may pay $5 for this job and that may lead to a $200 project.
So if volume is the key, how much do you work?
I am usually in studio for 4-5 hours a day. And an hour to hour and a half of administrative work. But clients are global so have to be available around the clock. I am connected. I don’t take days off. Christmas was my last day since August. Important to me to be accessible to my clients. How I make income I have. Being constantly available means I make more money. I don’t have sick days or paid time off. So I work a lot. It’s a terribly rude question, but I ask it every time: how much money are you making as a voiceover artist?
I make over six figures. It is a very good income. I have had growth every year. First year I didn’t make six figures but maintained growth rate of 20-30% per year. How meaningful has this nice living been for you?
We bought a home. Paid for our wedding in cash. My husband is able to now be a full time student – he wanted to go back to college to be an engineer. The opportunities have been massive. We have the kind of life we never thought we could have and are pursuing what we want to do. You’ve also been able to take some nice vacations. Tell us how you funded your trip to Napa.
I paid for an entire trip to Napa for a weekend once on 78 different public service announcements on herpes. Maybe not super glamorous but lucrative.
I want to share some of your advice for people interested in getting into voiceover work. First, you say client care is crucial. Explain.
The most important thing I tell people is client care, customer care is key. You have to look after your clients. They are your number one priority. If you look at it like that and strive to do better, there’s no reason someone can’t take their skill all the way. It’s about tenacity. What sort of equipment and software do people need to get started?
You don’t have to spend big money on products to get started. I had a really barebones studio when I started. I was recording in my closet. Clothes were my dampening sound! My microphone was used from Ebay. Really good mics aren’t expensive.
Don’t use massively expensive software. You can edit on Audacity. It’s free, easy and fabulous and all I need. With voiceovers it’s all about the enclosure and the mic. There can’t be any ambient noise. And finally, what about being savvy about your fees and earnings? Put the correct value on yourself and ask for more money. You want to make everyone happy but you can’t overwork yourself for a low amount. If you accept that you have value and pursue people recognizing that value you can do so much better than settling.
I think anyone these days has to be money savvy. One of the hardest things about freelancing is budgeting but if you live within your means you are fine.
EPISODE 10~ EASY MONEY PODCAST
EPISODE 10 ~ MAKE MORE: Sell Stock Photos: Pictures You’ve Already Taken Could Bring In Extra Income
How would you like to make money —good money— as a photographer? It’s totally doable. Shooting stock photos is our “make more” idea for this episode. Thanks to websites that post people’s photos for sale online, selling stock photos is a way to make some extra, passive income OR transition into photography full-time, like Blake Bronstad.
Blake, you’re a professional photographer now, but you weren’t always. Tell us what you were doing just a few years ago and how photography fit into that.
I was working at a tech start-up for three or four years and photography was a hobby. While I was at that company I started doing more paid photography gigs on the side. I generally got them from friends. But during that time Snapwi.re started up. I knew one guy from Instagram who was involved in the launch and he asked me if I wanted to beta test the service before they released it. I agreed to do so. They are based in Santa Barbara, where I live, so it was easy to do.
For someone like me, not yet a professional photographer, it was a way to find little paid jobs, make a few bucks here and there before I was ready to commit to photography full time. In the beginning I didn’t get paid as much. Maybe $100 here. $75 there. Lifestyle stuff.
For those who don’t know, explain what SnapWi.re is.
Snapwi.re puts dollar amounts on photos based on the credibility of the photographer. You get points, and as I rose through the ranks of the app, my photos became more valuable.
First let’s talk about how you had all sorts of photos already on your hard drive that you uploaded to Snapwire. How did that go?
I had a large amount of photos on my computer with nowhere to put it. —Someone blowing birthday cake candles
—a table of food.
—Palm trees.
For me I shoot a lot of Southern California summery warm vibe stuff. For a number of years I just shot my friends whenever I was at a birthday party, pool, beach or traveling. Snapwi.re started to get the ball rolling. I sold a few things and realized I made a few hundred bucks with fairly little effort. I realized if I uploaded a bunch of images to the Snapwi.re platform. It created a pool of stock images that I had and then those started getting the attention of buyers.
Snapwi.re would choose the ones they thought were top shelf and put a higher
price on those. They take 50% if it’s a stock image in your portfolio or archive – low compared to other stock services. Existing images I have, I could get up to $500 for one photo.
Snapwire also does something unique, giving customers the ability to
request images they need. How is that good for you and other
photographers?
If a buyer creates a request with a specific photo need, that request can be open to the public for any photographer on the app or can be a private request. I get to keep between 70% and 80%. I’ve had jobs that pay up to $1000 an image for
specialized requests. If you have the right client it is very easy. The amount of time spent for what it pays generally is easier than other photography work I do.
At this point you started actually shooting photos just for Snapwi.re, right?
And had some pretty funny experiences?
It was pretty funny. At one point I had to put up a Craigslist ad for models and I ended up taking pictures of people I never met in weird settings – like holding up fruit or climbing on each other’s shoulders, doing cartwheels in a yard. I had someone sit on one of those toys in front of a grocery store and that picture sold.
Of course, stock photographers are always asking their friends and family to pose. How does your wife react?
My wife sometimes says…stop taking my picture. When we first started dating she would happily pose, but now I have to prove to her that it is worth it for an important client!
In 2015 you quit the start up job and became a full-time photographer. How does shooting stock photos for Snapwi.re play into that?
It’s not the largest stream of revenue for me but a large motivator. I’m a full time photographer. Snapwi.re is one of many ways I make money. Majority of income is typical photo shoots with brands. But Snapwi.re is what motivated me and pushed me into the professional realm. Gave me some momentum and a confidence boost and a little bit of income that helped me with what I had saved.
Snapwi.re has helped me become savvier. They’ve put me in touch with a couple other photo shoots in town. I’ve done corporate headshots and that’s been very helpful. Snapwi/re elped me jump ship and do what I really wanted to do full time.
How much money has you made on Snapwi.re and what kind of difference has it made in your life?
Probably about $15,000 since I started. My life is a lot better. The 9 to 5 thing is not for me. I don’t drive a Lamborghini and haven’t bought a house yet. But I am very comfortable. Live in nice city. I am married. My schedule is so flexible. Flexibility is invaluable to me. Being able to take dog to beach whenever I want.
Going on trips with friends.
You’ve got advice for aspiring stock photographers. First, you say take
lots of photos everywhere you go. Why?
Over time you realize what sells. Could be your sister or your dog. Scenes on a sailboat with friends. You start picking up what is commercially viable and sure enough these random pictures will start to make money.
I’ve heard stock photos can’t show brand names and you have to get releases from any people or properties in them. How do you handle that?
You only have to worry about legal things if the shot is of recognizable personal property at someone’s house for example. I started carrying around release forms for models and if I get a picture I think will sell, I will ask if they are willing to sign it for me. I offer to throw them a few bucks or a free headshot if it gets bought.
And finally, you point out that there is a possible tax benefit to shooting
stock photos.
Technically you can write off trips if you shoot stock photos on those trips and they get bought. I do it as much as my accountant recommends. I know my deal is sweet so don’t want to push too far but you can do that.
Interested in shooting and selling stock photos like Blake? Snapwi.re is his preferred stock photo site.
EPISODE 8~ EASY MONEY PODCAST
EPISODE 8~ MAKE MORE: Go Undercover As A Mystery Shopper And Test Products, Services
TODAY in our “make more” segment WE’RE TALKING ABOUT BECOMING A MYSTERY SHOPPER. ACTUALLY, MYSTERY SHOPPING IS AN AMAZING WAY TO “MAKE” MONEY AND TO “SAVE” MONEY, SO I’M DOING SOMETHING A LITTLE UNUSUAL AND SPREADING THIS TOPIC OUT OVER BOTH SEGMENTS OF THIS SHOW. HERE TO TELL US HOW IT WORKS IS PAMELA OLMSTEAD, PRESIDENT OF THE INDEPENDENT MYSTERY SHOPPERS COALITION AND A MYSTERY SHOPPER HERSELF. PAM, WELCOME TO EASY MONEY!
FIRST OF ALL, EXPLAIN TO OUR LISTENERS, JUST IN CASE THEY DON’T KNOW, WHAT IS MYSTERY SHOPPING?
Mystery shopping is where companies hire you to test their product or service, usually without their front line employees knowing you are checking up on them.
HOW DID YOU FIRST GET STARTED IN MYSTERY SHOPPING?
I was working at a school district in California and another employee came in and talked about a mystery shopping job she had that night. I said, “what is that? What do you do” She explained she would be going out to dinner with her husband and would get reimbursed for the meal and paid for a report. I said, “that sounds like something I would love to do part time.” She gave me the name of one company because she didn’t want to give me all of her contacts.
I applied to that company that night and they weren’t accepting shoppers. So I researched and saw lots of ads. Lots had fees attached. But I researched and found a company and started. That was the year 2000. I didn’t take another day off for 7 years. I worked full time and mystery shopped nights and weekends —even Christmas Day and New Year’s Day. It became an absolute addiction for me.
In 2001 I realized I was making almost as much mystery shopping as I was for the school district and I would like to be home with my daughter, who was 8 years old at that time. I wanted to pick her up from school. So I stopped working at the school and went into mystery shopping full time.
YOU MENTIONED LISTINGS WHERE PEOPLE WANTED *YOU* TO PAY TO BECOME A MYSTERY SHOPPER. THAT’S A SCAM I WORRY ABOUT AS A CONSUMER REPORTER. HOW CAN PEOPLE FIND LEGITIMATE MYSTERY SHOPPING WORK?
Never pay anybody anything. Mystery shopping should pay you not the other way around. We have a membership where shoppers pay $25 to become a member and get help from me and other groups. But brand new shoppers that come in I say make money first. I believe in holding up the ladder so others can climb too. I don’t believe in competition. I have neighbors I have brought into mystery shopping. There is so much work out there ,there is no reason to worry about competition and some have rotations once in a lifetime or once every six months. So find the organizations that will help you for free. We are one of them.
GIVE ME SOME EXAMPLES OF TYPICAL MYSTERY SHOPPING ASSIGNMENTS.
WHAT ARE THEY AND HOW LONG DO THEY TAKE?
It is a huge variety. The key is finding out where companies are and who to work with.
There are almost 400 companies out there and you are independent contractor. There is work for everybody. A hotel report could take 6 hours. A cruise job could take 3 days. A grocery report could take 10 to 15 minutes. A drive thru report is an easy 5 to 8 minutes. There are companies that have super easy jobs or fun jobs. I did Disney Land for several years and inside that there were 8 or 9 reports that took an hour a piece. But going in they would send me tickets to California Adventure and Disney Land.
They reimbursed us for eating and parking. There was a secret club that I got to go to. It is a lot of work but for me it is rewarding and it is an addiction. Even when people go to other jobs, the always come back.
YOU’VE HAD SOME HILARIOUS AND DRAMATIC ADVENTURES ALONG THE WAY. PLEASE SHARE!
I’ve had people chase me out of gas stations with brooms because I’m taking photos. I had people threaten to call the police on me because if a gas station isn’t in compliance, the owners don’t want that info out. They will bribe you or threaten you.
Some mystery shopping jobs involve shooting undercover video and that can be nerve wracking!
OK, SO LET ME ASK THE QUESTION EVERYBODY IS WONDERING ABOUT: HOW MUCH MONEY CAN YOU MAKE AS A MYSTERY SHOPPER?
—Individual jobs pay between ___ and ___, depending on how complicated and lengthy a job it is.
— In a good year, I do $65,000 in payments. And nearly double that in reimbursements.
*Elisabeth’s Note: Be sure to read the Episode 8 “Save More” blog for more on mystery shopping, because mystery shoppers can save 6 figures a year through reimbursements!