Jackpot!
At an estate sale, I bought tub of dirty, dusty jewelry, but could tell at a glance that it was worth washing. What I didn’t see was that it was vintage new stock, still in original packaging, never worn!
Some even had their display stand. I was thrilled with this find, but had some more complicated cleaning ahead of than I had planned. It was important to leave them on their cards, but most were paper and all were dirty. I gently cleaned each with a toothbrush, paper and all.
Some of the cards were a bit torn up, but most were in decent shape and looked great once I washed them.
In total, there were 155 old clip ons, maybe half of those are bead clusters. The other half are nicely varied. I also scored a couple dozen singles or broken bits to use in crafting. And a pile of eighties pieces that I personally don’t care for, but which might be to someone else's taste.
Here’s a bonus! Heavily tarnished, chunky silver pieces that have a nice glow once polished.
Overall, it was an exceptionally good garage sailing weekend. I tended to buy a lot of project pieces and filthy stuff, but all worth the effort. I’m not afraid of a little cleanup when it comes to bargains.
What a great find!