Everyone wants to find a $1000 piece of jewelry on ebay for $50.  I have been scouring ebay for great deals of that caliber for years and I have found such a deal exactly ONE time.  Ever.  What I am saying is that it is rare to find an authentic piece of Indian jewelry that is an unbelievable deal.  You often have to settle for just a really good, fair price.

 

There are two reasons that a piece of jewelry might be way too cheap.  One is that it is not really Native jewelry.  There are a lot of people (not just on ebay) selling foreign-made copies at very low prices.  This hurts the Native people, whose images and culture are not only being stolen, but also whose work is hugely devalued by cheap overseas labor.  It is expensive for Native artists to buy real stones.  They spend huge amounts of time crafting their beautiful jewelry.   Imagine how much time a petit point cuff with 100 stones takes to put together!  Silver prices have shot up in the past year, along with that of other precious metals.   In fact, expect base prices to go up soon because everyone in the Four Corners region is paying higher prices for their silver as of the spring 2006.  For great information on non-Native made fake “Indian” jewelry (and what to do about it if you end up with some), please visit the website of the Council for Indigenous Arts and Culture  http://www.ciaccouncil.org/   

For more details on identifying fake Indian jewelry see my new guide:
HOW TO AVOID BUYING FAKE NATIVE AMERICAN JEWELRY

The other way you can end up paying very little for a nice piece is from sellers on ebay that don’t really know what they have and are hoping the ebay market will tell them, by giving them a high price at their auction.   If the knowledgeable collectors miss finding it, you may get a screaming deal.  But as mentioned, these deals are few and far between.

Meanwhile if you are not a very knowledgeable collector, is very hard to tell from a photograph if a piece of jewelry is authentic.  There are very good copies out there.  In fact the Council for Indigenous Arts and Culture has a traveling exhibit in which they have many pairs of Zuni inlaid pieces. In each pair there is a real Zuni piece and one just like it made in the Philippines.  Even though I have years of experience looking at Indian jewelry I am chagrinned to admit that I found it almost impossible to tell the difference.  If you want to see some comparisons like this for yourself, check out my Guide HOW TO EVALUATE AND BUY NAVAJO AND ZUNI JEWELRY ON EBAY, and look at the refenence book list for the book called The Allure of Turquoise.  I guess I have gotten to the other side of the pricing issue now, because in some cases you end up paying too much for non-authentic jewelry.  If you don’t buy from a reputable seller you might end up paying much more than the retail for something that looks like a nice Native piece, but isn’t.  There are also real Native pieces that have been made with plastic stones.  Some artists are forced to use cheap plastic and other imitation materials because they are being priced out of the market by the cheap imports.

         

There is a lot of jewelry on ebay that is selling at a good but not ridiculously low price, fair to the seller and much lower than retail for the buyer.    Many of the sellers on ebay, including me, are selling their wares at way below the retail price.  You might think these prices are still too high for you, but remember these authentic pieces are not cheap to buy.  The seller has to pay for the piece up front, often taking a chance that they won’t get their money back out of it.  They have to photograph it, write the description, and then spend the time to list it.  They have to pay money to ebay both when they list the item and when it sells.  They have to pay money to Paypal when the buyer pays.  This is not just a diatribe from a whiney seller.  I know a lot of people don’t realize that selling on ebay costs quite a bit.  So jewelry that is fairly priced can still be a fantastic deal for the buyer and let the seller make a little bit of money, which after all is why he or she is selling in the first place.  If someone is buying quality, authentic Zuni or Navajo jewelry, from reputable sources, they are not going to be able to afford to sell it for less than what they paid for it, and in fact have to sell it somewhat above to just break even.  There are many reputable sellers of Native jewelry on ebay that aren’t selling their items for peanuts. But they are selling their items for very fair prices, prices that you would not get in any shop, even in Gallup, so don’t be too disappointed if you can’t find those deals where you pay $50 for a $1000 piece of jewelry.  You are still probably getting a great deal!

For information on identifying jewelry and for some recommendations of good books to get, visit my guide HOW TO EVALUATE AND BUY NAVAJO & ZUNI JEWELRY ON EBAY

I hope you found this guide helpful!