Finding Antique Rings In Unusual Places

Have you ever wondered where you can find antique rings? I know a lot of people who just don’t know where to look to find good quality rings, never mind antiques. They go around thinking that the only antique rings available are being worn by grandmothers and uncles that will never part with them. But you might be surprised where antique rings end up showing up. They can be found in many places, in all varieties, and then there are some very unusual places you might not think to look in. I know that you can buy antique style rings brand new, but I am referring to true antiques, with history and character behind them. The first thing you might want to think about is, what kind of rings are you looking for that are antique?

When people think about antiques, they usually think that automatically means expensive. This is obviously not always the case though. There can be quality, inexpensive rings available if you are willing to sift through a lot of stuff to find them. Antique moissanite rings are probably not actually antique, but are antique style rings, since moissanite has only more recently started to replace cubic zirconia in jewelry products. If you are looking for a good deal on an antique engagement ring, you will want stay away from buying brand new. There are many antique dealers that have better prices on engagement rings than walking into the mall or local jewelry store and buying an “antique style” ring. If you search around, you can have a truly authentic antique ring, and may even get to hear the story behind it, or how it came to be in the hands of the person selling it to you.

Which leads to the question of what kind of places can you find antique wedding rings, antique gold rings, or antique diamond rings. If you are looking for gold rings, a great place to start your search is the local jewelry exchange. The great thing about jewelry exchanges it that they are much more likely to have antiques that people wanted to get rid of, sometimes after their parents died, or when selling off their estates. Antique gold rings turn up at places because people sell them for just the value of the gold, either not realizing they are antiques, or not caring. The jewelry exchange usually has a lot of gold items, and therefore it is likely you will find something there.

One of the unusual places to find antique rings is any large body of water. My husband likes running his metal detector over areas where people swim and congregate, and he has found some good finds. Antique diamond rings sink very fast after slipping off the finger, faster than most people realize to catch it before it sinks into the mud or sand. He found one of these once, and it fetched a good price at our exchange. If you are into metal detecting, or walking along the beach, you might be surprised what kind of jewelry you will discover. Of course, if you need a ring for an upcoming wedding or engagement, you shouldn’t count on finding something right away, but with patience, you will have some great finds.

Another slightly less unusual place to find antique rings are pawn shops. Pawn shops have the same advantage as jewelry exchanges, people are bringing in perhaps their mothers old antique wedding ring for quick cash, but they have the distinction that they don’t specialize in jewelry per se. So, you may be able to find a surprising deal because the pawn shop simply wants to get the money back out of the ring that they loaned to the person who brought it to them. Other times, you might find an antique ring that the pawn shop owner didn’t realize was valuable. And, with pawn shops, sometimes you can barter for other items you might want to get rid of.

Looking in unusual places can help you get great deals on antique rings of all types, and you might want to consider looking in places you never thought of before. You never know what you turn up.