Jewellery is worth its weight in gold to the buyer

Article from Eindhoven Dagblad 2007

EINDHOVEN - "You do know it's a copy?", asks Morne Botes when I put my fake Rolex down in front of him on the table.

The director of the British Roadshow EU can see at once that the watch is a fake. "It’s generally young people who come along with fake watches, so I was already suspicious." His company is holding a roadshow in hotel Park Plaza Mandarin in Eindhoven until tomorrow and is buying up jewellery and watches: old, new, broken and still working.

Most modern jewellery goes straight in the melting pot, but Botes buys popular watch models and old Victorian jewellery.

The company then sells this on. Roadshow EU checks the identity of each seller to ensure that the property has not been stolen.  Visitors sit at tables in a room. Valuers tell them what their objects are worth, just like on the TV programme 'Tussen Kunst & Kitsch'. But here the sellers receive the value immediately in cash. Most bring jewellery or old watches that otherwise would just be left collecting dust in a drawer.

According to Botes: "Few people sell jewellery because they need the money. But now and then there is someone who gets two thousand euros for a watch and then buys a more expensive one." He doesn’t want my fake Rolex bought from a bare-foot seller at Lake Garda in Italy. Gold jewellery is however worth something. A few sets of ear rings are worth eleven euros. According to Botes: "The price of gold is high at the moment so it’s a good time to sell."

Peter van Mill from Veldhoven tries his luck with another valuer with a gold pocket watch that belonged to his wife’s grandfather. "We don’t have any use for it." The watch is about 120 years old. The valuer studies the watch carefully through his magnifying glass. And the conclusion: "It’s an Eberhard & Co. It’s in good condition and worth five hundred to a thousand euros."

Unfortunately it is so broken that it would cost more to repair it than it's worth. So Van Mill is offered the value of the gold as the purchase price: 140 euros. "I’d rather keep it myself than sell it for that kind of money", decides Van Mill.