Selling/Identifying junk jewelry question.

[uglymailman]

First let me say I know nothing about selling/buying gold. I've seen the ads "we buy gold" and the motel buyers. I have inherited some jewelry. Looking at the tags I've found a couple of small necklaces that are marked 10k. Most have no markings I can find and would assume they are not gold.
I have some lapel pins from ARMCO steel that I can find a match for on Epay for 80-90 bucks. They are marked 10k. I can't imagine a 10k lapel pin has 80 bucks worth of gold in them and they are priced as a collector item, not for the value of the gold in them.
Some of the stuff is marked 12k gf or 1-20 12k gf. I'm guessing this means "gold filled" but I don't really know what that means. Any value at all in that stuff? There is also "12 or 24K gold plated" which I also assume that it would take a boat load of to melt to get any gold.
Can someone set me strait on this? Thanks

 

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[cyberdan]

lots of questions there, kind of hard to answer all of them.

the GF is gold filled. it does have value but not a lot. the fraction denotes how much gold is in the piece. If you have something marked 1/20 then it would take 20 of them to equal the gold value of the same item if it was full karat gold. save them they all add up. I look for GF all the time.

 

[Nightowl 280]

I would google gold and silver marks before doing anything with the jewelry like selling and look up anything that has a mark . If your unsure if something is gold or silver you can always have a gold place test it for you . I personally use a local gold buyer and place to do this for me . The gold buyer knows a lot of stuff on jewelry so i can drill her for info .

Simple Gold Hallmark Guide
Mexican Silver Marks I - Online Encyclopedia of Silver Marks, Hallmarks & Makers' Marks has other countrys and stuff
Jewelry Patent Project > Home

Once you have a idea ebay and other collection and sale site are also good places to get info on the value of the jewelry .


edit add
http://www.illusionjewels.com/costumejewelrymarks.html