The Appraiser's Playbook · First Edition · 2026

Know what it's worth. Never take the first offer.

A lowball offer works for one reason. The buyer knows what your pieces are worth, and he's betting you don't. This 114-page book, full of pictures, ends that bet. Every mark to look for. Every test you can do at your own kitchen table. Every number a dealer hopes you never learn.

“This isn't a book about selling your mother's jewelry. It's a book about never letting anyone take it for less than it's worth — whether you sell one piece, insure the rest, or pass every bit of it down.”

— Diane Whitmore

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The Appraiser's Playbook — the printed 114-page illustrated guide
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No. 2 · The first offer

The first offer is never the real number.

A TV station in Florida took one set of jewelry, appraised at $1,722, to four different buyers. The offers ran from $525 to $1,200. Same pieces. Same day. And one buyer raised his offer from $1,050 to $1,200 just because the seller pushed back. The number on the slip isn't what your jewelry is worth. It's what the buyer hopes you'll take.

A pawn shop counter with a written offer slip
Appraised value of the set$1,722
Highest first offer — after the seller pushed back$1,200
Lowest first offer — same jewelry, same day$525

A Florida TV station sent shoppers in with the same jewelry and filmed the offers. Your pieces, your town, and the day's gold price will all change these numbers.

The gap between $525 and $1,200 wasn't the jewelry. It was what the seller knew.

An older woman's hands opening a jewelry box 114 pages · PDF · 2026
No. 3 · The book

What the jewelry in your jewelry box is really worth — costume and fine.

Nineteen chapters in nine parts. The maker's marks that turn costume into cash. The kitchen-table tests for gold, silver, stones, and Bakelite. What dealers actually pay, where to sell, who to trust with an appraisal — and exactly what to say when the offer comes in low.

It has pictures, it's in plain English, and it's in the order you'll actually need it: sort the box first, read the marks second, and never talk price until you know your number.

See all 19 chapters
D. Whitmore
Estate Jewelry · Twenty Years at the Table
Appraisal of contentsPrepared for: the reader

Everything you need before anyone weighs your gold.

  • The Appraiser's Playbook — 114-page illustrated PDF$59
  • Bonus: The Jewelry Box Triage Checklist — printable one-page sort$17
  • Bonus: 12 Questions To Ask Any Buyer Before You Sell — red-flags sheet$14
  • Bonus: The Trusted-Venue Directory & Fee Sheet — where to sell, what they charge$19
Total value $109
$37 $59
Launch price — ends Sunday · Pay once · Yours forever
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DAY 30 days, no questions. Email Diane and the $37 comes back the same day. The Playbook stays yours.

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No. 5 · The math

The math on that first offer.

Don't weigh this book against other books. Weigh it against what walking in unprepared can cost you. Here's the same jewelry, two ways.

Take the first offer
The TV-station set, appraised at $1,722
Lowest first offer: $525
Pawn shops often pay just 30–60%
of what the metal alone is worth
What asking for more costs: $0
Up to $1,197 left on the counter
on one set of jewelry
Read the book first
The Playbook, once: $37
Good, honest buyers
pay 70–85% of value
One push-back in the same test
moved the offer $1,050 → $1,200
One push-back: +$150
four times the price of the book

Here's the whole bet. The first time a second offer beats the first one by more than $37, the book has paid for itself. Everything after that is yours to keep. And let's be plain about it — your pieces, your town, and the day's gold price all change these numbers. Nobody can promise you a number. The book's job is to make sure the number you get is the real one.

“Take one gold chain you own, weigh it, and do the math in chapter nine — before anyone else weighs it for you.”

The offer numbers above come from a Florida TV station that took the same jewelry to four buyers and filmed the offers.
The percentages are what buyers are widely known to pay. Every number changes with the piece, the buyer, and the day's metal prices.

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No. 6 · What's inside

Nineteen chapters. Nine parts. In the order you'll need them.

PART I2 CH.

Start Here: The Jewelry Box Triage

  • The 10-Minute Sort That Finds the Money
  • What Never To Throw Away (Or Send To Goodwill)
PART II3 CH.

The Marks That Matter

  • Flip It Over: Hallmarks, Maker's Marks, and Signatures
  • Trifari, Haskell, Weiss: Names That Turn Costume Into Cash
  • The Hot-Water Test and Other Bakelite Tricks
PART III1 CH.

Ugly Pieces Worth A Fortune

  • Why the Ugliest Brooch in the Box Sells First
PART IV2 CH.

Real Or Costume

  • Gold, Gold-Filled, or Gold-Tone: Reading the Tiny Numbers
  • Is That Stone Real? Checks You Can Do at the Kitchen Table
PART V2 CH.

What Dealers Actually Pay

  • The 50% Problem
  • Why the First Offer Is Never the Real Number
PART VI3 CH.

Where To Sell

  • Where To Actually Sell It (Not eBay — Unless It Is)
  • Auction Houses, Consignment, and Specialty Buyers: Fees Compared
  • Selling Gold and Silver Without Getting Skinned
PART VII2 CH.

Getting It Appraised

  • Who To Trust With an Appraisal — and What It Should Cost
  • Verbal or Written: Which Appraisal You Actually Need
PART VIII2 CH.

Never Take The First Offer

  • What To Say When the Dealer Lowballs You
  • Walking Away: The Move That Raises the Price
PART IX2 CH.

Protecting The Collection

  • Write It Down: The Inventory Your Family Will Thank You For
  • Insurance, Photographs, and Passing It Down Without a Fight

You don't have to do all of it. Sort the box, read the marks, know your number before anyone else does — that alone changes every conversation that follows.

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A jeweler's loupe held over a tiny hallmark stamp
Flip it over. The back tells the truth.
No. 7 · The quiet advantage

Look it over with a loupe before anyone else does.

Most of what decides value is already sitting in your drawer, stamped in letters smaller than a grain of rice. A signature that reads Trifari or Miriam Haskell. A tiny 750 or 14K on the clasp. The warm-water smell test that separates real Bakelite from plastic that only looks like it.

None of it takes equipment beyond a $10 loupe and your own kitchen table. What it takes is knowing what to look for — and that's a thing you can learn in an afternoon, from a book, before you ever stand at a counter.

Handed-down pieces, estate sale finds, the costume jewelry your grandmother kept in the good box — the Playbook treats them all the same way: check the marks, run the tests, know the number.

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No. 8 · From the viewers

The jewelry boxes are real. So is the problem.

These are real comments, word for word, from viewers of the channel this book grew from. They're not reviews of the book — the book is new. They're the reason it exists.

“I have ten bakelite bracelets, a pin with cherries, and a lot of Trifari. Love jewelry! Thank you.”

Marlene K. · Ohio

“Even jewelers will not give you near what your stones are worth”

Judith A. · Pennsylvania

“When selling jewellery you NEVER get what it's worth... The worst mistake is selling to a pawn shop. You'll get less that 50% of the value.”

Carol W. · Michigan

“I am a boomer and have a very old cameo that I inherited from my grandmother-in-law... I have no idea where or how I could get it appraised, though.”

Linda S. · Missouri

“I used to make headpieces for the ballet. I would roam second hand stores... Guess I need to take a second look.”

Dorothy P. · Illinois

“I felt like I was playing with my Granma's jewellery, in front of her big old dressing table 60 years ago.”

Barbara J. · Indiana

Buyer results will appear here as they come in.

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Diane Whitmore at an estate table, examining a piece through a loupe
No. 9 · The author

Diane Whitmore

Twenty years buying estate jewelry across the Midwest

“I've spent twenty years buying estate jewelry across the Midwest. I've seen what dealers pay, and I've seen what widows accept — and I made this channel so you never take the first offer.”

I've sat on the buying side of the table. I know what dealers really pay, what they offer, and how far apart those two numbers can get when the seller doesn't know her pieces. This book closes that gap.

It's everything I teach on the channel, put in order — every test, every mark, every number, right when you'll need them.

Get the Playbook — $37
$37 once · 30-day money-back · yours forever
D. Whitmore
Estate Jewelry · Plain Terms
Appraisal of contentsCopy 2 · Same terms

$37 once. No subscription. Yours forever.

  • The Appraiser's Playbook — 114-page illustrated PDF$59
  • The Jewelry Box Triage Checklist$17
  • 12 Questions To Ask Any Buyer Before You Sell$14
  • The Trusted-Venue Directory & Fee Sheet$19
Total value $109
$37 $59
No app · No login · A PDF you can keep, print, and hand down
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30
DAY 30 days, no questions. Email Diane and the $37 comes back the same day. The Playbook stays yours.

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No. 11 · Before you ask

Plain answers.

Most of it, yes — scattered across dozens of videos in no particular order. The book puts it all in one place, in order: every test, every mark, every number, right when you'll need them — plus the fee tables and the exact words to say, which don't fit in a video. You're paying $37 to have it all together, in order, in a book you can hold open at the counter.

Then don't. Knowing what it's worth doesn't mean you have to sell it. Most readers won't sell a thing. But the inventory chapter means your family will know which pieces are real. The insurance chapter means the good pieces are covered. And if the day ever comes when something has to be sold, nobody in your family takes the first offer.

It's a plain PDF — the same kind of file a recipe or a bank statement comes in. No app to install, no account, no password, no subscription, and nothing locking it down. It opens on any computer, tablet, or phone, and you can print the whole thing and keep it in a drawer with the jewelry if you like.

That's exactly the box this book was written for. Costume jewelry with a name stamped on the back is where the surprises hide. A piece that looks ordinary, with Trifari, Haskell, or Weiss on it, can be worth many times what the plain gold chain next to it brings. Part II shows you which names matter and where to find them. The ugliest brooch in the box is often the first thing a dealer reaches for.

You have 30 days, no questions. Email Diane and the $37 comes back the same day. The Playbook stays yours either way — refund or not, you keep the book and all three bonus sheets.

The next book is already in the works: The China Cabinet Playbook — Depression glass, Pyrex, milk glass, and the rest of what's sitting in the hutch. If you own this book, you'll hear about it first — and get a discount nobody else will.

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No. 12 · Last call

Somebody will name the price for your jewelry. Make sure it's you.

The buyer across the counter already knows what your pieces are worth. For $37, so will you — before the box ever leaves the house.

A sorted jewelry box beside a written inventory
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