Recently, I bought an antique brass bracelet at Sandusky Street Antiques, a quaint shop in town. It was badly tarnished, but at $10, the shop owner declared it a 'good find.' I had to agree.......it was covered in folk art carvings that you find on furniture from the '30's.
One of my trustiest tools for reclaiming resale finds is my bottle of brass polish. Nothing fancy about it, I believe it retailed at Meijer for around $3.
The result for about 5 minutes of polishing time? A gorgeous bracelet that looks like real gold, is a fabulous conversation piece, and gives me endless satisfaction just by looking at it. Which I do. A lot.
Of course, I could have also ponied up for this real Italian gold bangle at Ross-Simon's.........for $395. It's pretty, but OMG expensive, especially for someone making installment payments on her daughter's choir trip to Chicago in April.
I want to look nice, but I also want money left over. With resale shopping, I have the best of both worlds. And no one is the wiser, unless I blog about it.
Which I do, because I want you to have money leftover too <3
A final word about upkeep.........brass does tarnish, but it takes me 3 minutes to polish my bracelets before wearing. I usually lay my clothing and jewelry out the night before, so this is no biggie. Shopping resale DOES require planning ahead, but it's still worth it to me..........regular polishing is still a better trade off than paying $395!!!
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