How to Stretch Your $500 Part IV

Here's where I waffle like a lawyer.  These strategies will not get you a Cartier panther watch for $500.  Or even $50,000.   They will help you get a few hundred knocked off a fine piece or maybe even $1,000 here or there (if shopping at a gem and jewelry show), and they might help you acquire pieces otherwise beyond your price point.  Perhaps they will help you think of your jewelry as a coherent whole, a collection, that expresses your aesthetic vision and extends beyond what you hang on your body. 

This leads to the other important rule, as important as the rule that you should never buy retail.  Never buy crap.  Don't buy junk, not even inexpensive junk, because junk is junk.  "What is junk?" is a fair question, but not to be answered today.  That's an answer that can take a long, long time and has 1,000 pitfalls. 

Today, let's look at something pretty. 


Tiffany dogwood necklace, 1st Dibs I think.  If it is not, someone please correct me.



Art Nouveau pendant of gold, enamel, freshwater pearls, and diamonds, www.1stdibs.com.

P.S.  My aesthetic vision apparently is, "Ooooooo!  Shiny!" 

P.P.S  If you want to weigh in on the definition of "junk," please do!