Estate Buying, People Calling to Sell

We do a lot of advertising to get people to bring us their valuables to sell. While we do buy most items of value, we do not buy everything. We want to avoid having people bring in their art collections or 140-piece Wedgewood set if it’s not something that we want to buy.

We appreciate everyone trying to help field calls for the buy office, but these calls really need to be routed to buyers. Even if you think you know the answer, still route it to a buyer. Buyers are up to date with the latest market information.

When someone calls with something to sell, take the following steps:

1. Route the call to any available buyer in Old Town, including backup buyers such as Processors, and the COO.
2. Only if all the buyers are busy should you discuss anything with the caller.
3. If the buyers are all busy, you can tell them the following:
   1. No appointment is necessary; they can come in anytime we are open. Give the store hours.
   2. Tell them to bring appraisals, original paperwork, or any documentation they might have. Give them directions to the nearest buying office.
   3.  
4. Do not tell them any of the following:
   1. DO NOT tell them we will appraise their jewelry.
   2. DO NOT tell them we make offers.
   3. DO NOT discuss values with them or how items are priced.
5. Get the caller’s name and phone number and tell them a buyer will call them back to discuss. Especially if they have something to sell that we may or may not want to buy, such as art, carvings, statues, crystal, china, loose gemstones, and other collectibles other than gold, jewelry, and watches, we MUST have them speak to a buyer before they haul the stuff in to a buy office.
6. Especially if anyone calls in with an item for sale that we need regularly, such as Rolex, rare watches, big diamonds, etc., it is MANDATORY that we get the name and phone number of the person so that we can call them if they don’t come in.
7. Even if they say they’re coming right in, get their name and phone number.
8. GET THE PHONE NUMBER! THIS IS MANDATORY!
9. Now that you have the name and phone number, go to our web site, click on Email Us, choose “Jewelry and Estate Buyers,” and enter the caller’s name and phone number into the contact form along with all information that you have about what the caller has for sale. This causes an email to be sent to all the estate buyers so that the first available can respond to the customer.
10. If for any reason you cannot do this IMMEDIATELY, give it to someone else who can do it immediately. We do not make our customers wait to do business with us, because they won’t wait very long before going away to do business with someone else.
11. Once a buyer takes the web lead, no one else can respond, so it is mandatory that you follow up immediately if you take a web lead. If you can’t follow up immediately, do not take the web lead. Let someone else take it that is available.
12. In addition, all buyers will get names and phone numbers of those who do come in without calling ahead who have something valuable to sell, so we can call them later if we can’t make a deal today.

Thank you all for helping the buyers with this! This procedure should mean less work for you, and improved service to customers with difficult items.

Here’s the process in a nutshell:

Route any “do you buy this?” questions about collectibles or anything other than basic gold/diamond/Rolex, to a buyer or processor in Old Town. If they are all busy, use the ‘Email Us’ form on our website so that the buyers in remote offices will be able to contact the customers and answer the question.

Include the seller’s name, their question and preferred contact (phone or email). Then you’re done!