Many buyers receive used jewelry in dirty condition. An option for sellers to clean items before shipping could enhance buyer satisfaction and reduce returns due to item condition.
I buy a lot of antique/vintage fine jewelry from ebay. All gold with diamonds. So relatively easy cleans. More often than not...it arrives dirty. Not talking about fingerprints, like GUNK. Ew. I just received a three stone diamond ring. Granted the pics weren't the best, but she accepted returns, and it needed to get authentication. When it arrived, I thought....ehhh, this will likely be a return. Diamonds looked dull. Looked with my loop, there was this gross THICK brown substance stuck under all three diamonds. It took several rounds in the ultrasonic, lots of soaking, and some scrubbing with an old ultrasonic toothbrush. The ring is likely from the 50s, and was probably never thoroughly cleaned, even with a toothbrush. It ended up being a great buy, diamonds are two thumbs up. But man, a lot of patience was needed with this one. So tonight I just bought another art deco gold pendant, likely with synthetic rubies (we'll see when I get it). After reviewing the pics again, on a larger device, more GUNK on the back on the stones. Ugh! Again, clearly not dust, but human dirt. Last summer I bought vintage diamond studs. GUNK again. Gross!!! It had someone's ear dirt still attached. I can understand avoiding things like opals, emeralds, etc. But is this just being lazy? I had ONE seller clearly state he does NOT clean/polish prior to shipping. Fine. I don't expect a professional cleaning job, just a little scrub scrub would be awesome.