Virgo Gems Private Collection Program
If you have grown out of your collection, and you would like to trade up your pieces for store credit, you may be interested in the Virgo Gems Private Collection Program. This program is meant as a convenience. Your collection pieces can always be sold directly by yourself on a marketplace such as Etsy or eBay, and likely for more. Collections will always sell for higher on a piece by piece basis. However, private listings can be time consuming – both in the manual time it takes to create individual listings, and waiting for the right buyer to find them. The benefit of selling your pieces through Virgo is convenience – saving time by working with a dealer that already has an audience and a platform that is easier to find.
How it Works
Store Credit
Items are sold at Virgo for store credit only. Store credit can be applied to live sales, private shopping, and Virgo +. Please keep in mind that there are dealers that will purchase your collection for cash – if that is the route you prefer we suggest that you look for dealers that advertise “We Buy Collections”. They can be found at gem shows and online.
We will issue your store credit in the form of a coupon code. If you need your credit broken up into smaller chunks, we require a written request prior to invoicing.
Commission
Virgo Gems keeps a 20% commission for private collection sales. 80% of the collection sale goes to your store credit. That means that if for example, we sell your collection for $100 – we keep $20 and $80 goes towards your store credit. 20% is pretty industry standard for the service. We recommend that you shop around when looking for dealers to sell your collection.
Pricing Your Collection
Virgo Prices Collection (Standard Pricing)
Virgo Gems will price your collection piece by piece, or in groups at current market value prices based on our market expertise. That means if you bought something for $10, and it is worth $100, we will sell it for $100. Unfortunately that also means that if you bought something for $200, and it is worth $100, we will sell it for $100. It is not unusual as a new collector to spend too much on a piece. However, as you learn more about shopping around and train your eye, this will happen less and less. It is a normal part of collecting. The first trade up is usually the hardest, but it does get easier over time.
Negotiating Prices
If you would like to negotiate prices it is imperative that you negotiate in writing and wait for a response PRIOR to sending your pieces. To do this, please send us a PDF with clear, well-lit photos of each piece, dimensions of each piece, weight of each piece, and desired price for each piece in the following format:
- Photo of Piece 1
- Dimensions of Piece 1
- Weight of Piece 1
- Desired Price of Piece 1
- Photo of Piece 2
- Dimensions of Piece 2
- Weight of Piece 2
- Desired Price of Piece 2
- Etc.
We will mark up the PDF and send it back to you to approve or deny prior to sending your pieces. This may take some time, however. Please be patient, and please wait for a response PRIOR to sending your pieces. Sending your prices does not guarantee that we will sell them for that amount – we need time to respond effectively. You are always welcome to sell your collection elsewhere if you do not agree with our pricing.
Discounting Items
If the pieces do not sell immediately on the live sale we have the right to discount your pieces as necessary. We will not send back unsold pieces – they must all sell during the allotted live sale to avoid potentially losing track of specimens or other possible mistakes.
Sending Your Collection
Packing
It is imperative that you pack your items carefully, and wait until we confirm that you have a place for you in the schedule. If items break in transit we have no choice but to sell them at their broken value, regardless of whether you negotiated prices beforehand. If you send us your collection prior to signing up and being confirmed, we will have to return your items completely and discontinue you from the program.
Please label your package with your return address as well as the usernames you usually shop with us with, just in case.
25 Piece Maximum
To avoid overwhelm and to ensure that as many collectors have the ability to trade up as possible – we are limiting collections to 25 pieces per trade. Collections violating this policy will be sent back and collectors will be discontinued from the program. You may, however, sign up multiple times. Please help us help you by keeping things as fair as possible for the entire community.
Restricted Items
We cannot sell material that breaks intellectual property rights – meaning things like Pokemon carvings, etc cannot be exchanged for money at Virgo. We can however give them away on your behalf.
Signing Up for the Program
To keep things organized and to avoid confusion, we have a sign up process through Google Forms.
Fill out the Google form here:
To keep things as fair as possible we will schedule collections by the first date of patronage. We will reach out to you to confirm when to send your collection. DO NOT send your collection prior to confirmation. This will result in us having to return your collection and discontinuing you from the program. In a perfect world we can sell 1-2 collections per week.
