Discerning Blonde FAQ

Here at Discerning Blonde, we take customer satisfaction very seriously.  If you ever have any problems with your order, please refer to the following sections for answers to any questions that you may have.  If for some reason we have somehow missed a topic, or if you have any questions regarding the following policies and procedures set forth in this section, please feel free to shoot us an email with your questions at:  discerningblonde@iccmall.com .  We will get back to you within 24 hours of your email in most circumstances, barring vacations or emergency type situations that take us out of town.

Your Privacy

One important thing on everyone's mind today is the security of ones personal, private, and financial  information.  Identity theft has become a serious problem on the web!  We strive to protect you in every way we can by making shopping here a pleasant, simple and secure experience.  Please review our Privacy Policy for important information on how we protect your information.  We are also always open to suggestions!  If you see any way that we can improve our shop, please feel free to email us!

Our Paypal Shopping Cart--You can use it even if you don't have a Paypal account

Our Paypal shopping cart is really nice as you can use it even if you don't have a Paypal account when you check out and pay for your purchases.  It looks like you need to have one, because they want everyone to have an account with them, but you don't really need one to shop at Vintage Blonde.  If you read carefully over to the right of the check out page, you'll see an area dedicated to people without accounts.  Just enter your information there (don't worry, it's encrypted to ensure the safety of your information,) and you are good to go!  Don't let them fool you if you don't want to register for an account!

Returns Policy  

All sales of our jewelry are final.  However, if for some reason you feel that an item has been grossly misrepresented in description, please email us using our contact email listed above or you can follow the "Contact Us" link on our index page.  We will accept emails on damaged or misrepresented items for exchanges, store credit, or cash refund for up to 10 days after your receipt of the item.  If you are to return an item to us, all returns must be received within 10 days of the receipt of your email to us explaining your situation or complaint.  We

Any emails received after the 10 day window of return will be acknowledged, but refunds will not be an option.  We will work with you and the post office to the fullest extent of our ability with any and all postal insurance claims in the event of items damaged in shipping, but no items will be accepted for returns after this ten day window.

Make an Offer!

We DON'T like paying full price for anything, and we don't think that you should either.  If there is a piece of jewelry on our site here that you really love and would like to add to your collection but you think that the price is too high, please email us!  We LOVE to dicker with prices!  The prices that we have laid down for our sale price are just a guideline for us to use in most cases, So do not hesitate to email us with what you think is a reasonable (yes...it HAS to be reasonable) offer--don't offer $10 for something that is priced $75...as we won't respond to you.  Keeping your offer between 75 to 100 percent of the asking price is a pretty good rule of thumb.  Please use good judgment.

Once you email us with your offer, we will respond to you within 48 hours letting you know that your offer has been accepted or not.  At that time, I will put that particular piece of jewelry on hold for you for the duration of our negotiation process.  If your offer hasn't been accepted, we will attempt to send you a counter-offer.  At that point, you will have 48 hours to email me back.

Once a price has been agreed upon, you need do nothing more until you receive an invoice from me through Paypal.  Please, don't use the "add to cart" button to pay for your purchases, but wait for the invoice we will send, and make your payment with the invoice we send.  Once your payment is received, we will then get your jewelry shipped off as soon as possible.  See?  It's Easy!

In some cases, there will be the word "firm" in the place where our usual "make an offer" link is.  If you encounter this, then there is no room for wiggle, and the whole price must be met if you wish to acquire that particular piece of jewelry.  Sorry, but sometimes we just have to draw a line based upon what we've paid for a piece of jewelry.

Lay-Away Plan

In the next month or two, we will be implementing a Lay Away plan for our merchandise over $75.00 in order to try to give everyone an opportunity to purchase a great piece of costume jewelry.  We still don't have all of the bugs worked out yet though, so look forward to this coming soon!  In the meantime, if you would like to discuss payment plans or a payment agreement on a piece, please click one of the many contact links provided on this site, and we can work something out for the interim period.

Shipping Policies

We prefer to use the United States Postal Service for all of our shipping, and our preferred method of shipping is insured First Class Mail.  We find this to be the most cost effective means of shipment, and quite honestly we've never had a complaint from anyone that we have used this shipping method with.  If you desire your jewelry purchase to arrive sooner than 7-10 days from time of purchase, please send me an email requesting USPS Priority Mail shipping, which will generally arrive 2-3 days after shipping from our offices.  Need it even faster?  We will ship overnight, also using the USPS.  Prices for all shipping are dependent upon current rates from the postal service and the overall weight of your package.

Also, you can specify a preferred shipping method when you send us your payment through "Paypal" which is our exclusive payment center.

Each order is subject to a $1 handling fee to pay for all materials needed to package and ship your product to you safely and securely.  We generally ship using bubble wrap and a padded envelope, but larger pieces will require different packing materials for securing.  Regardless, of how much packing material is used, there will only be this nominal $1.00 fee.

Insurance for your packages is optional, but strongly encouraged.  We will not be held responsible for damages that occurr in shipping.  We do the very best that we can with packing to ensure that your packages arrive safe and secure.  Please insure your packages! 

International Shipping

The Discerning Blonde Vintage Costume Jewelry Store ships internationally, with the exception of Italy. Again, we will not ship to Italy.  My apologies to all the wonderful Italian folks out there who are good trustworthy people and would be wonderful customers, but your postal services are simply too unreliable and waaay to risky to continue to do business through.  While we were working with the major auction houses in the past, we had several shipments to Italy that were never received...some of which were quality pieces of jewelry that we pretty much just had to accept the loss for.  I finally reached a point where I just had to say "no more!" as the losses had just become too large. 

If you are an Italian buyer and you are willing to accept ALL of the risk--and I mean completely accepting the responsibility for all losses--then I will gladly ship to you, but be warned.  We will not be giving out refunds, exchanges, or store credit for any shipments to anyone who lives in Italy that did not receive their merchandise.  I guarantee that I will have proof on file that I did indeed mail your package.  No bones about it.  You will have to take the full financial responsibility for the loss if you have us ship your package to Italy and it doesn't arrive.

If you have any further questions on Shipping, please feel free to email us at discerningblonde@iccmall.com.

Our Jewelry--Grading

Unless otherwise stated in the description, all of our jewelry is Vintage Costume Jewelry, with the word Vintage emphasized.  This means that nearly all of our Jewelry is pre-owned and has survived through the years to be resold here on this site.  Our jewelry is hardly ever pristine or in complete mint condition.  For that reason, we have instituted a grading system for the pieces that we sell.  Certain key words will be used in each description to inform you of the following:

Excellent Vintage Condition--indicates that a piece or a set of jewelry is in near mint or new condition.  There is virtually NO wear to the metal finish, and no scratches on the stones.  All parts on an excellent vintage piece will be secure with no wobble or looseness to the working mechanisms.  There is NO verdigris (green gunk) anywhere on an excellent piece or set of jewelry.

Very Good Vintage Condition--This grade indicates that a piece or a set of jewelry is old, but has been VERY well cared for.  There may be minimal scratching or wear to the metal finish, but none is missing.  There may be a scratch or two on the stones as well, and perhaps just a light shade of yellowing to clear stones.  There is No verdigris on a Very Good piece or set of jewelry.

Good Vintage Condition--There's a pretty big drop between very good vintage condition and good vintage condition.  A Good grade indicates that there is definite wear to the finish of the piece, or that the stones are either dulling noticeably or have seriously yellowed.  At this point, the piece is still wearable, but it's going downhill fast.  You will most likely find some verdigris on a piece of jewelry in Good condition, but again, not so much that the piece is unwearable.  You can expect to find light verdigris around either the clasps, or on the spacer beads between beads or stones in necklaces.

Fair Vintage Condition--You will very seldom find a piece of jewelry at Vintage Blonde that wears this grade.  Fair pieces of jewelry are in pretty bad shape, and we'll only have these for sale because we believe that they have some sort of historical value, or that they will come back to life with a bit of restoration.  Fair pieces may have missing stones, broken pins or clasps, or heavy crusty verdigris.  Think twice before ordering a piece in this condition, as it's most likely unwearable until you do some work on it.  We will do our best to identify all of the problems with a "fair" piece of jewelry in the description portion of a listing.

About our Jewelry--Pets and Smoking Allergens

We search high and low, leaving no stone unturned in our hunt for great vintage costume jewelry, which means that we go to estate sales, auctions, yard sales, and just about anywhere else we think that there might be a piece of jewelry hidden away.  Couple that with the fact that there are smokers--and pets present in the place where we store our jewelry, and you can probably figure out where I'm going.  We urge you to think carefully about purchasing our jewelry if you have allergies to these things.  We do try to keep our jewelry free of pet dander and smoke by storing them in Ziploc bags, and then keeping them in a sealed container in a closet, but it's impossible to insure that it will be completely free of the above listed allergens.

Before shipping, we do a quick cleaning of the jewelry with Glitz costume jewelry cleaner unless otherwise requested.  It's a safe organic cleaner for rhinestones, and it has a pleasant smell that helps eliminate smoke odors.  It's the best that can be done short of getting a separate storage area--which IS on the agenda after our shop gets going.

AGAIN--PLEASE NOTE--We will not deep clean any costume jewelry before selling it.  We may go over a piece of vintage costume jewelry lightly with a jewelry cleaning cloth or with Glitz jewelry cleaner, but for the most part we do not deep clean our jewelry before we sell it.  Some people like the patinizaton that comes on a piece of vintage jewelry, and sometimes cleaning will remove that "older" look that a piece may have acquired from years of loving use.  We will try to not ever clean a sterling piece of jewelry, as the tarnished look of silver is invaluable to some folks.  Of course there ARE exceptions to every rule.  I WILL clean a crusty piece of jewelry for hygienic reasons...even if it is silver. 

Hopefully that about covers all the policy stuff.  Once again, if you have any questions, please feel free to email us at discerningblonde@iccmall.com. 

Now...lets go shopping!!!