Navajo Indian Arts and Craft Treasures

If you search Ebay for the word "Navajo" you will be able to look though more than 8,000 listings (as I write this).  I guess I am spoiled, but when we first started looking at Navajo jewelry & rugs in the early 1970's the jewelry was characterized by the use of lots of silver and a few stones.   I realize things have changed over the years, but I am afraid I think the only Navajo connection many of these items have is their use of the word! I saw an awefully lots of items which I suspect can be purchased in bulk from China.   

If you are looking for inexpensive jewelry for your personal use and like turquoise and silver, then I am sure there are some good deals to be found.  Ebay is an extremely competative marketplace and sellers work hard to find the lowest price sources for the products they sell.  This certainly applies to "Navajo" jewelry.  However, even casual buyers should take a little time to get familiar with what Navajo jewelry traditionally meant.  Otherwise you are apt to find yourself talking to someone about your new"Navajo" jewelry and looking sort of dumb because it's obvious you are clueless.  

I was in Costco the other day and the concha belt the woman in front of me was wearing caught my eye.  She was probably about 60 and the belt was made of about 20 oval conchas a little larger than a silver dollar.  My eyes aren't what they used to be and I wanted to ask if I could look at them more closely but decided that probably wasn't such a gerat idea since I am male.  However, even from a distance and with my eyesight it was obvious the conchas were made from heavy guage silver.  The stampings were deep and, while very well done, had enough variation to be certain each concha had been hand stamped, not pressed out at a factory.  

I got brash and said "That's a really lovely belt."  She lit up and said "It took me years to pay for it."  I got it at the Covered Wagon a long time ago.  When I bought it they had a policy that if you ever decided you didn't want something you could take it back and they would refund your money.  If you didn't make payments for a year they would send you a notice, but never collection letters."  The old Covered Wagon is no more because the owners got old, but the story is one I had heard before.  They had a back room where they kept all the really good stuff and it was as good or better than a museum for looking at the absolute best quality work.  

Of course I have gotten more cynical over the years (spent to much time around the used car market) and now understand the sellers probably got all their money out of the item from the down payment.  So the income from ongoing payments was all profit and they could afford to be generous.  Since they only did this with the best and most expensive items it was a great sales tool that cost them nothing.  Much like the pet shop that lets you take the puppy home.  If a buyer really got in a jam they got the item back to resell at an appreciated rate; in effect a free loan from the buyer; no cost inventory for the sellers.  All that and gratitude too!

It looks to me like the Navajo category is a good place to find sleepers.  It's obvious many of the sellers are clueless.  Many of the real Navajo treasures were sold to tourists along the trains that traveled through the southwest in the 1920's and 1930's.  Really fine items were taken home to the east where they now turn up at estate sales.  If you take the time to study and learn how to recognize the authentic items I think you could find some really special things and possible make some money at the same time.   I have added Navajo jewelry to our "Sleepers" collection at Make and Sell .  If the idea of profiting from your knowledge of a confusing category sounds interesting, but Navajo is not for you, you might visit that site to search for other confused categories in which you might have more interest.