10. Listing items that are not jewelry pieces or which are specifically excluded from the Jewelry Lane, such as key rings or tabletop jewelry boxes.

9. Listing antique jewelry items in Jewelry: Antiques that are not definitively datable to pre-1945.

8. Listing jewelry items in Jewelry: Collectibles that are not 20 years old and not yet listed in any known price guide. If asked, the shop owner should be able to provide the title, publisher, and publication date of a price guide that lists the item.

7. Not being the maker of an artisan jewelry piece listed and not crediting the artisan who made the piece in the listing.

If a shop is unable to identify an artist by name because they do not know the artist’s name then it is clear they could not have purchased the piece directly from the artist. For instance, a shop only mentions a piece is marked with initials, but cannot say what name or names the initials represent.

6. Listing anonymously acquired artisan jewelry, rather than artisan jewelry items obtained directly from the artist who made them.

If a shop has had no personal business relationship with the artist, i.e. purchased the item directly from them, an artisan item does not meet the guidelines for listing in this Lane. This also includes fictitious names of people who do not exist. You may be requested to provide something such as contact information for the original artist as proof the artist named in the listing exists.

5. Offering ‘lot’ sales of unmatched jewelry pieces. Sales in bulk, which is to say those consisting of multiple unrelated jewelry pieces in a single listing, are specifically excluded from listing in the Jewelry Lane.

Only if multiple pieces of jewelry were originally all manufactured to be part of a matching set, such as those in a parure and demi-parure, will groups of multiple pieces of jewelry qualify to be sold together within the same listing.

4. Referring to an item as ‘gold’ or ‘silver’ without qualifiers for those terms when the item is only gold or silver in color. This has the potential to mislead a buyer, who might assume the item they are buying is actually made of ‘Gold’ or ‘Silver’. The same is true when actual gemstone names are used to denote color and not the actual gemstone. There is no such substance as a Cubic Zirconia Diamond, for instance, or an Amethyst Rhinestone. A title such as this for a gold tone costume bracelet with glass decorations is misleading, “Gold Link bracelet with Emerald, Ruby and Peridot Cabochons.” This type of word usage can result in a listing being viewed as employing classic ‘bait & switch’ advertising tactics, which are disallowed on Ruby Lane.

3. Misidentifying or under-identifying precious and semi-precious substances such as Jade (a term often used incorrectly in reference to other types of stones such as serpentine); Turquoise (which is often stabilized in form, but this is not made clear); Ivory (various substances are often suggested to be ivory, including bone and various plastics), or Pearls (which may be cultured or may only be a pearl-like bead, not a natural pearl, but this is not defined).

2. No pictures of the reverse side of jewelry pieces when the front and back are not identical.

And, the number one error when listing items in the Jewelry Lane on Ruby Lane is:

1. No image provided showing manufacturer’s marks, including fineness marks such as ‘14K’ - or adding a required image, but showing the mark from too great a distance or blurred, rather than clearly readable, as required.

Ruby Lane Customer Support

Need help with your Ruby Lane shop? Have a question about opening a shop? Get answers from the Ruby Lane Help Desk --- access the FAQ Knowledge Data Base, Live Help, or send an email. Ruby Lane Shop Owners can also find answers in the Ruby Lane Forums and the Selling Successfully section of their Shop Owners Page.