I will spend the next days in Kaliningrad. I was smeared with honey there. I drive and drive.
But, in the Baltic it is very good. There is something to travel for. There is something to see, there is where to relax.

The only question that does not let me go from the very first trips is the name "amber land". To be more precise, there are no complaints even about the name. There are questions to the amber itself. What is it for at all?

In the Kaliningrad region, 90% of the world's amber is mined. I have heard many times about the importance of this natural material. But I never saw its normal use. All that is made of it is beads and bespontovye souvenirs sprinkled with amber. The only sane thing that I saw from amber is the amber room. Everything!

Stories about amazing properties seem more like a fairy tale, in which stone miners believe.
It is known that there is even a sanatorium that ascribes amazing healing properties to this stone, but I think this is the same fiction.

The Chinese buy amber well. This is one of the main sales markets. But I wouldn't really trust China. They also buy jade all over the world. Another useless material, only green.

This raises the question. Why do you need to mine amber and increase its production annually if nothing sensible is made of it? Or is there something I don't know?

I suggest enjoying the windows of the official store of the Amber Factory.

01. Beads. It seems to me that this is the main thing that is made of amber.

Amber beads are considered one of the most popular jewelry in the world (excluding rings). What is the reason for such popularity of amber and beads from it? And also why the price of amber beads varies from 1,000 to 100,000 rubles.

Amber beads

Amber beads are a very ancient and popular jewelry among the most different nations of the world.

This is due not only to the beauty of the sun amber stone, but also to the huge number of myths, legends and amazing stories that have been passed from mouth to mouth for over a thousand years.

Amber is an organic mineral. The most demanded is the Baltic amber fossil. It is from it that it is customary to make the most valuable amber beads. But if you look at amber from a different point of view, from the point of view of our ancestors, then we will see the most interesting world of this stone.

It is believed that amber protects its owner from the evil eye, gives strength and brings good luck. Amber beads (see Buy amber beads) are presented at a wedding as a guarantee of long-term happiness and strong love. Elderly people appreciate amber beads because in most works of scientists and researchers of antiquity, amber is considered the stone of life and longevity, which contains the power of the sun and is able to change life for the better.

Science is silent on these reasons, and research has not been carried out. But those studies that were carried out by the Academy of Sciences in 1971 (see) brought extremely interesting results.

It has been proven that amber contains succinic acid. This is usually between 2% and 5%. But the most interesting is yet to come.

Healing amber beads and succinic acid

What are amber beads? Amber beads are a lot of processed or unprocessed pieces of amber of different sizes, densities, textures and colors. In general, it is customary to distinguish 9 varieties of amber (see. Varieties of amber), but not all and only Baltic amber are suitable for the production of beads.

When pieces of amber rub against each other on a person's neck, in the process of friction, amber powder is formed (see. Amber powder) and succinic acid (see. Amber acid). The latter is formed by mechanical activation. It has been proven that natural YaK (succinic acid) has an extremely positive effect on the human body, acting as a powerful biological stimulant. Yes, YAK is already formed in mitochondria. But as soon as the level of load on the body increases, it becomes insufficient!

Succinic acid is responsible for supplying oxygen to cells and not only. It has been proven that biological succinic acid (see the difference between natural and synthetic succinic acid) is able to stimulate the regeneration of sluggish cells.

Perhaps this very effect was discovered empirically by our ancestors, when they began to revere amber in this way, and amber beads became one of the most desired gifts.

Properties of healing amber beads

Speaking about the properties of amber beads, we need to talk about the properties and applications of succinic acid and amber powder.

Only old amber beads made of opaque amber produced before 1990 can be sold in an antique shop. Obviously, it is impossible to sell jewelry made of young (transparent) amber to an antique buy-out.

What amber beads can be sold expensive

• Amber beads made of old landscape amber before 1991.
• Old pressed amber beads (German press)
• Opaque amber beads produced in the CCCP era
• Large, whole pieces of old amber weighing from 30 grams
• Real, natural inclusions (insect inside)

Appraisal of amber and amber beads

1. Assessment of amber online (by photo)

   • Take pictures of amber beads using a camera or smartphone (at least from 2 angles). If amber beads need restoration (there are chips, cracks, abrasions), for the most accurate assessment of the beads, it is recommended to photograph these places in close-up.
   • Send a photo of amber beads in any way convenient for you.
     • Email: to address
     • Mobile applications for the smartphone Viber WhatsApp to the number specified in the contacts.
   Indicate: length, weight of amber beads, or diameter of the largest bead (ball) if you know this information. Based on this, we will be able to quote a fairly accurate price of our interest in your copy. The response time of an expert gemologist during working hours is approximately 10 - 15 minutes.
   To get the fastest possible result of evaluating amber beads, please indicate your phone number or skype.

2. Rate amber beads by phone

   • Contact an expert at an antique store at the number listed in the contact section.
   • Use the callback service. The blue button is located on the right side of the screen.
   From the verbal description of the beads, we will try to give a preliminary estimate. In any case, we can answer in the affirmative: is your copy interesting to us? If not, we will show you where to go.

3. Visit to an antique shop

   • For all our clients and guests of the antique shop, the evaluation of old amber beads is free of charge.
   • We work without lunch and days off. Before visiting, check the opening hours in the contacts section.

4. Free appraiser call

   • You live in the Moscow region and you have neither the time nor the opportunity to get to the center of Moscow to sell old amber beads as expensive as possible.
   • You are a pensioner or have temporary health problems and moving around the city is associated with certain difficulties for you.
   • The preliminary estimated cost of amber beads exceeds 500,000 rubles and travel by public transport is unsafe.
   Contact your antique store manager. By agreement, an expert gemologist from the staff of the store will be delegated to you. The time and place of the meeting (office, apartment, cafe) you set yourself.

How expensive can you sell amber beads with us?

For the antique market, the axiom is true: the most expensive to evaluate and purchase an antique item at the maximum cost are only those where they are truly professionally versed in this segment of the antique market. In the case of amber, this is gemology. In addition, an important factor is the accumulated audience of buyers for years, which provides an antique store with confidence, setting the maximum price on the market for buying amber beads.

"Bring a friend" promotion

• If you are an advanced Internet user and are able to quickly and correctly find information where you can evaluate and sell amber beads as expensive as possible.
• If familiar people turn to you for help with a request to find the address of a good purchase of beads from amber or a pawnshop in Moscow, and your feedback and opinion are decisive for them.

An antique shop appreciates the desire to help people and is ready to generously thank you for your recommendation. Check with the store manager for details and conditions of the promotion.

You live far from Moscow

• You live in the Central, Western Federal Districts, the Urals, Siberia or the Far East.
• You intend to sell a certain amount of amber beads at the purchase price in antique shops in Moscow.

You just need to send a photo of amber beads to the e-mail address of the store.

Why buy amber and amber beads

Ethnic moods in jewelry are in vogue these days. And jewelry made of amber is the best accompaniment to women's outerwear. Mostly amber beads from the times of the USSR are in circulation on the market. Why the era of the USSR? This is the conventionally designated amber produced before 1990. Beads made of freshly mined, young amber have no value. Because of this, nobody is particularly interested in transparent amber. The cost of buying beads from the era of developed socialism can reach tens of thousands of rubles.
The cost of buying well-preserved 19th century beads reaches hundreds of thousands of rubles. Therefore, jewelry made of processed amber today has a steady demand and keen interest from antiquaries.

Privacy and nondisclosure policy

Question: how much can you be sure that contact information (e-mail address, phone number) will not become available to third parties, and strangers will not call me?

Answer: The antique shop does not under any circumstances transfer the contact information of our customers and guests "to the side". Moreover, after 3 days all information, including correspondence and personal contact details of guests are deleted.

Payment and security of the transaction

Payment is made in cash, or, for security reasons, by transfer to the client's payment card account.

“Recently, I have often come across advertisements on the Internet about the purchase of amber beads,” reader Aleksey addressed the website's editorial office. We tried to find out what caused the demand for the precious stone and how much you can earn on "grandmother's" jewelry.

Buyers offer such prices for good copies (in Russian rubles and dollars).

"The money from the sale of one old necklace can be used to make repairs in the apartment."

Banners on the Web lead us to the site of buyers from St. Petersburg who operate throughout Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan. "You didn't even know how much money you have!" - the website page welcomes the visitors.

Buyers claim that the price of good amber sometimes reaches $ 50 per gram.

“1,500 or even 3,000 dollars in an old box. Or a few thousand dollars lying around on the mezzanine. Think for yourself - with the money from the sale of one old necklace, you can make repairs in the apartment, pay for studies, buy an iPhone of the latest model, go on vacation ... "

True, then immediately there is a reservation that the cost, of course, depends on the type of amber, the presence of chips, the color, the size of the beads, "but all the same - often we do not even imagine what kind of wealth is stored in our bedside tables."

The authors of the site persistently suggest that users look for old amber and carry to them: “A hundred thousand rubles in a box, between an old jumper and a collection of left socks! Therefore - go ahead, shake up the chests of drawers. Maybe your future money is just around the corner. "

According to the buyers, you will be doubly lucky if you find straight necklaces made of opaque amber of yellow or yellow-orange color - “these are considered the most valuable, and you are already practically rich. We have been buying amber for a long time and are well versed in its types. "

Help site: Amber is a fossil resin, a mineral of the organic class. To be precise, amber is not a stone. The color can be white, orange, yellow, gold, green, brown, red, colorless, blue (rare), black (rare). The last two are the most expensive. And the cheapest is brown. The mineral is characterized by various organic inclusions: small insects, plants.

"It's plastic!"

Having borrowed from my grandmother some old, very similar to amber beads, I called the phone number suggested on the website. We managed to get through to St. Petersburg faster than the Belarusian number.

“We are only interested in certain beads,” answered the girl who answered the phone. - These are balls, ovals, bocata. By color - yellow, opaque, landscape. Send 3-4 photos. It is advisable to weigh them or attach at least a ruler to the photo. If they suit us, a courier will come to you. You meet, draw up a sales contract, and they give you the money. "

I sent some photos via Viber and waited for a response.

But not even a minute had passed before a message appeared: “This is plastic! A spike is visible on each bead. " My messages were no longer answered - apparently, as a potential client, I lost interest for them.

"Among modern jewelry with amber, there are many artificial stones, and in old beads everything is natural."

An employee of one of the capital's jewelry workshops, Valery, said that in the last 1-1.5 years there really was a great interest in amber.

“Because nowadays they make a lot of artificial ones, and natural amber has always been in price,” the specialist explains. - That's why they buy old beads - then everything was made from natural raw materials. And now production wastes (amber crumbs, residues from processing) are pressed under a high temperature and then often sold as real amber. And the technology is now so advanced that even a specialist does not always distinguish good artificial amber from natural ”.

So, at the end of last year, the world's only industrial amber mining enterprise in Kaliningrad sharply raised prices for raw materials. For some items, the price tag has grown more than 6 times.

But there is no demand for amber jewelry among Belarusians. “They are not for everybody,” says Valery.

The Chinese have been interested in amber in recent years. In their culture, this stone has a special meaning. It is the Chinese who are the most frequent visitors to amber exhibitions in Kaliningrad and Latvia. So it is to the Celestial Empire that "grandmother's beads" are most often sent from dealers.