Why Bitchin Retro?

There are many, many sellers of vintage jewelry and goods. Why choose Bitchin Retro?

Because we clean and inspect every piece meticulously. This is not the industry norm.

Many sellers do not clean their pieces, and most tell you this upfront. This certainly reduces the amount of time they have vested into their business, but we don't know how we could possibly report to you the condition of the piece without a thorough cleaning. Often times, we can't see the flea bites or scratches until after we have cleansed the piece.

Most folks don't have the equipment, tools and solutions we do to clean vintage pieces, nor do they have the time. We are constantly learning the best practices from industry professionals as to the most effective and gentle ways to clean vintage costume jewelry.

We utilize high powered magnification glasses, and look at our jewelry from every angle. We remove all traces of decades old makeup, dirt and dust. We give our pieces a light polish. This process takes 3-4 attempts, as we know that oftentimes we catch just the right angle to see something we missed the day before. We dry our pieces well, with moving air, and a gentle heat source to get to every crook and cranny.

We do this before the photographs and listing, with a final double check prior to shipping. When you buy from us, you are receiving the piece in as pristine condition as we are able to make it, given it's vintage nature. We note flaws and condition reports in the body of the listing. If we are able, we take close ups of damage. We encourage you to zoom in, and paid extra to add the zoom feature to our web page for your convenience. We are proud of our pieces, and we think it shows.

Chipped vintage enameled pieces often continue to lose additional paint if the damaged edge is not addressed. We nip this in the bud by sealing the chipped edges with a high quality enamel paint. This is always disclosed to you in the listing. This is a labor of love. We want you to be able to wear these pins for many years to come, without leaving flakes of paint on your lapel every time wear them.

People compliment us on our photos, but there are no tricks to our photography which make our rhinestones extra shiny. We simply start with meticulously clean jewelry. The gleam you see is the gleam you will get. The only adjustments we use on our photos is to lighten the backgrounds, or remove the glare reflected from our photography lights. We do not alter the piece itself, nor do we enrich the color. 

In short, why buy from Bitchin Retro?

Because what you see is what you will get.

And especially when shipping is so expensive for our international customers, this is an important consideration.