Jewelry Tips: Purity is always an important question when buying precious metal. Purity is generally described in “fineness” or parts per thousand. The standard is 999 fine or 99.9 percent pure.

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Jewelry Tips: Recycled metals: According to the environmental nonprofit WorldWatch Institute, 80 percent of destructively mined gold is used for jewelry. Look for recycled gold, silver, titanium and platinum and other recycled materials, like glass and leather, used in more casual pieces.

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Jewelry Tips: Silver-plated indicates a very thin layer of silver over base metal. Like gold-plate, the silver can be just a few microns thick, meaning it can chip and will wear off eventually, but, again, replating is less expensive than buying new jewelry (and, again, if you insist, Overstock.com will sell you some of that instead).

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Jewelry Tips: Silver’s one drawback is tarnish, but a new alloy, Platifina (from the Spanish for “fine silver”) is 925 silver 10 platinum 65 [oh, sorry, trade secret!']; it is extremely tarnish resistant. Platifina jewelry is available exclusively at Overstock.com.

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Jewelry Tips: Stainless steel has a light gray tone, close to silver or white gold. With the introduction of pricey industrial metals to the jewelry industry, stainless steel as a low-cost alternative was probably inevitable. It will not bend or break under normal usage; it doesn’t tarnish and is hypoallergenic.

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Jewelry Tips: Steel, an iron-carbon alloy, has been known and used for millennia, but it has always had one major drawback–rust. During the 19th Century, several alloys were developed that resisted corrosion, until the near perfect mix (10-percent chromium and 0.15-percent carbon added to approximately 89.85-percent iron) was found. (The approximate iron content is because other elements can be added to increase flexibility, hardness or other characteristics.) Stainless steel does actually rust, but the rust (or oxide) is a thin layer that actually protects the metal from reacting with air or water.

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Jewelry Tips: The jewelry industry is carefully regulated to prevent misrepresentation or fraud. By law, all objects containing precious metals must be clearly and obviously described as to metal type, purity and manufacture, following regulations set down by the US Federal Trade Commission. All jewelry sold at Overstock.com conforms to these regulations.

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Jewelry Tips: The KPCS has been criticized for being too lax, and often, jewelers don’t have certificates of origin on hand. If that’s the case, ask your jeweler which company supplies the store’s gold and diamonds, and research that particular supplier’s standards and policies before purchasing.

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