I May Have Gotten Some Fake Jewelry While Bargain Buying

Check if the links are soldered shut or if they're gaping open. Try to squish it and if it feels like silver, it's silver. Do an acid test. Specific gravity test. Got a torch? Because you can check if a link melts like silver or brass or steel. (If you haven't done this before, don't start now.) Check if it's plated by taking some sandpaper to a single link. Normally I could tell you if something is plated but only in person, not with cameras or pictures. The color is completely off in plated items and they are obviously lighter than solid PM.

That's your free advice for this week. Come again.

As for your NC comment, sometimes N stands for Nickel, but because I don't know what C stands for it's hard to say. It's probably easiest explained that NC is the company or trademark that makes the findings. You'll sometimes see necklaces with silver findings but all the rest is base metal. Canada, for example, has different laws with regards to stamping PMs. France is different, so is the UK, so is Mexico, and USA, and Asian countries as well. I can only speak for Canadian laws concerning these. If this NC925 chain is Canadian, then you should be able to look it up in an online trademark database. Good luck.

Some suggestions for you because you're new to this: keep your fakes and keep your best stuff. That way you never get fooled twice by a fake and you can demonstrate it to anyone else with ease.

Try any search engine for some easy-to-find info. Youtube helps, too, but one should learn to gauge a good informational video from the ones that waste time.

Yes, nickel is great as a plating base. Some findings or terminals will have steel springs (spring rings, lobster clasps...) so only that part should be magnetic. A lot of this info is on the net if you look, but I'm giving you a roadmap of what to look for. A jeweler is always your best bet for this kind of thing and a good one will be honest with you always because they want a loyal customer for life, not a big one-day payday. There's a saying in sales: you don't sell a guy a $100,000 car. You sell him 5 $20,000 cars over 50 years. (Or something to that effect.)

Good luck with your hunting. I would say avoid it completely if you don't know what's what because that's how you get scammed by people who are themselves ignorant of the product so you get left holding the bag.