Need to find the right appraiser

[jszweda]

Hi all...

For those of you who remembered my last thread about a chrome diopside, well suprise suprise.

I already found a very large one prior to starting the thread. So don''t hate me for it, but it''s a lovely rock-literally.

Here is my latest issue. I need to find a good appraiser in my area. There is one gentleman who I am inclined to go with because he helped start Tiffany''s here, and he has a good background. The thing is, the market I am in doesn''t have a clue as to what a lot of things are. I don''t know if this guy knows what this thing is or not. He should, but I know many don''t. Nobody locally knows what the stuff is let alone how hard it is to find something in the color I found and size. How do I tell before getting something appraised if the appraiser fully understands what the item is if it''s that rare? How does someone appraise something that for it''s size isn''t in the price guides?

Here is the other thing that I found out. I made an inquiry with someone who has a nice setting and does custom work. They said they would not allow me to send them the peice for an appraisal to them so they can send it to their lab, and they refuse to do any work on anything that didn''t originate from them.

I was thinking for the future I could have them enlarge the head and mount the thing. However, I don''t know what to insure it for without an appraisal.

It gets even better! They told me that if they did mount my center stone from it''s existing setting, they told me they would not recommend doing it simply because "it''s too big to be worn in public".

I think I know what the guy is trying to say, but I really don''t know for sure.

So what do I do? Put this thing in a glass case and enclose it?

-joe <--who is half excited and half confused.

 

[oldminer]

Most gemstones larger than the price guides are just not really terrifically desirable for jewelry so the price does not generally rise a great deal as size increases. It may, in fact, go down per carat, as less can be done with the super large stones. A young fellow came in opnly a couple weeks ago with what he had been sold as Chrome Diopside and it was glass instead. He was not real happy with the deal. Got it on E-bay.

Really rare and fine specimen stones have places in museums and that related disply market. You sound as if your stone is in the upper size range of wearable and not a museum piece. This makes it challenging to make a pretty item that someone will be willing to wear.

Stones like Chrome Diopside are unusual enough that most setters and jewelers err on the side of caution in accepting them to do work on. I doubt you can get any insurance coverage that will protect you in case of a workman''s negligence or accident.

A good appraiser can find out the value of most any stone through research. This can''t alwasy be done while you wait, but not everything can be instantly done at its best. Surely, you can find what you need to have done with a degree of patience. I''m not excatly sure what you actually want from reading your post. You covered a lot of different subjects.

 

[jszweda]

David,

Thanks for the reply. It might be on the upper range of wearable pending on what you define as that. I haven''t taken the calipers to it, but the dimensions are somewhere around 15mm x 20mm x some unknown depth. The table alone is 10-11mm E/W orientation. So it is in fact a large stone.

I didn''t get this thing off eBay. I got it from a jewelery store who is a manufacturer jeweler. I know what chrome diopside looks like, and there are no optical properties that say glass to me. It has all the characteristics of a chrome. It also is soft like a chrome is; I know this for fact.

I was wanting the appraisal so that if I ever had to ship it off, and it got lost, I would know what to insure it for due to loss in shipping.

 

[oldminer]

The seller should give you a reciept and an appraisal. At the very least a receipt. WIth USPS the only amount you can insure it for is what you can prove it cost you anyway. If you use registered mail and have a receipt of purchase, you are going to be fully covered if you declare the full value.

That''s fully covered during shipping....

 

[Regular Guy]

This appraiser, found at the top right under resources, is in Cary. If she''s close, you might call, ask qualifying questions, and see if she''s up to snuff.