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Appraiser- Barbara Nevius of Red Bank, NJ

sugarski

Shiny_Rock
Joined
Oct 7, 2012
Messages
266
I recently took several pieces of jewelry to be appraised by Barbara Nevius of Red Bank, NJ, who is a "PS-approved" appraiser and also known as "The Jewelry Judge". Most of the jewelry I brought consisted of heirloom pieces, and I think Ms. Nevius probably did an adequate job of appraising those. But I also brought her my new 1.94 carat, AGS N Old European Cut diamond (loose), and from her comments and the subsequent appraisal, I don't think Ms. Nevius has very much old cut knowledge.

Firstly, she called it a Transitional (it's not, as per both AGS and the old-cut expert vendor from whom I bought the stone). Then she undervalued the stone, IMO, not seeming to appreciate its exceptional cut quality. As many PS'ers know, the "make" of an old cut stone has everything to do with its value in the marketplace. Ms. Nevius didn't seem too interested when I pointed this out later via email, though she did eventually revise her appraisal upward a bit.

I found that Ms. Nevius was slow to return emails, and never replied at all after I mentioned (in two separate emails) a typo/mistake in the appraisal regarding the number of pearls in my heirloom bracelet.

All in all, I don't think I can recommend Barbara Nevius as an appraiser of old cut diamonds.
 

sugarski

Shiny_Rock
Joined
Oct 7, 2012
Messages
266
Update: today I got an email from this appraiser, who had found my review and seemed very surprised. She described it as "rather nasty". But there is nothing nasty about it; it's simply a factual account of my experience.

She stated (without apologizing) that her email system had been "disturbed" and that is why my emails from 3 months ago were never returned. It is, of course, the responsibility of a business person to make sure his or her email program is working and has nothing to do with me, the client, who reasonably expected emails to be returned.

Ms. Nevius went on to say "We’re known in the industry as being very qualified, competent and extremely responsive to emails from clients, most of whom are lovely people and very appreciative of our knowledge of the industry." LOL! I guess I'm not a lovely person.

She then closed with "We’re pleased that you seem to know so many people in our industry and hope that the next time you need a highly qualified and competent jewelry appraiser that you will be more satisfied with your experience than you were with our services."

I replied, "I hope so too!"

Next time, for $300 an hour, I will indeed hope for more professionalism and attention to detail than I received from Ms. Nevius.
 
Joined
Mar 5, 2018
Messages
4
I recently took several pieces of jewelry to be appraised by Barbara Nevius of Red Bank, NJ, who is a "PS-approved" appraiser and also known as "The Jewelry Judge". Most of the jewelry I brought consisted of heirloom pieces, and I think Ms. Nevius probably did an adequate job of appraising those. But I also brought her my new 1.94 carat, AGS N Old European Cut diamond (loose), and from her comments and the subsequent appraisal, I don't think Ms. Nevius has very much old cut knowledge.

Firstly, she called it a Transitional (it's not, as per both AGS and the old-cut expert vendor from whom I bought the stone). Then she undervalued the stone, IMO, not seeming to appreciate its exceptional cut quality. As many PS'ers know, the "make" of an old cut stone has everything to do with its value in the marketplace. Ms. Nevius didn't seem too interested when I pointed this out later via email, though she did eventually revise her appraisal upward a bit.

I found that Ms. Nevius was slow to return emails, and never replied at all after I mentioned (in two separate emails) a typo/mistake in the appraisal regarding the number of pearls in my heirloom bracelet.

All in all, I don't think I can recommend Barbara Nevius as an appraiser of old cut diamonds.
 
Joined
Mar 5, 2018
Messages
4
I, as well, took 4 pieces of diamond jewelry to be appraised by Ms. Nevius. The review and report contained a number of substantive errors. As a result, I will have to have these items reappraised. Ms. Nevius was very unprofessional and by evidence of the report, not competent.
 

AprilBaby

Super_Ideal_Rock
Premium
Joined
Jul 17, 2008
Messages
13,234
Sorry to hear of your bad experiences! Is this downtown area of Red Bank?
 
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