Appraisal - Loose Diamond and Setting?

[bethan]

Hi. We are in the process of paying on a loose diamond and a platinum eternity setting. Our jeweler offered us appraisal documents but we want to get an independent appraisal anyway. We planned to pay off the loose stone and take it for appraisal and then come back to the jeweler to have it set.
My question...
Should we be arranging to take both the loose stone and the setting for appraisal? Just occurred to me that this is what will be insured. If anyone can provide information on how this is typically done with a B&M jeweler that would be great. Not clear about whether we should pay everything off in full before we take it away for appraisal, whether we need to take the seperate peices, whether we should have all work done and then appraise etc. Thanks for the help!

 

[denverappraiser]

It depends entirely on what you’re trying to learn from your appraisal session. ‘Typically’, when people buy a ring from a b&m store, the store will prepare a document that they title an appraisal and include it with the packing materials. The customer will present this to their insurance company, who will cheerfully accept it and they will pay premiums based on a percentage of the bottom line value on the appraisal. If a loss happens and a claim occurs, the insurance company will replace the piece using the description that is included on the document presented to them.

This works ok most of the time, especially if you never have to file a claim with your carrier. If the description is complete and accurate, if the bottom line value states a reasonable budget for replacement (meaning that it’s reasonably close to the transaction price or there is some darn good explanation why not), and you have reason to trust the jeweler, this is a decent plan and the cost is usually included as the part of the deal so there’s less driving or shipping and you only need to write one check, which is handy.

If you’re using the appraisal as part of the shopping process, meaning that you want to use the information provided by the appraiser to help you decide if you want to buy it or if you are getting a good ‘deal’, a seller supplied opinion isn’t going to be all that helpful. Similarly, if you are looking to see if important information was omitted from the sales presentation, if there are craftsmanship problems with the piece, or similar types of questions where you are looking for a second opinion, it is clearly better to hire your own expert.

A good appraiser can tell you quite a lot about a mounted stone, but we can tell you more about an unmounted stone. If you want to know as much as possible about your piece, the way to get it is to have you stone examined loose and then examined again after the final piece is completed.

Neil Beaty
GG(GIA) ISA NAJA
Professional Appraisals in Denver

 

[bethan]

Thanks for that detail. We fall into the category of wanting to verify our purchase price and be sure we are paying the right amount, getting what we think we are paying for etc. Do we need to take both the loose stone and the setting and have both appraised? Do we just take the stone and tell the appraiser about the setting and the price we''ve been quoted? What is the usual procedure?

 

[denverappraiser]

A fairly typical solution is to hire an appraiser to examine the stone unmounted and before you have made the final commitment to the purchase and again after the final piece is assembled. The first report is used for shopping purposes and the second is used to determine that the stone has been set properly and undamaged when the deal is done as well as to document the remaining details of the piece. Assuming that there are no problems discovered at the second exam, the second report would be the one submitted to the insurance company.

Neil Beaty
GG(GIA) ISA NAJA
Professional Appraisals in Denver