Appraisal Question

[Haywood74]

A couple of years ago, I had some insurance appraisals done for some of my wife's jewelry that we wanted covered under a dedicated jewelry policy. I had them done locally by my jeweler who I completely trust. Anyway, with the recent up-tick in prices for both precious metals as well as gemstones, I contacted my insurance company and asked them if I should have this stuff reevaluated to reflect current market pricing. They said yes, so I called my jeweler.

Call me naive, but I was thinking that he would have kept a digital copy of the original appraisal and would be able to simple recalculate the final insurance value and click print since none of the jewelry has changed in any way. I was told that all of my wife's pieces would have to be completely reappraised from scratch (for what reason, I am not sure). My questions are 1, is this the normal practice for making an adjustment to an appraisal 2-3 years after the original appraisal (complete new appraisals) and should I even be concerned with getting any or all of these pieces reappraised at all?

All comments and discussion welcome

 

[CedarRapids]

Any sustained damage would alter the value since its last appraisal. Also, appraisers will often charge less for a re-appraisal.

 

[Haywood74]

I should have clarified, no damage to any pieces. Also, original Appraisals were done at $75 for 1st one, $50 for the each afterwards. Today I was quoted $100 for 1st, $75 for each thereafter.

 

[JewelFreak]

As an honest appraiser, your jeweler has to see the pieces as they are now to assign value. He sounds like a careful guy -- though you're telling him the truth, his appraisal wouldn't be worth anything if he based it on an examination 3 yrs ago. I can imagine an insurance co. being unwilling to pay under those circumstances. It's too bad he has raised the price on you, but maybe inflation has hit him -- don't believe the gov't that there ain't none! Maybe you can bargain him down on cost?