Appraiser in Silicon Valley?

[mike04456]

I''m trying to find a good appraiser in the south Bay Area for a friend. I don''t know anyone up there myself. Do any of you guys happen to?

 

[Hest88]

Try Carole Richbourg: [email protected]

She's, I think, in Palo Alto. I've never actually worked with her, but we took a series of online gem classes together and she's described her appraisal techniques to me. Her specialty is in antique jewelry, but I think she does regular stuff too. She's a dear and very trustworthy.

 

[Mara]

Law Gem--

We used Nancy Stacy (her info is up in the Appraisers link)..she was great. She is GIA certed and she teaches GIA appraisal classes all around the world so she's pretty knowledgeable. An older woman, very forthright and honest with her opinions. I think she is something like $125 an hour with $50 setup or similar. We loved her and cannot recommend her highly enough. We also asked her if there were other ind. appr. in the area that she would recommend and she had one in SF but she said no one else in the bayarea was worth mentioning. She was like that

Anyway, she is in Walnut Creek, so depending on where your friend is located, it may be something like a 30 min drive (it was 45 for us from San Jose) but she's very accomodating, even opened her shop on a Sunday to work with us (her shop is in her home!).

So that's my recommend.

She also got me interested in the GIA classes, Greg mentioned them, she gave us info and told me to call her if I ever needed assistance.

Gleim Jewelers in PA is very popular, the owner is supposed to really know her stuff. Interesting though, Greg had an experience with them while buying my diamond studs, they were trying to pawn off yellow fish-eye stones on him for almost 2ce what he paid for the ones he ended up getting. However, Nancy spoke highly of Gleim and suggested that if I wanted to apprentice, to work with them. So who knows!

good luck!

 

[mike04456]

Thanks, Hest and Mara. I've sent him to Gleim. I saw Nancy on the list but he really wanted something close by as he lives with his future fiancee and didn't want to have to disappear for long periods. I'm familiar with Gleim jewelers and likewise have heard good things about them, so I'm confident that with my help he can do well. I'll keep you posted--there is more to this story that I can't disclose just yet.

 

[mike04456]

Just an update: this "friend" is actually my sister's boyfriend, whom I was helping find a diamond (without her knowledge, of course

). They got engaged over the weekend.

Here's a photo of the ring they sent me.

 

[Mara]

Where's the story?! and the specs on the ring!? Very pretty! Congrats to your sister...

 

[Hest88]

That's wonderful, Lawgem! Congratulations to your sister! Is that thing as big as it looks?

 

[bling]

mara,
for the lady that you mentioned for the appraisal in walnut creek..did you go there and give her the diamond and wait till she was done? or did you drop it off and get the appraisal later? thanks

 

[Mara]

Bling you can do either...it's your preference. We dropped off the stone because we also had her appraise some diamond earrings and we were heading to a party that evening. She opened her house/shop to us on a Sunday afternoon to accomodate us even though she does not work on Sundays..it was very nice of her. Then we picked the items up later that week. We had no fears after meeting her...she's an older lady who has been doing this for years, we didn't doubt she would take the utmost care for our stone and we could not quite imagine her in a back room somewhere planning out how to switch our stones

Anyway--the second time I went back to get the final ring appraised (we had her appraise the stone loose at first to be sure it was what the cert and jeweler said it was....and then we had the stone set and went back to get the final piece appraised as there were 24 small diamonds around the ring that we wanted checked out as well), I waited for the ring. Of course I was newly engaged and did not want to leave my baby behind for a day or even a few hours! I went and ran some errands locally while she appraised the ring (and a new pair of diamond earrings) which took about 1 hour total for the finished piece (she did not re-appraise the stone in the final setting..she used her original estimate).

So you can probably do either way. She has chairs in her office, I am sure she wouldn't mind if you brought a book or a paper and hung out while she did her thing. I would ask over the phone when you call. I am sure she deals with anxious young men and women all the time. Or leave stone/ring, run some errands, come back. The only reason we left our stone with her for a few days loose is because we were not on a strict timeline, and our schedules that week were hectic so I could not make it back to get the stone until a few days later. WC is around a 40 min drive from San Jose area...so it wasn't a bad drive at all--just don't go during a rush hour or anything!

Good luck!!

 

[mike04456]

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On 8/18/2003 12

0:16 PM Mara wrote:

Where's the story?! and the specs on the ring!? Very pretty! Congrats to your sister...

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I don't have the "final" specs on the ring yet. I was just giving him a lot of advice on what to look for and how to buy, etc., but he wanted to do the legwork himself. So I have not seen the diamond yet and I'm not sure yet what he got. But it looks like a good one and if he followed my advice, he should have gotten a beaut.

 

[mike04456]

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On 8/18/2003 12

0:34 PM Hest88 wrote:

That's wonderful, Lawgem! Congratulations to your sister! Is that thing as big as it looks?

----------------

So it seems.

I thought it was partly her slim fingers but I have now been told it's a 1.14 ct H-SI1. He did not have the Sarin numbers for me, if there were any, but said it was an AGS 1, which, apparently, outshown some AGS 0 stones he saw. The last thing I told him was to focus on the beauty and not get too hung up on the numbers, and it seems he took that to heart.

As for the engagement, I don't know the entire story, but they are both big golfers and he did it after a beautiful day on the course up in Lake Tahoe (which, if you've ever been there, is absolutely a gorgeous spot). She was completely surprised even though they had talked a great deal about getting married and she was threatening to go ahead with the reservations for next summer, ring or not.

 

[Hest88]

Ahhhh. You, I mean he, did well. Since you consider him a friend, I hope that means you think he's perfect for your sister!

 

[mike04456]

Yes, he is a great guy. I'm very happy they are getting married.