I did a search on this an could not find anything.
Are there any recommendations for appraisers in the San Francisco Bay Area? I know Nancy Stacey in Walnut Creek is one, but I am in the Peninsula and was wondering if there was anyone closer.
Nancy did not want to recommend anyone in the Bayarea to me except for someone in SF, but I don't recall the name. She noted that she felt anyone else was not a top-caliber appraiser...so didn't give me names. She's pretty strict, teaches appraisal classes for GIA...so I tend to trust her judgement.
However I know that a few people have taken their stones to Willow Glen Jewelers in WG for a quickie appraisal (something like $70) and been happy...the person is an in-house jeweler but appears to be pretty reputable and unbiased (if possible!)
lucky..I think I summed up my appraisal experience with Nancy in a post a while back, but the jist of it is that we were very happy with her. She doesn't have a Bscope, but she does have an IdealScope and a GemPrint. So we did get the stone GemPrinted for $40. She charges about $125 an hour, one stone will probably take about an hour of appraisal, but we had her do more than just the one stone. We brought the stone to her unset, had her run all the #'s, then brought back the final product (ring) and had her appraise all the side stones and give us the final paperwork. We also had her appraise 2 sets of earrings, so our total bill was more hours than just the one ring.