PhillipSchmidt
Brilliant_Rock
- Joined
- Nov 26, 2004
- Messages
- 667
First thing - thank you all. This topic is great!
Rich, I appreciate your comments regarding the average jeweller. I feel strongly that being the average jeweller should be enough for most customers. I agree with your point wholeheartedly that if you can''t do something well enough yourself, get somebody else to do it.
I am confused about the relevance of insurance appraisals v. market appraisals, based on the posts above.
I would have thought, an insurance appraisal should allow the buyer a ''buffer'' to enable them to replace an item without undue hassle.
On market appraisals, the consumer needs to know if the asking price reflects the norms''. He wants to know if the price is good and if he/she is paying the right price and therefore looks to an appraiser for their professional direction.
I can’t estimate what that means to you.
I can see a grey line here as the best of the professional appraisers will be expected to value the same goods to the same price without discrepancy or else endanger their independent partiality.
Next…
There really is no way an appraiser can accurately value a hand-made piece - all things considered, without having an intimate knowledge of it''s particular manufacturing process.
For example, I made some earrings today by hand. I made a version of the common rex-claw setting. I would have bought a cast one, but it is the holiday season, so in order to meet his deadlines I couldn''t, nor should have, as it turned out. If my customers wife lost one and needed one replaced, and I wasn''t there and they went to their local B&M jeweller they may not be able to replace it. It is a one-off, in essence designed to his parameters.
He wants a valuation and I am handling that process. I expect a shock when I tell the valuer, they took 6 hours to make, (butterflies, another hour), when a standard fabrication charge would cost no more then an hours work with results close to similar of the original, but entirely different. Would that suffice?
Where would that leave my customer? He did very well on price, but may not do so well in a future
Phillip S
Rich, I appreciate your comments regarding the average jeweller. I feel strongly that being the average jeweller should be enough for most customers. I agree with your point wholeheartedly that if you can''t do something well enough yourself, get somebody else to do it.
I am confused about the relevance of insurance appraisals v. market appraisals, based on the posts above.
I would have thought, an insurance appraisal should allow the buyer a ''buffer'' to enable them to replace an item without undue hassle.
On market appraisals, the consumer needs to know if the asking price reflects the norms''. He wants to know if the price is good and if he/she is paying the right price and therefore looks to an appraiser for their professional direction.
I can’t estimate what that means to you.
I can see a grey line here as the best of the professional appraisers will be expected to value the same goods to the same price without discrepancy or else endanger their independent partiality.
Next…
There really is no way an appraiser can accurately value a hand-made piece - all things considered, without having an intimate knowledge of it''s particular manufacturing process.
For example, I made some earrings today by hand. I made a version of the common rex-claw setting. I would have bought a cast one, but it is the holiday season, so in order to meet his deadlines I couldn''t, nor should have, as it turned out. If my customers wife lost one and needed one replaced, and I wasn''t there and they went to their local B&M jeweller they may not be able to replace it. It is a one-off, in essence designed to his parameters.
He wants a valuation and I am handling that process. I expect a shock when I tell the valuer, they took 6 hours to make, (butterflies, another hour), when a standard fabrication charge would cost no more then an hours work with results close to similar of the original, but entirely different. Would that suffice?
Where would that leave my customer? He did very well on price, but may not do so well in a future
Phillip S