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Help! What is a fair price for this sapphire ring?

songbird07

Rough_Rock
Joined
Jun 2, 2014
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I recently purchased a beautiful Ceylon sapphire and diamond from Etsy. I paid $1345 and that was a 10% discount from the original price. Here is the description of the ring and attached are pictures of the ring:

"A beautiful and delicate engagement ring featuring a bright blue sapphire in white gold diamond halo.
The center stone is a 1.16 carat sapphire from Sri Lanka. It measures 7.1 x 5.5 mm, nice oval cut, basic heat only, VS1 clarity. It has a very pretty medium violetish blue color, very bright. The crystal is very nice and clean, giving it very nice luster and sparkle. This sapphire would make a very nice stone for an engagement ring. It's becoming increasingly difficult to find nice sapphires these days. This one is a nice size, beautiful color, great cut and flawless clarity, great choice!
The sapphire is set in a 14K white gold ring with 0.3 carats of GH VS2 diamonds, that frame the stone in a delicate diamond halo. The ring is designed with our signature swirly gallery, that allows a wedding band to fit flush with the engagement ring."

The ring is gorgeous in person and I really love it! I was planning to wear it as an engagement ring so I took it to get appraised for insurance purposes. I received the appraisal today and was shocked to see that it only appraised for $750! In the appraisal description, it says that the ring is what it is described to be - a genuine sapphire, diamonds, and white gold. The appraiser is a gemologist but does own the jewelry store where I took it to be appraised. I was just told that this can be a conflict of interest and that I should have taken to an appraiser who doesn't sell anything. So that's my mistake. It is possible the jeweler skewed the appraisal in hopes that I would buy one of his sapphire rings - of which he has many. In fact, I saw a similar ring in the store - same size, style, etc. The sapphire was a darker blue - nowhere near as pretty as the one I have. That ring in the store was selling for $2300. I asked what the difference between the 2 rings were and didn't get an answer that made much sense to me.

The seller from Etsy has been wonderful in communicating with me about this and she actually recommended that I post this and ask if the price I paid for this ring is fair.

So here are my questions: Do you think that paying $1345 for this ring is a fair price? Is the appraiser on target or is this appraisal a joke?
Thanks so much for any help that can be provided!

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I'm not an expert, but from looking around at other sites for similar stones, and knowing what settings can cost, I think the price seems fair. In terms of the appraisal, though, I do think a lot depends on what the appraiser is considering. Is he only looking at "material" value (purely the cost of the weight of gold, the value of the diamonds and center stone) or "replacement cost" (what it would cost to replicate the ring exactly) or "resale value" (if you were taking any ring to sell, it's generally going to have a lower value for that than the cost it would take to replace the exact same ring). Other folks here can speak much better to the value of a stone like yours or the quality of the setting, I don't have that kind of eye yet. I do know of the vendor and like that setting, and when I was shopping around for similar ones I think the setting itself is fairly priced, too.

As far as the darker blue ring that was priced much higher - a darker, deeper blue I think is more highly prized by the trade than the lighter ones like yours. A lot of that is personal preference, but the more royal, rich blues are generally priced higher than these lighter, violet-ish ones.

All that said, with my newbie-ish eye, I found a similar sapphire to yours, and know the approx. cost of the setting, and putting them together would actually have cost more than what you paid. So there's that. :)
 
I believe the price you paid is fair. The setting looks well made, well finished and isn't hollowed out. Given the price of gold and melee diamonds today, I'm not even sure I can custom order the setting alone for $750 unless it is a Chinese-made setting. Your sapphire is light in tone and around 1 ct, so I think it is reasonably priced. Can you do better than $1400 for the same ring? Sure but you'd have to look very hard and take a long time to put it together. As for why the ring in his store is only $2300? Only he can answer that since we don't know what it looks like.
 
Agree with the posters above. Typically, trade values a richer blue more than a lighter violet-ish blue. This might explain the price differential between the ring in his store and yours - but... it might not: his stone may be so dark that it's practically black. I think the price you paid was fair and you should enjoy your beautiful ring. :)
 
Thanks so much for your help, everyone! I have the ring on my finger and am wearing it proudly - it's beautiful!
 
I think its a totally fair price, and it's very pretty too. Enjoy it. I think the appraiser was very conservative in his appraisal. Most appraisers go overboard and appraise things for far more than anyone, outside a popular retail store, can ever sell them for. This is mostly for insurance purposes. Appraisals can run the gamut of values. You could bring that same ring to another appraiser, and he would say $3K.
 
Yeah I think it's a fair price too. Agree with the others the tone & saturation difference may account for the price difference but as Kenny says "People vary..." ;)

It's a lovely ring - congrats. :love:
 
I love the color of your sapphire and all the stones seem bright and lively in your ring. I think the price was fair, and keep in mind your appraiser's amount is most likely a fair quote of what you could sell for used. Most of us are lucky if we get more than a third of what we paid for on the resale market.
 
Another echo of what has been said above. You'd be hard pressed to have the setting alone made for 750, and violet sapphires aren't that easy to come by.

I'd love to see hand shots! :naughty:
 
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