I tried to respond to an old thread which talked about Houston appraisers but was not able to (maybe the threads were too old so the respond button has been disabled???).
I am posting this for informational purposes. I have had recent experiences with both Christine York and Ben Gordon. I was more than satisfied with Ben Gordon.
First, both he and his wife were very friendly and professional and he is very up to date with the technology used to analyze diamonds. He is able to explain the basics of diamonds as well as what you are seeing under a microscope, using an IdealScope, and an AGS Aset. He was able to work with me to get digital images of the diamond that I thought were important to see and have a record of.
His appraisal process was what I imagined it would be. He did not ask to see the certificate before examining the diamond himself and determining what he thought the cut, color, and clarity were. Some of his gradings did have a range; For example he said that the Color was either an I or a J and if he was selling the diamond he would agree that it was an I but if he was the buyer he would lean more towards the J. He determined the diamond dimensions and then used a computer program to calculate the approximate size. After he explained why he graded it the way he did, he then asked to see the certificate if it had one. His personal analysis was very close to that of the actual AGS certificate, the only thing he was off on was that he graded the cut as EX (because you could see the arrows design, this was his default grading) while AGS graded it as Ideal.
On a loose diamond he is able to run a Sarin analysis but for obvious reasons this cannot be done on diamond that is set. On a set diamond, like mine was, he was able to take images of the ring, magnified images of the inclusions (microscope with digital images), AGS Aset images (digital), and was able to look at the diamond using an IdealScope. Again, we were not able to see any hearts design because the diamond was mounted.
I was also very happy with the final appraisal value which he gave. It was somewhat higher than what I paid for the diamond, but it was very close (a little lower) to that of the in house appraisal value that BlueNile sent with the diamond, and thus his appraisal value was not overly inflated. Overall, the experience was great and I will be going back to Ben Gordon if I ever need an independent appraisal done again.
I am posting this for informational purposes. I have had recent experiences with both Christine York and Ben Gordon. I was more than satisfied with Ben Gordon.
First, both he and his wife were very friendly and professional and he is very up to date with the technology used to analyze diamonds. He is able to explain the basics of diamonds as well as what you are seeing under a microscope, using an IdealScope, and an AGS Aset. He was able to work with me to get digital images of the diamond that I thought were important to see and have a record of.
His appraisal process was what I imagined it would be. He did not ask to see the certificate before examining the diamond himself and determining what he thought the cut, color, and clarity were. Some of his gradings did have a range; For example he said that the Color was either an I or a J and if he was selling the diamond he would agree that it was an I but if he was the buyer he would lean more towards the J. He determined the diamond dimensions and then used a computer program to calculate the approximate size. After he explained why he graded it the way he did, he then asked to see the certificate if it had one. His personal analysis was very close to that of the actual AGS certificate, the only thing he was off on was that he graded the cut as EX (because you could see the arrows design, this was his default grading) while AGS graded it as Ideal.
On a loose diamond he is able to run a Sarin analysis but for obvious reasons this cannot be done on diamond that is set. On a set diamond, like mine was, he was able to take images of the ring, magnified images of the inclusions (microscope with digital images), AGS Aset images (digital), and was able to look at the diamond using an IdealScope. Again, we were not able to see any hearts design because the diamond was mounted.
I was also very happy with the final appraisal value which he gave. It was somewhat higher than what I paid for the diamond, but it was very close (a little lower) to that of the in house appraisal value that BlueNile sent with the diamond, and thus his appraisal value was not overly inflated. Overall, the experience was great and I will be going back to Ben Gordon if I ever need an independent appraisal done again.
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