Ok, I have purchased a loose diamond - the one that I had mentioned in one of my previous posts from Jared. I know some of you may have a bias against Jared, but this stone was too good to pass up as it was a VS1 stone and "G" in color and 1.01CT. Even though the cut and polish was only good, it shone brilliantly with symmetrical arrows and hearts that I can see. I couldn''t stop looking at it. White under dark lighting and shone brilliantly under direct sunshine.
Anyway, I brought my diamond to an appraiser yesterday and it just hit me that this hubbie and wife team might not be really gemologist graduates even though they had numerous excellent reviews online. I mean, I didn''t see any certificates on walls in the office. I have only their word. You tell me if my experience with this appraiser is typical or atypical... my thoughts are that they are the latter.
I got to their suite in which the husband had a nice big comfortable office. The first thing he said was "don''t show me the certificate" (I wasn''t going to anyway so as to not influence his appraisal of my loose diamond)... I gave him the diamond and he started using an idealscope (or similar); he weighed it; looked at it under a 30x microscope. Then he started punching in a value in his calculator. He verbally told me that it looked to be a F color and VS1 with a 1.02Ct. This was close to my IGI cert of G, VS1, 1.01CT.
Without showing me the value, he proceeded to ask me how much I purchased it for. I told him and then without showing me how much he had originally punched into his calculator, he punched in a few numbers and then showed me how much he thought it was... about 300-400$ less. Which is what I expected. I was thinking that I shouldn''t have even told him at that point and was a little curious as what his original amount was. Then he proceeded to ask me how I want to pay for the appraisal. I was flabbergasted that this was it! All within 20 mins. Does this sound typical?
I then asked if he can put what he mentioned down in writing. He said "oh, you want it for insurance purposes"... then he proceeded to simply type out verbatim what my certificate indicated; with a slight difference: fluoresces slight blue (even though my online IGI mentions slight yellow) and he goes "ah, there''s one thing I forgot to do, diamond measurements"... so he uses this digital meter to measure the diameter... then he just took my cert and proceeded to type up a ''report''... he said, to account for replacement value in the future down the road, he increased the value to $1700+ more...
So I ask you, is this typical??????? I felt ripped off. I thought he would at least tell me the number of facets seeing that isn''t too much to ask. I was hoping that he would tell me what the pavilion angles were/ crown angles, etc, but I realized that he may not have the expensive equipment that the big labs have to measure these kinds of things... still, I expected more, such as an actual picture of my diamond''s IGI# inscription and some technical mumbo jumbo...
Secondly, I called State Farm and they couldn''t insure my loose diamond as the ''risks'' are too great. What kind of baloney is this? How do people insure their loose diamonds? I''ll be traveling with it this coming December and feel safer if I had it insured before I leave... any suggestions? How about Jeweler''s Mutual? Anybody have any good /bad experiences with them? They seem like an online insurance company - hopefully not a fly-by-night type as they have a PO BOX as an address only in Wi... http://www.jewelersmutual.com/PersonalJewelry.aspx
Anyway, I brought my diamond to an appraiser yesterday and it just hit me that this hubbie and wife team might not be really gemologist graduates even though they had numerous excellent reviews online. I mean, I didn''t see any certificates on walls in the office. I have only their word. You tell me if my experience with this appraiser is typical or atypical... my thoughts are that they are the latter.
I got to their suite in which the husband had a nice big comfortable office. The first thing he said was "don''t show me the certificate" (I wasn''t going to anyway so as to not influence his appraisal of my loose diamond)... I gave him the diamond and he started using an idealscope (or similar); he weighed it; looked at it under a 30x microscope. Then he started punching in a value in his calculator. He verbally told me that it looked to be a F color and VS1 with a 1.02Ct. This was close to my IGI cert of G, VS1, 1.01CT.
Without showing me the value, he proceeded to ask me how much I purchased it for. I told him and then without showing me how much he had originally punched into his calculator, he punched in a few numbers and then showed me how much he thought it was... about 300-400$ less. Which is what I expected. I was thinking that I shouldn''t have even told him at that point and was a little curious as what his original amount was. Then he proceeded to ask me how I want to pay for the appraisal. I was flabbergasted that this was it! All within 20 mins. Does this sound typical?
I then asked if he can put what he mentioned down in writing. He said "oh, you want it for insurance purposes"... then he proceeded to simply type out verbatim what my certificate indicated; with a slight difference: fluoresces slight blue (even though my online IGI mentions slight yellow) and he goes "ah, there''s one thing I forgot to do, diamond measurements"... so he uses this digital meter to measure the diameter... then he just took my cert and proceeded to type up a ''report''... he said, to account for replacement value in the future down the road, he increased the value to $1700+ more...
So I ask you, is this typical??????? I felt ripped off. I thought he would at least tell me the number of facets seeing that isn''t too much to ask. I was hoping that he would tell me what the pavilion angles were/ crown angles, etc, but I realized that he may not have the expensive equipment that the big labs have to measure these kinds of things... still, I expected more, such as an actual picture of my diamond''s IGI# inscription and some technical mumbo jumbo...
Secondly, I called State Farm and they couldn''t insure my loose diamond as the ''risks'' are too great. What kind of baloney is this? How do people insure their loose diamonds? I''ll be traveling with it this coming December and feel safer if I had it insured before I leave... any suggestions? How about Jeweler''s Mutual? Anybody have any good /bad experiences with them? They seem like an online insurance company - hopefully not a fly-by-night type as they have a PO BOX as an address only in Wi... http://www.jewelersmutual.com/PersonalJewelry.aspx