Question for/about appraiser

[mountainrocks]

So I took my new ring to the appraiser yesterday, it was actually really fun, he was a super-nice guy who was very patient with all my questions.

First of all, we were really pleased with the what we heard, the diamond turned out to be everything we expected, the apprasier commented that it was a very clean SI2, and the color was close to an F (it''s a GIA G).

My main question is on his valuation, he used some charts that he says show the actual wholesale prices of diamonds in the last few months, he then increased the wholesale value by 40% to get what he said was the "retail value" This value was about 20% more than what we paid online, but it seemed to be a lot less than what similar rings cost in B&Ms. Is 40% a standard mark-up in the industry?

 

[oldminer]

As the diamond business changes, so does the appraisal of diamonds. The market, especially what could be described as "average retail", has become very different than it was five years ago. There was a time where the public bought within a range of mark-up above wholesale cost that an appraiser could predict reasonably well. Now I and others are faced with the possibility that the public has made a purchase right around normal wholesale cost or still paid "retail" in someone's beautiful store. I try to discern this, but it seems unfair to ask outright.

This leaves the appraiser using estimated cost figures that get a higher than Internet mark-up or a lower than full retail mark-up. This is not a big deal for me to explain or work around, but it has truly dumbfounded many of my fellow appraisers.

I see the trend as being toward buying diamonds on the Internet where the prices are "right". You cannot obtain full services without human contact when it comes to making fine jewelry, but diamonds, alone, are a pretty good thing with the electronic, digital approach. Besdies, those of you on Pricescope do get to see the human touch still exists for diamonds with dealers who have learned how to cope with the new reality. Some surprisingly novel and excellent services are provided by vendors on Pricescope to the public that they never will get to meet in person.