Recommended Austin, TX appraiser?

[hopefulheidi]

I am having one heck of a time finding an appraiser here in the Austin area. I''ve checked the appraisers registered on Pricescope and they are all in Dallas so no dice there. I''ve called one particular appraiser here in Austin at least 4 times now. Every time I''ve called they''ve been too busy to work me in to the schedule and have pushed me off to another appraiser in the area who actually laughed at me when I asked if we could set up an appointment for my fiance and I to meet with her and attend the appraisal of my engagement ring. In desperation I again called the first appraiser and this time the girl that answered the phone told me the appraiser was out of town so we''d have to wait to set up our appointment with him and oh, they charge $400/hr if we want to watch the appraisal and even better, they require an hour per carat and extra time if you dare to have sidestones and whatnot in your setting. This means my 2.02 ct center and my setting filled with pave would cost us $1,000 to appraise if we want to be there to watch. If we''re comfortable just dropping my ring off with complete strangers, we can cut that fee down to $500.

So please please please tell me someone out there knows of an independent appraiser here in Austin that 1) Can work us into their schedule 2) Is willing to let us watch the appraisal 3)Won''t charge us an exorbitant amount for the appraisal and 4) Is good enough to recommend without feeling any guilt hehe

Help!

~Heidi

 

[georgetteoden]

I used Kirk Root (J. Kirk Root?) who is now in the Arboretum. I was extremely happy with the level of detail and professionalism. Good luck.

 

[Addlepated]

I have the same question.

I used T.D. Wernick 10 years ago to appraise my wedding set and he was extremely thorough. I called him the other day with a question about some gemstones and spent 45 minutes(!) on the phone with him as he talked about what to look for, anecdotes, what''s fair, and so on. However, I think he''s working out of San Antonio now.

Kirk Root is also a jeweler, so I don''t really consider him an independent appraiser. I''ve had some strange vibes from him in the past, but on the other hand he does have a Sarin machine. Not sure who else in town has one.

 

[hopefulheidi]

Kirk was actually the first person I contacted and he hasn''t been able to work me into the schedule since my initial call the second week of December (I can somewhat understand due to the holidays, but that''s not going to make me feel any better if anything happens to my ring and it''s uninsured because I couldn''t get it appraised hehe). This past Monday when I called again, the girl on the phone said Kirk was out of town and she''s the one whom quoted me the $400/hr. When I checked their website is said $200/hr for on site appraisals and $400/hr for off sites so I was thinking/hoping perhaps she was just confused? I''m not totally thrilled to hear that Kirk has given off a weird vibe though.

The appraiser that Kirk''s place keeps recommending also sells jewelery and they were somewhat rude on the phone so I''d like to rule them out.

I find it hard to believe that there aren''t any good *independent* appraisers in Austin that don''t sell their own jewelery but whom also do good work for a good price. Perhaps everyone else just visits Dallas when the need arises?

I really wanted to use T.D. Wernick as well but then I read that he moved to San Antonio. At this point, the drive is sounding like it might be the lesser of all evils hehe

~Heidi

 

[Addlepated]

SA is only an hour away.

Kirk was the jeweler I mentioned with the color change garnets in this post. That''s what I meant about the weird vibes. To be fair, it was a couple of years ago and I might have caught him on a busy day. I think that many years ago I had him do an appraisal on a couple of pieces for me and it was fine, but that was back when he had the really small store on Koenig that probably costs less rent.

 

[Alleyoop]

I too got a very snobby strange vibe from the Kirk guy. Coudn''t get out of there fast enough, actually. Not someplace I would like to go back!

When I was looking at rings recently I think that I checked out EVERY nice jewelry store in town. My favorite place (based soley on the people, not necessarily on the solection) was at Krugers at 8th and Congress. If I was you I would call them and ask who they would use. Very Nice people. My second favorite place (nicest selection, I think) was Benolds on Anderson, but for some reason the snob-factor was A LOT higher. I might call them and see what they say, also.

Good Luck and please post who you end up going with. I would like to have my ring re-appraised, also.

 

[MrYoung]

Sounds like you need a professional.


Susan Eisen, ASA - Master Gemologist Appraiser®
El Paso, TX 79912-4653
(915) 584-0022
Gems & Jewelry

Christine York, ASA - Master Gemologist Appraiser®
Bellaire, TX 77401
(713) 665-1650
Gems & Jewelry

Richard I. Pongratz, ASA
Irving, TX 75062
(817) 545-6696
Gems & Jewelry

H. Robert Sandler, AM
Houston, TX 77056-5311
(713) 623-6996
Gems & Jewelry

Charles Kirk Root, ASA - Master Gemologist Appraiser®
Austin, TX 78759
(512) 346-1780
Gems & Jewelry

Mark J. Sandler, ASA
Houston, TX 77056
(713) 623-6996
Gems & Jewelry

Patti J. Geolat, ASA
Dallas, TX 75254-4377
(972) 239-9314
Gems & Jewelry


http://www.najaappraisers.com/html/texas.html

An Master Gemologist Appraiser is quite possibly the most difficult credential to acheive in the industry. That or the Jewelers of America Master Bench Jeweler Ceritification.

Kirk Seems to be the one to go to in your area. I would trust his opinions by his credentials and ethical guidlines he must conform to.

Good Luck.

 

[Addlepated]

Date: 1/18/2008 10:22:49 AM
Author: MrYoung

Kirk Seems to be the one to go to in your area. I would trust his opinions by his credentials and ethical guidlines he must conform to.


Good Luck.

Unfortunately the OP is having scheduling and pricing issues with Kirk Root. All the other ones are at least 3 hours away. It''s weird how central/south Texas are sort of in a black hole in that list!

 

[MrYoung]

In some cases, it is possible to get a hyothetical appraisal. Although not recommended, it could save your two three hour drives. Do you have a GIA or AGS report? Previous appraisal? Sales receipt stating the diamonds grades, ring wieght, etc.?

 

[hopefulheidi]

A hypothetical appraisal? That's something I've not heard of before. Can you tell us more?

Our stone was certified by both GIA and EGL although the manufacturer refused to provide us with the GIA certificate so we only have the EGL in hand. My fiance purchased the stone and the ring both via Internet vendors so we don't have a receipt persay, but his credit card statement does show these transactions. He may have an email receipt but I'd need to ask him about that. Our stone also came with one of those inflated, insurance appraisal type certificates.

Basically we just want someone to write up an appraisal of the stone and setting that we can use for insurance purposes.

My fiance gave Kirk a call this week and for whatever reason he was quoted a different price and they were able to quickly work him in to the schedule so we've got an appointment set up with him for this Friday. I was quoted $400/hr to watch the appraisal he was quoted $250/hr. I was told it would take a minimum of 2.5 hrs for a 2 ct stone and a setting with sidestones; Nate was told less than 2 hours since we have the EGL certificate. It seems we may have spoken to two different receptionists. So really we have no idea how long it's going to take, or how much it's going to cost but since we're feeling pretty desperate to get my ring insured ASAP, we're kind of stuck at this point.

I'd love more info on a hypothetical appraisal though!

~Heidi

 

[hopefulheidi]

As an update: We had our appraisal with Kirk Root today and it went really well. We arrived early and he was more than willing to start our meeting early. He studied our stone for a bit under the microscope and then without trying to, he freaked us out by asking if our stone was clarity enhanced and suggesting that we contact our diamond vendor to get him to put into writing a guarantee that our stone is not clarity enhanced. After that little bit of unexpected drama, he cleaned the ring in his ultrasonic (which also had me a bit worried hehe I purposely bought a steamer rather than an ultrasonic because I didn't want to risk losing any stones) and took the ring to another room to take some photos. He agreed that the EGL certificate matched the stone, and that the setting and the stones were all as we had expected. He assured us that the stone's inclusion will not affect its durability and after encouraging us to ask questions, he told us it would take about 40 minutes for him to calculate the actual value of the piece so we wandered around and did some more jewelery shopping while we waited After that, one of his staff members presented us with the documentation and rang us up for the services.

The only thing that really concerned me about our appraisal is that the replacement value came in lower than we had anticipated. While we did tell Kirk we had purchased the stone via the Internet we also know that it would be incredibly impossible to find another similiarly proportioned stone in this size range and with the lower clarity that looks as good as this one. Obviously we would like the piece insured reasonably enough that we can find a suitable replacement with the insurance pay out if that horrible situation ever arises and I'm not sure we'd be able to do that based on the valuation he gave. We did find him very easy to work with though and we're thrilled to finally get the documentation we need to insure this beauty.

~Heidi

 

[Addlepated]

Nice to know it went better than you expected! Did he give you any reason why he thought it might be clarity-enhanced?

 

[hopefulheidi]

He mentioned something about a black spot along the grain of the biggest inclusion. I was actually really surprised because 1) Exceldiamond''s website states that they sell absolutely no CE diamonds and 2) Why would a cutter spend all that time cutting a stone to ideal proportions if it needs to be clarity enhanced to even rate an I1/I2?

Eventually we moved past that and he went on to say what a great cut it has and that the inclusions don''t affect the stone''s durability etc so I was able to (mostly) forget the CE conversation.

~Heidi