Set vs. Unset appraisals

[casl37]

Hello,

First off, thank you for all the insightful information I have read on these forums. It made the process of buying a diamond almost bearable!

I finally received the stone I purchased. I have also selected and paid for the setting at a local jewelry store. They are charging me $200 for mounting the stone in the setting, which I thought was a bit much for a 1.2ct diamond.

I now have a question on insurance. The GIA certificate comes with a small card that gives me an estimated value of replacement. Would this be enough to insure it?

I was leaning more toward getting an appraisal from an independent judge (http://www.jewelryjudgebengordon.com/), but I am unsure if I should:

a) Go get the diamond set and take the whole piece to him for appraisal, or
b) Take him the loose diamond, get that appraised, and then return with the whole package for appraisal.

Any thoughts/insights are greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance,

casl37

 

[smc43084]

GIA never gives "appraised value" of the stone. The certificate you have indicating value was made by the company that sold you the stone. For an accurate appraisal for insurance purposes, I would recommend using David Atlas. Best in the business.

 

[casl37]

Interesting. The little card does not even mention the online dealer that I bought it from.

Thanks for the rec! I wanted to stay local to get it done as soon as possible. David Atlas does seem legit, however.

 

[casl37]

I double checked the card, it is from the U.S. Gemological Appraisers.

 

[casl37]

It is one of these cards:

http://www.gemologic.us/product_eng.html

 

[smc43084]

Those appraisals are technically meaningless. Although for insurance purposes it will probably do the trick.

 

[denverappraiser]

Interesting. The little card does not even mention the online dealer that I bought it from.

Thanks for the rec! I wanted to stay local to get it done as soon as possible. David Atlas does seem legit, however.

Dave Atlas is definitely legit, as is Ben Gordon from the link above.

What's your objective in getting it appraised?

 

[greenpang]

If the seller's appraisal is meaningless, but works for insurance purposes, for what purposes is it meaningless? What are appraisals used for other than insurance?

If only intending to use an appraisal for insurance, is there any reason to seek an outside appraisal?

 

[Christina...]

If the seller's appraisal is meaningless, but works for insurance purposes, for what purposes is it meaningless? What are appraisals used for other than insurance?
If only intending to use an appraisal for insurance, is there any reason to seek an outside appraisal?

Many of the appraisals supplied by sellers are 'feel good appraisals'. They are offered with the intent of making the purchaser feel as though they got a good deal. They are always written to show that the stone is 'worth' more than you paid. This will work for insurance purposes, however your premiums will be based on this inflated value meaning that you will over pay for your coverage.

 

[DiamondBrokersofFlorida]

As someone that does appraisals for my client, it is much more accurate to grade a stone loose than set. Without actually weighing the stone, it is just an estimate, and thingscan be hidden under the prongs that can not be seen. Plus to get an accurate color grade the stone has to be graded loose, upside down, under a microscope next to color comparison stones, under the proper lighting.

Now as far as the mounting, also without weighing the side diamonds, the carat weight would be an estimate.

 

[oldminer]

Sounds like you have an EGL report, not a GIA report. That little card is often produced along with EGL reports by the company you mentioned. Almost always, those little reports are highly inflated, feel good reports. I doubt you would be an exception.

You can likely buy insurance with such a report and you will pay a lot more for coverage than if you used a proper value, but that is up to you. However, if you are a good shopper and are trying to stay within a budget as a $200 mounting might indicate, then you would save far more in the long run by using a legitimate value and not a feel good value which is going to cost you more for insurance annually.

 

[denverappraiser]

If the seller's appraisal is meaningless, but works for insurance purposes, for what purposes is it meaningless? What are appraisals used for other than insurance?

If only intending to use an appraisal for insurance, is there any reason to seek an outside appraisal?

The purpose of an insurance type of appraisal is to define exactly what you have so that it can be properly replaced with 'like kind and quality' in the case of a loss and to give you a benchmark for funding to do that. The descriptions, photographs, gradings etc are what's used for that replacement and the premium will generally be based as a percentage of the value conclusion. It's not that seller supplied documents can't fill this purpose, but they usually don't. Descriptions can be seriously lacking. Details like craftsmanship, manufacturing techniques, dimensions, manufactures and other critical details get omitted and value conclusions can be completely out of line for the task at hand (replacement new at retail).

It's usually easy enough to tell if what the seller gave you is sufficient. Read the description, look at the pictures and ask yourself if you have sufficient information to replace the piece. Put another way, if your insurer were to buy you the cheapest thing they could find that meets that description, are you likely to be happy?

In terms of the value conclusion, it's often pretty easy to assess as well. You just shopped. You just bought it. Is the conclusion on the 'appraisal' in line with your observations of the marketplace?

There are plenty of other reasons to get new things appraised. The most common is that people want to use appraisals as some sort of evidence of a bargain. Did they get what they paid for? They want a second opinion to confirm or refute things told to them by the seller. Obviously it's not a second opinion if it comes from the same source as the first.

A professional appraisal also serves as a quality control step. Jewelers DO occasionally screw up a piece. They can damage the stone, the mounting or both and I have YET to see a seller supplied document that includes a mention of this. Resolving quality and warranty steps EARLY in your ownership is almost always a good idea and outside appraisals can be very helpful for this.

Outside of new purchases there are dozens of good reasons, the most common having to do with resale or repair sorts of concerns but there are also legal matters like estates, divorce, bankruptcy, charitable contribution and others.