To appraise or not?

[brooklyngirl]

Hello everyone!

I got engaged a few days ago (my SMTR thread: https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/introducing-pi.80985/) and looking closely at my ring over the past few days I have noticed several imperfections. Certain parts of the ring are crooked/misaligned, and the stone is not centered in the halo. I am planning on sending the ring back to Pearlman''s with pictures of the imperfections. From looking at pictures close up, it''s hard to tell where the asymetry comes from.

While we have gotten our stone appraised, we didn''t the finished ring to the appraiser. Should I have it appraised before I send it back, or should I wait to have it appraised once everything is fixed?

Thanks in advance for any advice you can come up with.

 

[Cleo]

Hi Brooklyngirl!

Congratulations on your engagement - and that gorgeous ring! I love the pink diamonds - yummy!

I''m sorry to hear you have found some things you are unhappy with (this happened to me as well).

My own inclination would be to have the ring fixed to your satisfaction, and then get it appraised. Maybe others will suggest something different, but that''s just my two pennies!

x x x

 

[niceice]

It seems more practical to have the things that bother you corrected before having the ring appraised...

 

[DiamondGirlHH]

Beautiful ring!

Pink halo create a nice contrast. Nice pics as well, specially liked the one with the snowman.

I would get it fixed and then appraise it. This way everything is finalized first.

 

[kcoursolle]

I would have pearlmans fix the ring first, I''m sure they will attend to all of the imperfections. Then I would go to the appraiser to get an "updated appraisal" since the ring is now finished. They will check to make sure the stone is the same, the setting is well-made, and there isn''t any damage to the stone, etc.

 

[brooklyngirl]

Thank you everyone for taking the time to reply (and unanimously to boot!).

 

[mrssalvo]

I agree with the others, pearlmans will send it back to beaudry to be fixed and then you can have it appraised once it''s all done. I''m sorry you''ve got to part with it so soon after getting it

 

[brooklyngirl]

Date: 3/18/2008 4:08:21 PM
Author: mrssalvo
I agree with the others, pearlmans will send it back to beaudry to be fixed and then you can have it appraised once it''s all done. I''m sorry you''ve got to part with it so soon after getting it

Me too!

 

[hairgirl95]

I am sorry brooklyn---I know that parting with it is not fun! I am glad you are getting the quirks worked out with it. I am very similar--I notice the detail things that some don''t, and they will only bother you as time goes by. Good luck with the repair work. I ditto the above on the appraisal. You do have it insured, right? Just makin sure. Good luck with getting the kinks out.

 

[diamondseeker2006]

Just remember that handmade rings are not always as "perfect" as cast. I hope they can fix some of the things that bother you, though!

 

[brooklyngirl]

So far we''ve taken pictures of only two of the imperfections...

1. Side stones are set in bezels of a slightly different height:

 

[brooklyngirl]

2. The center stone seems to be set off-center:

The outer green box highlights the stone''s position, and the inner yellow and blue highlight prong misalignment. Does anyone else see what I see?

 

[Cleo]

*hugs*

I can certainly see what you mean with regard to the bezel-set stones. One appears to be further from the halo than the other.

I''m having a hard time judging from the second photo, as I think the problem appears to be exacerbated by the ring itself not being square in the photo (ie, the band of the ring is higher on the left side than on the right).

It would help if you could rotate the image slightly in Photoshop to make it perfectly horizontal before adding the lines. (You will need to re-crop the photo to make it look right).

Hope this makes sense. Let me know if you need any help with the rotation/cropping bit!

x x x

 

[mrssalvo]

Date: 3/19/2008 5:49:28 AM
Author: Cleo
*hugs*


I can certainly see what you mean with regard to the bezel-set stones. One appears to be further from the halo than the other.


I''m having a hard time judging from the second photo, as I think the problem appears to be exacerbated by the ring itself not being square in the photo (ie, the band of the ring is higher on the left side than on the right).


It would help if you could rotate the image slightly in Photoshop to make it perfectly horizontal before adding the lines. (You will need to re-crop the photo to make it look right).


Hope this makes sense. Let me know if you need any help with the rotation/cropping bit!


x x x

ditto on both points. did you call or email pearlmans? what did they say?

 

[brooklyngirl]

Cleo, thanks for the hugs .

I''ll try to rotate the photo tonight, I just need to find a reference line that I think is straight, which will be hard in that photo

. I just have a feeling that there is something about the ring that is off, and it''s causing a bunch of other things to be skewed.

mrssalvo, I will be contacting Pearlman''s tonight after work. I just wanted to make sure that I am not crazy (regarding this matter only, of course

) and that there is something off, so that I don''t waste their time.

The ring is not yet insured. We don''t have a final appraisal yet, hence no insurance

. In the meantime, I''m waiting for a quote from Chubb based on the purchase price. I have a quote from jeweler''s mutual of $300 (I''m guessing that''s the annual fee, please correct me if I''m wrong), but since I don''t have a full appraisal on the ring (only the center stone) I am not sure if they would issue a policy for me based on the purchase price. Is lack of insurance a problem?

Thanks again for all your help!

 

[Cleo]

Hey, my pleasure... my ring is awaiting a re-set due to a proper bodge-job the first two times, so I feel your pain!

If you want to post the plain pic here without the lines I can do the rotation for you and re-post it so you can add your lines back.

x x x

 

[mrssalvo]

Date: 3/19/2008 11:48:19 AM
Author: brooklyngirl



mrssalvo, I will be contacting Pearlman''s tonight after work. I just wanted to make sure that I am not crazy (regarding this matter only, of course

) and that there is something off, so that I don''t waste their time.


The ring is not yet insured. We don''t have a final appraisal yet, hence no insurance

. In the meantime, I''m waiting for a quote from Chubb based on the purchase price. I have a quote from jeweler''s mutual of $300 (I''m guessing that''s the annual fee, please correct me if I''m wrong), but since I don''t have a full appraisal on the ring (only the center stone) I am not sure if they would issue a policy for me based on the purchase price. Is lack of insurance a problem?


Thanks again for all your help!

I don''t think you''re crazy and I doubt they will either. they are used to super picky pricecopers and are pretty picky themselves and I know they want you to be 100% happy. as for insurance, did pearlmans provide you with an appraisal on the setting? you can probably also submit your purchase price info/receipt with some companies. I would probably go ahead and continue the insurance process at this point, i''d be nervous to wear the ring w/out it.

 

[Cleo]

If you''re still trying, rotating the image 2.5 degrees left (anticlockwise) makes it look about right to me.

x x x

 

[tickintime]

Not sure if the bezel set are that off or the ring is rotated in another dimension as well...

Pretend you are holding the ring box and spin your wrist left and right. This is what I am seeing as off rotation. I can check in PS..

Be back!

ETA: 2.5 CCW is the magic number. You diamond APPEARS to be slightly off center (verify by measuring halo in person), you prongs are SEEMINGLY different shapes and sizes which give the appearance of the skewed head. There outermost edges DO NOT line up in any fashion. Just observations of a hugely picture of a ring...results may vary.

 

[mrssalvo]

brooklyngirl, just wondering how everything turned out?

 

[brooklyngirl]

Hi mrssalvo!

I sent the ring over to Pearlman''s 2 weeks ago. I''m very anxious because Jason hasn''t been very responsive, and still has not given us an ETA, even though we asked for it several times over email. Also, when we first contacted him, he seemed reluctant about the whole thing, and said that any imperfections are due to the ring being handmade. While I understand that it''s hand made, the setting is very expensive, and is supposed to be of suprior quality, so I didn''t really get that it should have imperfections visible to the naked eye. tickintime seemed to see what I was -- which is that there are several things that are misaligned, and that is what''s causing my difficulty in identifying what exactly is wrong.

Last corresponded with Jason, he got our pictures (and the ring) and at first did not see any misalignment issues, but is sending it to Beaudry to examine.

Any advice? I''m really worried

 

[mrssalvo]

well, there is some truth to the handmade/perfect ring thing but I do agree for the price of the beaudry settings they better be darn near close to eye-perfect. Jason was the one to catch the uneven prongs sent to cutey on her Michael b ring so i''m surprised he didn''t notice things off on your ring, unless it''s more the nature of all the scrollwork in the beaudry designs. I am glad they sent it back to beaudry though and hopefully beaudry will fix what they can so it''s acceptable to you. I''d also suggest just calling pearlmans and asking for an update, as much as I love email, sometimes it''s just more efficient to call.

 

[brooklyngirl]

Ok. So I just got off the phone with Jason, and he said it would be another week and a half.

I reminded him about the side pinks, and he said he''d have Beaudry take a look at it, but that he didn''t see anything wrong with them, and that my photo wasn''t rotated properly

. I told him that I picked a straight line on the ring and that''s what I used as my plane of reference. So anyway, he''ll have Beaudry look into it.

He said he''ll take some pictures for me when he gets the ring back to make sure it looks properly aligned to me.

Thanks for consoling me mrssalvo, I really appreciate it. I still feel pretty nervous, but better.

 

[brooklyngirl]

UPDATE:

So, Jason sent me some pictures of my ring yesterday. I am not sure if everything was fixed

.

I measured the distance from the edge of the halo to the outermost point on the stone on both sides, and the distance on the right side is smaller than the left. I thinks the two sides stones are still a bit off. The right one looks like it sits higher up than the left.

The ring will be here on Saturday, so I will see how it looks in person.

 

[brooklyngirl]

Top view.

 

[mrssalvo]

brooklyngirl, I''m as picky as they come and gotta say, your ring looks pretty darn amazing to me. Pics can be so misleading and lighting etc. can play tricks on your eyes and trying to measure the real life 1mm or less symmetry issues based off a giant computer picture isn''t really fair. I do think it''s great that you''re going to see it in person and really truly hope things are not so noticeable to you. There are some folks that just must have perfect allignment and symmetry which just isn''t really possible in a handmade ring. I do think handmade should be eyeclean perfect but under a loupe or 40x pic magnification, there will be tiny handmade normal imperfections. it really is a stunning ring and i hope you are happy with it. If you aren''t I''m sure Pearlmans will try to do what they can to help you if what you want is possible

 

[Babyblue033]

As a former graphic designer, I''m all about symmetry and perfection, and anal to boot

And from the last photos it DOES look like the right stone is set slightly higher than the left.

That being said, ring is a 3 dimensional object and this particular one is hand made on top of that. It''s simply not possible to evaluate as a flat image, and believe me if I did that I''d find "imperfection" with every one of them. If you get this ring back and STILL can see something off that''s one thing, but then again I''d worry that you''re seeing it more with your mind than with your eyes if you''re not careful. I think it looks much better than before

Let us know what you think once you get it back. I actually just placed my order from Pearlmans so I''d be interested to know how it all turns out for you.

 

[brooklyngirl]

mrssalvo - I can''t wait to get the ring back! I too am hoping that any imperfections will not be noticeable to me. It does look better than the original pictures I posted, so hopefully I''ll be satisfied. Sometimes I hate being so picky

Babyblue033 - I hope you''re right about the image. It is definitely blown up quite a bit, so hopefully I won''t notice anything, and will be able to finally enjoy my ring!

 

[Babyblue033]

Let us know! It''s a BEAUTIFUL setting, I''ve considered it myself but simplly could not afford it

 

[mrssalvo]

babyblue, what did you end up getting?

bg- fingers crossed that you love it person