Valuation vs Price I Should Pay

[LondonRuby]

Hi there,

I have my eye on an antique ring online. It has a big emerald which is not perfect (clarity enhanced with oil or resin and heavily included) but I love the look of the ring. The seller had it valued (replacement value) for £3600 and is selling for almost £2,600. At the moment there's no way I can afford it, unless by some miracle all the pieces I'm selling get bought, but I have a feeling it's overpriced - I read somewhere that jewellery should cost around half the valuation price - is this correct?

Thank you!

Ruby

 

[Snowdrop13]

There’s no hard and fast rule to this, in fact the “valuations” are often grossly inflated and make it look like you are somehow getting a bargain! Are there lots of diamonds in the setting? Have you seen any comparators elsewhere? The U.K. antique jewellery market often seems really expensive to me (I’ve been looking for years) so I’d be really careful. Can you show us a photo?

 

[LondonRuby]

Thanks, Snowdrop! There are a few diamonds, but small ones. I've seen other rings for the same price but the emeralds are smaller, albeit of better quality.

Yes, professional sellers' prices are really expensive here. Luckily, so far I have managed to mostly buy from individuals or in charity shops. It's so difficult to find a normal person selling their stuff, but when you do it's wonderful! They're like me, just looking to get some money back instead of a huge profit so something that would cost £2500 at a jeweller can be £550. I must stop looking at the professionals and will wait for something affordable to come up. I'll try and post a pic later...