Will a appraise more than other??

[eb]

Hi all-

My roomate bought a diamond from a local jeweler here in dc (mervis). I''ve also started my search for the right diamond. He spent roughly 10K for a real nice ring. When he got it insured, they appraised it around 18K. Is this normal??? My question is, if he bought a Tiffanys/Cartier/Bulgari ring, would it still appraise at 18K or would it be more???

Thanks in advance
eb

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

Have you ever heard a sillier thing than being ripped off by 70% on your insurance cost?

You should find that branded stores will write an appraisl to replace the goods. If you want a $17k replacement then you should buy a $17k thing.

Why pay more for insurance ?
They will not give you the money - they will replace the article insured (ie $10k) and you will get like for like.

 

[valeria101]

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On 2/1/2004 7:39:48 PM eb wrote:

My question is, if he bought a Tiffanys/Cartier/Bulgari ring, would it still appraise at 18K or would it be more???
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Probably not, 'cause you'd get an appraisal for the object from the seller.

However, if your friend would have bought a similarly "unbranded" (or mainstream) 20k ring, the appraisal would have probably read 30k or more. It is just an unfortunate appraisal practice with no real purpose aside making ring owners feel good, as Garry explains. One material issue to worry about in a appraisal is that the level of detail (and correspondence with whatever the rules of your insurer) give you the best chance to get a similar stone in case of loss. If the insurer will provide a replacement, you would want enough detail on the appraisal to make as sure as possible that the replacement is anything as the loss (as far as I know, the insurer may have a limiting set of binding specs already defined). Also, you would need to keep up the match between current market price and appraisal value (given that the price of diamonds goes up), and for this updating appraisals is the norm, not accounting for a century of price increases from the onset

, I guess...


These being said, there could be some arguments for keeping up with this strange practice. It is engrained enough that it has created it's own self-sustaining vicious circle: some insurance policies may read that the insurer would replay "half the appraisal value" (on the assumption that it will be twice the market value anyway), or the sellers may offer some upgrade policy saying that the old diamond would be accepted back for a fraction (usually the same half) of the appraisal value - on the same assumption. Clearly, both insurer and seller must protect themselves from the side effects of inflated appraisals. Unfortunately, one's response to these policies could only be to demand a "boosted" appraisal in the first place, and life goes on with everyone being right. Not sure if any of these details are directly relevant to you, but you may want to look into how you may want/need to use the appraisal in the future to determine what is right for you. The "appraisal value" is just a number... as I hope the above would lead to conclude.

 

[PlatinumDiamond]

I always try to keep my jewelry appraised close to the price I paid for it originally. If I ever did have to make an insurance claim, I would either want an equal replacement or cash back. I would be happy with at least getting my original money spent back if the insurance company could not replace it for the amount that it was insured for. My policy would pay me the full amount that it was insured for IF they could not replace it for that amount.