How much does an appraisal cost?

I will caution you that these $25 “appraisals” are worth just that: $25. A competent professional appraiser will charge appropriate rates for the time and work involved to do the job properly. When you retain a professional appraiser, you are retaining a professional and must pay for that. When you hire a professional, you are insuring that your personal property assets are properly protected. Think about it: if you have a valuable item, one worthy of protection, then a proper appraisal will be worth much more than the appraiser will charge. The small premium you pay now is far less than what you will lose in aggravation, time, insurance premiums, and loss of dollars if you ever have an insurance claim and your appraisal was done by an unqualified appraiser. This also reduces the risk of having your claim denied due to misrepresentation of material fact due to a quack appraisal. On average, consumers pay an additional 40% per item, per year more than they should due to unqualified appraisers and appraisals.

How do you know if the appraiser is a professional?

Ask. All too often, the only question that is asked by consumers when trying to retain an appraiser is: ”How much do you charge?” The question that you should ask is: “What qualifies you to appraise my property?” The professional appraiser will not be offended by this question, but rather welcome it. This is not as short of a question as it may seem, but it is rather a multi part question.

Listed below in order are the questions you should be asking.

1. Are you a Graduate Gemologist or a Fellow of the Gemological Association?
2. Are you a member of a professional personal property appraisal organization?
   An example would be the International Society of Appraisers.
3. What is your level of membership within the organization? How did you obtain that level of membership? Did you have to take courses and pass a comprehensive examination, or did you just have to pay dues?
   Remember one may be a member of an organization and yet may not have taken their courses or passed the prescribed exams. Other organizations have almost no educational criteria to obtain designations they just exchange “Dollars for Diplomas”.
4. How often do you have to take a requalification course and pass a requalification exam? What does the requalification course and exam consist of?
5. How many hours of continuing education courses do you attend per year? How many of these hours are appraisal specific and how many are gemological and jewelry specific?
6. Do you stay current on industry guidelines and research, along with local and federal laws?
7. What are your specialty areas?
   Remember no one is an expert on everything. There are many types of jewelry. Here is a list of areas that may pertain to the type of jewelry that you may own and will want appraised, and you will want to know if they are qualified to handle it.

• Diamonds: Natural vs. synthetic, modern cuts, old cuts (old mine, old European, rose, and transitional), fancy colored (natural vs. enhanced), Ideal cuts, and enhanced (fracture filled, laser drilled, HTHP color enhanced).
• Colored Gemstones: Natural vs. synthetic, gemstone enhancements (fracture filling, heat treatment, glass infilling, deep diffusion treatment, coating, irradiation, paraffin coating, dye, and assembled stones. Note there are many more enhancements and the majority of gemstones on the market today are enhanced. You want to address how the enhancements will be reported within the appraisal. Rare colored gemstones, origin (the country of origin can play a major role in the value of the gemstone)
• Pearls: Natural vs. cultured vs. assembled, freshwater or saltwater, (over the past two years, there has been a flooding in the market- place of Chinese freshwater pearls that mirror saltwater Akoya pearls and they can be worth a fraction of the price). Natural color v. dyed or irradiated, South Sea (white & Tahitian), American freshwater, abalone, seed, keshi, and mabé.
• Jadeite: Natural vs. simulants. “A” vs. “B” vs. “C” vs. “D”. ”A” jade is natural with just a wax finishing, “B” jade has been acid “bleached” and polymer impregnated, “C” jade has been dyed, while “D” jade has been acid “bleached”, polymer impregnated, and dyed. ” (a fine green one-inch “A” jade carving can be worth thousands of dollars while a similar looking “B” jade carving is usually worth less than a couple hundred dollars)
• Metals: 9kt, 10kt, 14kt, 18kt, 20+kt, yellow v. white, platinum, rhodium, silver, gold filled, gold plated etc. Testing metals and manufacturing process (cast, hand fabrication, die struck, machined)
• General jewelry: Mass-produced vs. custom, antique and period vs. reproductions and “married” pieces (period with modern parts and/ or converted pieces) modern, along with quality assessment. Enamels and inlays.
• Watches: Pocket and wrist, modern and period, condition analysis, authentic vs. fake or after-market parts.
• Hallmarks and Trademarks: Manufacture’s marks (a piece made by Cartier is more valuable than the same piece as an unknown)
• Accessories: Compacts, chatelaines, cigarette cases and lighters.