Folks--I gotta tell ya--the only respondee to CarolK's question that didn't irk or even exasperate me in some way was eric-anandia-pearls'. Perhaps many of you have either had, or known someone who has had, a bad experience with appraisals. However, I think it is only good sense to remember that anecdotal bad experiences do not define what appraisals are about. Drawing upon years of working closely with a number of good, knowledgeable and highly ethical appraisers, I make the following comments.
1) There really isn't such a thing as a generic appraisal. Every appraisal is made to serve a purpose--which, by the way, should be clearly stated on the appraisal.
2) The appraisal that most jewelry consumers are likely to encounter is:
the Retail Replacement Appraisal. This is for insurance purposes and is an appraisal made to insure that the client can replace the item even if they don't have, or know how to obtain, access to the least expensive means of replacement. How this replacement is to be carried out is to be found somewhere in the wording of your individual policy.
3) The next most common type of appraisal for jewelry is the
Fair Market Value Appraisal. This appraisal should show what one might expect to be paid for the item should they sell it on the "open market." Unless you have a very exceptional piece that makes it particularly desireable such as rarity, this price will always be lower, usually significantly lower, than the retail replacement value. (Think of used cars.) Also, it will not normally take into account expenses incurred in selling an item such as consignment fees, etc. This value is sometimes quite difficult to ascertain and, I believe, is most appropriately expressed as a range of price.
4) There are various other types of appraisals that serve other purposes. As an example, one might have a materials value appraisal done of the value or cost of the materials that a piece is made from. Another example would be an appraisal of an item that would include it's value as an antique.
5) It is the responsibility of an ethical appraiser to research the amount that the item(s) in question have
actually been selling for, in the very recent past or currently. In the case of obscure or very rare items this may take quite a bit of research. Also, this may vary quite a bit by factors such as location. ie.: Natural pearl sale prices in Dubai vs. the U.S.
6) As economists are wont to say: Prices are set by the marketplace--a very messy process indeed. It is another way of saying that a thing is worth what one is willing to pay for it. We do not, as was attempted in some of the communist states, have a central authority that establishes what the price of things are. There are however, a number of statistical and other devices for determining many prices to a reasonable, though not exact, degree.
7) No ethical, legitimate, jewelry appraiser will appraise a piece of jewelry according to it's supposed value as an investment that is highly likely to increase in value over time.
8) To say that one has been fleeced--much less 100% fleeced!--if one orders and has a piece hand made by an artisan is, quite frankly, offensive for a number of reasons! First of all, I have found that for over 30 years, in a number of retail, custom-jewelry settings, I have very consistently been able to sell most of my hand made pieces at or below the prices that the chain stores charge for their mass produced jewelry. When one has a piece hand made, the piece is being crafted according to your personal specifications by a craftsperson, who, if they are good, has undergone years of study and training and practice, practice, practice to get to the point that they can faithfully create this piece for you just the way you want it. It's not just an "off the rack" casting. I can also tell you that when I work with a customer to make them a custom piece, on the average I spend some serious time, measured in hours, helping them settle on a design, choose materials, check with them along the way to insure that they are happy with the results. This is done in a place that is leased, decorated, staffed, serviced, etc. etc. in a way that it incurrs an inexorable overhead that must be amortized into the prices of things so that we won't have to just lock up the doors and take our little red wagon down the road. All of this is incurred, unavoidably, before I even put in the time to craft their piece. How much is your time worth? How anyone with even a few minutes of actual thought can call this a fleecing is beyond me and I find it rather insulting to boot.
9) Persons who buy from "high end" retailers that charge a premium for their goods are, almost always, buying prestige as well as a piece of jewelry. This is a matter of what is called "perceived value." If you think that such a purchase will confer prestige upon your person and you wish to acquire this intangible, then: You wanted this prestige. You paid for it. Where's the fleecing?
10) To have any value as a term of something undesireable, it would seem to me that "fleecing" must involve some level of deception. Often what one perceives as deception is only the fact of being disabused of ones' fallacious
assumptions. Many people, I find, will often assume that something, such as an appraisal, is something other or more than it actually is. If one is not absolutely sure what something represents, then it is your right and responsibility to ask and your right to receive direct and factual explanations.
_________________________
Marc
http://www.flyrodjewelry.com/home.html
Why? Because many of those papers are written with the assumption that you will do just that (a polite formulation: it is a 'moral' gesture to overvalue 'cause this serves the appraiser's client's interests in the long run... which sounds sort of right for the appraisal issue stance, but uncomfortable for the larger readership of these documents, so to speak...).
