What To Expect From A Jewelry Appraisal

If you have your grandmother's antique brooch or you've just purchased a wedding ring, it's a good idea to have your jewelry professionally appraised. This process will provide you with a piece of paperwork that explains the value of your jewelry for resale and insurance purposes. It will cost you some money upfront to have jewelry appraised, but this will be a valuable asset when you go to sell or insure it later. Here is what you can expect when you take a piece of jewelry in to be appraised.

Initial Assessment

Once you've decided which appraiser you plan to use, they will perform an initial assessment of the jewelry. The appraiser will usually clean the piece thoroughly in order to be able to see the clarity of the stones used and to get a good image when they take photographs of the jewelry. The piece of jewelry will be weighed so that the appraiser can determine how many carats it contains and how many grams of gold, silver, or other metals are in it. This weight is important to assessing the overall value of the piece. They will also measure the size of any stones found in the jewelry.

Determining Value

A professional jewelry appraiser will test the metal content of your jewelry to determine its authenticity. If the gold is 24 or 14 karat, for example, they will be able to tell this from the test and can make a more accurate appraisal. They will also look at the cut, color, and clarity of any stones as well as their weight combined to determine the market value. If a piece of jewelry is antique, the appraiser will look for any maker's marks that could increase the value and help to authenticate it. Most jewelry appraisers give you the insurance value of the piece but may not tell you what the estimated resale value is. This is because the sale price of jewelry depends on several factors like current demand and which avenue you use to sell it.

Paying For The Appraisal

Most appraisers charge customers by the hour for their assessment. There will also be an extra fee for the paperwork they give you to keep. If you've decided to mail your jewelry to an appraiser, you can expect to pay a shipping cost to have it mailed back to you. Some appraisers have a flat rate or a minimum fee, so do a little shopping around before you select the appraiser you want to use. With the right appraisal, such as from The Gold Miner, you can be sure that the jewelry you own has an official value attached to it in order to prove its worth.

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