Understanding Appraisals

An appraised value for insurance is an estimate of the retail replacement price. It covers the cost of making an exact duplicate of your items, including both the wholesaler's and the retailer's profits. An appraised value is not the amount you would receive if you sold the items. An insurance value is usually significantly higher than the actual cash value. Appraisals frequently ignore the condition, age, and marketability of the items. This is especially true in the case of jewelry appraisals.

Jewelry, silver, and diamonds were at record highs in the early 1980s. If your insurance appraisal is dated around that time, the values may be significantly inflated by today's standards.

If the design of some of your items falls into the classification of antique or period jewelry, then they could be worth more than when originally purchased.

If you are selling something, what you need is an offer, not an appraisal. An offer is the actual price someone will pay you today for an item. Someone who tells you what you should get for an item but won't buy it himself is not making an offer. A dealer who suggests a consignment of items at estimated selling prices is not making an offer.

Your items may not sell for some time, and they may ultimately bring considerably less than the estimate. They may not sell at all.

We find that it is the perception of price that usually decides whether we are successful in buying an item from a client. The price we must pay depends on objectively determined factors, including the quality, size, rarity, and marketability of the item. If an appraisal imparts an unrealistic idea of value, a customer will never sell. No one will be able to meet his or her expectations. On the other hand, we buy nearly everything that is offered to us by people who have a correct understanding of the value of their items.