Has anyone had any success getting a fair jewelry appraisal for their colored diamonds? I went to my favorite local jeweler and they did a fair job on all the other pieces I have but for my blue diamond it just seems off. Not only was their description completely wrong: "displays a semi-transparent, light blue hue (enhanced) of moderate intensity." Uh, no it is a Fancy Vivid Blue diamond. Sure, it is a lab created diamond but it still deserves a proper appraisal!

At least they were willing to update the description but not the price of the ring. I got a replacement value of $3385 which seems rather low to me. The jeweler argues why I would want to pay a higher premium on an overvalued ring. I argued that I could not replace my ring if the insurance paid me that low of price. I even asked how much he thought a similar setting would cost and he said $1000. Ok that seems fair. Then again for a center stone and he said $3000 so again that seems fair. However, that still leaves me $615 to cover the difference and I don't think that is fair but the jeweler thinks it is close enough because I could find a great deal online. Eh? I thought the appraisal was for a replacement value in a retail store?

I am almost thinking of asking for my money back on that one and trying another place but I am going to go in person and show him my receipts and see what they say first. The question is ... where else should I go to get a better appraisal?? Where do you go to get your colored diamonds appraised accurately? I guess does DBL do this for all stones sold through them?

This is way overdue for me but since we are moving and updating our home owners insurance it was a good time to get everything appraised and updated.

Before you go to too much effort, check your policy. 
Here it is common for insurance to require the appraisal, which determines your premium.  The policy covers replacement of the item with one of similar description but it does not place a cash value on loss.  For example if the ring was appraised at $5K, 1.0 ct-SI1-vg-vg-2g of 14k gold, that is what you would get as a replacement, not 5K in cash.  In which case, you would not want a retail value appraisal because you would be paying over inflated premiums.

Oh yes, you still pick your own replacement.  Sometimes the insurance company will only give you a choice of a couple of retailers you need to go to though.  They send the retailer the specs based on your original appraisal, you go and pick from that selection.  It all depends on the policies of the particular insurer. There are policies that have cash payouts too.

Great points! I have receipts certainly but I tend to buy things piecemeal or even sometimes on eBay or privately so what I have isn't necessarily very descriptive or worth showing to an insurance company. I rarely buy a complete finished piece of jewelry and I also rarely pay retail prices.

Some of the pieces I got appraised really surprised me because they are worth far more than what I paid for them. I still think those prices are fair because if I walked into a jewelry store that seems like a reasonable price to pay for a comparable piece.

It was my two wedding sets that surprised me on the other end. My platinum custom ring seems low as I paid about $2k more 10 years ago. However, I am not going to question that one since I rarely wear it anymore and am looking to replace the center stone with a gemstone. Still, I thought it would be worth more because of the weight in platinum but oh well. It was a custom designed piece so I know I paid a premium just for that alone.

I feel almost silly arguing a difference of $600 or so but what made me more annoyed was the incorrect description of my blue diamond. Then to top it all off was the attitude of the jeweler when I questioned the whole thing. He also calls any lab created stone "a stone with diamond-like properties" which to me sounds like a simulant or CZ or even Moissanite. We both agree that it is not right to call it a "natural diamond" but I didn't see why it couldn't be called a "diamond" since it has the same chemical makeup but it was created in a lab and not by mother nature.

Well, I hope the updated description is better the next time I go into the store. I guess I will worry less about the price and more about the description.

Lyta  --

I will keep this as short as I am able.  I have personal experience with insurance replacement.  Note, of course, that I can only speak of my own experience.

I insured a ring that had a legitimate $12,000 appraisal.  Had paid premiums on the ring (premiums based on that value) for almost 20 years.  The ring was stolen.  There was no question about the theft -- the police even found and (eventually) successfully prosecuted the thief, who was a juvenile.  (Alas, as a juvenile, the thief was not forced to do more than make token restitution and write a letter of apology!)

My insurance company said they would replace the ring -- using their own, chosen jeweler.  The jeweler was a piece of work!  First, she had only one location (store) where I might come to look at proposed replacement pieces --  and that location was more than three hours' drive from my home.  Second, she told me that I was "lucky" that the insurance company was even willing to replace the ring, because "so many people lie" about theft.  She hastened to say (without much conviction) that she didn't mean ME, of course... (yeah, of course...)

The worst part of the jeweler was (were) her attempts to minimize her personal effort and maximize her personal profit.  Example:  the appraisal listed the diamonds' color as higher than what she wanted to use; she kept insisting that the color grade really didn't matter all that much (huh?), and that it particularly didn't matter because she would get me some stones that "faced up" white.  While I trust David to select such stones, I sure didn't trust her -- especially as the color grading, of whatever haphazard stones did finally make it into a replacement piece, would be based on her own opinion of the stones' color, rather than on a GIA report.

The insurance jeweler's best trick, however, was her nagging me to accept a pair of earrings in place of my engagement ring.  She kept telling me how great it would be to have a nice pair of diamond earrings.  No doubt it would be nice -- but I did want a ring, as the piece that had been stolen was a wear-it-every-day item (engagement ring).  And I am the owner of far, far too many singleton earrings to trust myself wearing $6,000 worth of diamonds in each ear!  Of course, I also suspected that she was pushing the earrings because she planned to give me a somewhat mis-matched pair of diamonds, and thus to REALLY maximize her profit margin.  (No harm in slightly mis-matched earrings, but the price should reflect any flaws/mis-matches.  She would, of course, have charged the insurance company the same price for a pair of mis-matched earrings as she would have charged them for a new ring with five well-matched stones of over a half-carat each, which is what I had lost.)

Ultimately, because the original ring was very vintage and the original diamonds were all mine cuts, the insurance company agreed to give me the cash value rather than to hassle with replacement.  The CATCH, though, is that the insurance folks agreed to give me the CASH VALUE (cost) of what THE INSURANCE COMPANY WOULD HAVE PAID directly to the unprofessional jeweler.  In other words, "cash value" really meant "wholesale value as if paid by insurance company to jeweler with whom company has an ongoing and cozy relationship."  No chance of even getting another jeweler to do the work; that was not in the insurance contract.

What catches my attention, in Lyta's post immediately above, is her understanding that the insurance company is contracting with her to either replace the ring or to give her the CASH VALUE as stated on HER APPRAISAL.  That may be what someone on the phone implied -- and perhaps even what that insurance representative understands to be the truth.  However, I would urge you to make sure that such is truly the case.  I did some investigating (too late for me) when my own insurance coverage turned out to be less than what I thought I had been paying for over the decades.  My investigation discovered that it is a rare (and specialized) company that will pay the value as listed on an appraisal that is furnished by the insurance CLIENT.  The company is quite happy to charge premiums based on the bottom-line cash value that a client reports (and documents).  However,  the company is quite likely to base any cash payout on the value of the jewelry as determined by themselves (the insurance company), based not on the NUMBERS you provide, but based, rather, on the written DESCRIPTION that forms part of the appraisal.  (As the ever-charming jeweler, described above, told me in a condescending manner that was very little short of accusatory :  "They can't go by your numbers, you know.  Who knows what jeweler you got to do the appraisal?  People get inflated appraisals all the time.  The numbers you give them don't really mean anything.  It's the description that's important.")  (And she then fulfilled the elements of this "all-important" appraisal description, in my case, by once again offering to replace my five-diamond / good-color ring with two earrings -- "that face up really nice.") (Yeah... Very consistent reasoning.  Thanks for the help.)

If Lyta's insurance company really-truly will base a payout on the dollar value of your own appraisal, then by all means be as picky as possible about the appraisal -- $600 is real money!  However, it's quite possible that the real "contract" is that the insurance company will either replace your item, or else that the company might be persuaded to write a check to you that is in the same (much discounted!) amount that they would have to pay to their own select jeweler, for something that is (in the opinion of the jeweler and the insurance company) "close enough" to being "more or less" what is described in the appraisal.

Just my experience.  YMMV  ("Your Mileage May Vary").


Good luck!

-- Piglette


P.S.  The happy outcome of my unhappy experience is that I found DBL and David... But that's another story...

Excellent points Piglette! I will do some more research after we move. I just need something to give the apartment complex on Friday so we have a place to live. My jewelry has always been covered under our home owners insurance and I never gave it much thought. It does seem strange that the insurance company will pay out based on the amount stated in the appraisal since it is pretty much a number plucked out of the sky. People are appraising things quite reasonably nowadays so having over inflated appraisals is more rare. I have heard stories like yours Piglette so I should look into the insurance company a bit more.

At least when I called the jeweler today he offered a refund so I am taking it. I just wish they had said outright that they are not familiar with colored or lab created diamonds instead of giving me grief for being "picky". I also got a solid referral from the company I bought the diamond from so I am very curious what they will say on the appraisal. This is from a lab who specializes in lab created diamonds (among other things) and they are cheaper too! I am hoping for a much better experience this time around!

Not to mention how much it would cost if it came in a red box...

Red box indeed. French. Name that sounds like quartier (neighbourhood), and in fact Coco Chanel once thought that a jewel gift from an admirer had been bought at a corner shop...

Lyta --

Glad that you got a refund!

I agree that the appraiser should have said straight out that he/she is not really up to speed on lab diamonds.  And extremely annoying to have it made clear that one is being "picky" when, in fact, one is better informed than others.  That said, it seems to be professional and decent of the appraiser to offer a refund.  Maybe consider using them again, in the happy event of your acquiring a more traditional diamond...?

Best wishes with the move.

-- Pig

With our move last weekend I forgot to update everyone on what happened.

I am so much more happy with the new appraisal! Very professional and detailed and oooooooh get this ... accurate! They cost $10 less to appraise it and they did it while I waited. My ring was cleaned and sparkling, shiny and new looking again too. I just wish I used them for all the other pieces. It also appraised for higher than I expected but that is okay with me.

So glad you found someone much better to do the appraisal.

I use Jewelers Mutual since they gave me the best quote for the coverage.  My homeowners wasn't very helpful and I didn't like all the questions not answered in the end.  JM at least gave me a sample policy to look at and a very accurate quote on the internet.  I appreciated that.