Gems TV

JEWELLERY APPRAISALS

As you will probably want to insure the jewellery you purchase from GemsTV for the cost of replacement, this means seeking an independent appraisal from an experienced professional.

Before seeking third party appraisals, please take the following into consideration:

Insuring jewellery

Don’t assume that your jewellery collection is automatically insured by your household policy. Furthermore, it is always wise to take photos and catalogue all of your jewellery. Try and keep all your receipts and retain as many written details as possible (e.g. our certificates of authenticity). If your catalogue is a hard copy, make sure you take a photocopy and keep the second copy at a friend’s house or as some collectors do, leave a copy with your family lawyer or solicitor. If your catalogue is a soft copy on your personal computer, make a copy of the data and keep it in a different location.

Valuation

An appraisal valuation is what someone is prepared to pay for something. For example, what is the value of the Mona Lisa? Is the value the same as the cost of the canvas and the paint or is it determined by the amount that someone will pay for it? We believe that jewellery appraisals should reflect the average cost you would have to pay to replace the item if lost or stolen.

Independent

On these pages are just some of the thousands of comments we have received from delighted customers whose appraisals have exceeded their expectations. Unfortunately, we have also heard that some customers have had a negative experience when obtaining appraisals from local jewellers. As GemsTV is an integrated manufacturer and television home shopping retailer of coloured gemstone jewellery, we cut out numerous middlemen. This keeps our prices extremely competitive. Whilst most jewellers thank us for increasing the awareness of coloured gems, a few may feel threatened and try to discredit our jewellery. Please bear this in mind when seeking appraisals. For truly independent appraisals we recommend SafeGuard®.

Knowledge

Although most appraisers will have experience valuing gold, silver and Diamonds, some may not have even heard of some of the gemstones offered by GemsTV. When obtaining an appraisal it’s always a good idea to confirm that the appraiser possesses the requisite experience to value coloured gemstone jewellery. This can be easily determined by asking if they have received any formal gemmology training. As visual inspection is not a reliable means of identifying gemstones, please make sure you ask what tools (e.g. refractometer, jewellers’ loupe etc.) they used to perform their appraisal.

One question we are routinely asked is how appraisers can know the weight of gemstones without removing them from their settings? If you pick up two different gem types of the same size and shape you may notice that one feels heavier than the other. This is due to differences in their chemical composition and crystal structure resulting in some gem types being denser than others. While “Specific Gravity” (the ratio of the weight of a specific material to the weight of the same volume of water) was used as the index to measure the density of gemstones this is now largely replaced by “Relative Density”, which is expressed as grams per cubic centimetres on a 1 to 8 scale. Given this, an appraiser will measure the set gem with callipers, and then based on their knowledge, extrapolate an estimate.

For example, a 7x5 millimetre Oval-cut Sapphire weighs approximately 1 carat, a 7x5 millimetre Oval-cut Topaz weighs approximately 0.70 to 0.80 carats and a 7x5 millimetre Oval-cut Zircon weighs approximately 1.20 to 1.50 carats. However, these are estimates only. The only accurate way to measure carat weight is to remove the gem from its setting and weigh it. As this should be avoided, we include the MTGW (Minimum Total Gem Weight) on our certificates of authenticity.