One of my ring designs uses a rough diamond cube in a three stone
ring (the other stones are faceted sapphires of excellent quality).
I would like to know how to value the raw diamond cube. I asked a
certified appraiser, before I made the ring, for an appraisal, and
was told I would have to appraise the diamond cube myself. So, how
does one go about that? I know Todd Reed uses these diamond cubes in
almost all of his work, so there must be standards for appraising
these cubes. But what are they?
The cube is a fairly regular square, approximately 5.5 mm on all
sides, and a nice, pale silver color.
Todd Reed’s appraisals are not appraisals - they are certificates and
at his caliber, he is allowed a certain amount of “artistic” license
in determining worth since it isn’t based solely on materials by a
long shot. In your case, I would just give the carat; description and
take what you’re charging for the ring and multiple it by 1.3 to
cover appreciation in the next 5 years - i. e., the time frame
insurance companies like to see between updated appraisals. Cameron
Susan. If the diamond is a recent purchase, value it at what the
retail price would be if this is a retail customer. If you have had
the stone for awhile then find out what it would cost to replace it
and then mark up to retail.
What we do in that particular situation Susan, is to double the cost
of the diamond (or triple, depending on your markup, retail prices
for rough diamonds in Todd Reed and other similar lines is easily 3X)
and add that to the valuation of the mounting, traditionally derived
by finding retail selling prices of comparable pieces.
If you don’t know the cost of the diamond, you can use a similar
grade of faceted diamond as a comparable. Sounds like it would be an
I-1 or 2 clarity and top light brown or silver cape color grade, so a
comparable might be a one carat I-1 clarity, L-M-N color round
brilliant cut diamond. Look that up on the Internet and use the
average or upper average retail price for the loose diamond. That may
end up being a bit high, but it is usually better to make sure the
client is fully covered even if it costs them a little more in
insurance premiums than necessary as opposed to leaving them short of
coverage.
You didn’t say what organization “certified” your appraiser, but
that’s not how a well trained and fully qualified professional
jewelry appraiser should handle valuation. It shouldn’t be a problem
at all for someone that truly knows what they are doing to evaluate,
grade and estimate replacement value for a rough diamond such as you
describe. If you really want to do it right, I would recommend that
you check with the National Association of Jewelry Appraisers (NAJA)
website for a qualified appraiser near you, assuming you are in the
USA.
I just wanted to say “Thank-You” to the Orchideans who replied to my
post about how to appraise the rough, or raw, diamond cube in my
ring design. Ultimately, I just went with the cost of the stone from
the supplier. The reply that was most helpful and informative came
from David Phelps. Thank you, again, David Phelps, for your
informative and useful reply. If anyone is interested in seeing
pictures of the ring, I have a website under my DBA, “Hobbs Wells”,
and I did a blog entry about this ring, with pictures. The link to
the blog can be easily accessed at my website: http://www.ganoksin.com/gnkurl/ep81rw