When is it time to get an appraisal for my jewelry?
We recommend having your jewelry checked and cleaned at least once a year. That is also a good time to find out if you have enough insurance coverage for your jewelry. All insurance companies requirements are different. Some require you to have your jewelry appraisals updated every 3-5 years and some not at all. I recently had a customer who had a loss of her diamond engagement ring. Her insurance company did not require her to update her appraisal of her ring, which was purchased in 1983. So that was the replacement value she received for her loss, far less than what it would cost to replace her ring today. Another area where we see significant changes is in heavy gold pieces. Very often they were purchased at a$200-300 gold market. At todays much higher gold market we see a huge difference in value on these pieces and often times they were never appraised or added to a policy.
Fees for an appraisal should not be based on value, but rather on the amount of time it takes the appraiser to do the appraisal. Please contact us with any insurance appraisal questions you might have.