Most of the appraisals that I see each day are new appraisals on items that already have past appraisals. I’m not going to call them “updates” as that’s something completely different. (More on that in a later post)
The first thing the people do is look at the value that I have assigned and compare it to a past appraisal. There are three typical responses:
“Huh, that’s a lot less than the last one”
“Well, that didn’t go up very much at all!”
“Wow! That went up a lot! I guess I did pretty well on it.”
While these are common responses, they usually all stem from the same misconceptions. Jewelry does NOT always appreciate. Also, as we’ve talked about before, the value that is assigned to an item is based on a particular valuation method, as determined most appropriate by the appraiser. If we remember that many appraisals are done by people that don’t have proper training in valuation methodology, it’s not surprising that values may be way off.
When we factor in changes in style, fashion, manufacturing techniques, consumer demand, availability, etc, the values will change over time, but not at a predictable or consistent rate.
Appraisals are professional opinions by trained professionals. They may vary from appraiser to appraiser, just as opinions of doctors, lawyers, and accountants may vary. The more professional your appraiser the more professionally researched and prepared your appraisal will be.
So, appreciate your jewelry as physical mementos of special occasions and the reasons you bought the pieces originally. It’s OK if they don’t “appreciate” in monetary value. We’ll talk about jewelry as an “investment” next time.
