Harby Jewelers has two jewelry appraisers in Jacksonville that are graduate Gemologists from the Gemological Institute of America, the highest title provided in our industry. If you live near our Jacksonville store or are looking for a jewelry appraiser near you, we invite you to drop off your jewelry. You can also schedule an appointment to be present while we appraise your pieces.
We stake our reputation on the appraisals we perform. They require the highest educational training in our industry and for us to be current in our understanding of values, new synthetics, treatments, and resources.
There are varied reasons for an appraisal, and there are numerous types of appraisals for different purposes, such as tax, insurance, or resale. The main goal is to acquire an objective and accurate assessment to understand the market value of a piece.
Our first objective is to determine the purpose of the appraisal. How do you expect to use the appraisal? Many ask for an insurance appraisal or a retail replacement value appraisal. Others desire an estate appraisal, a charitable donation appraisal, or a fair market value appraisal. If you’re unsure what type of appraisal you need, we will happily advise you.
If your jewelry was purchased elsewhere, we encourage you to bring in any sales receipts or old insurance appraisals to aid in the appraisal. Information from the store that sold the item is usually the most useful as it should list actual weights. Information like this gives you a more accurate insurance appraisal.
If you have purchased items from Harby Jewelers, the appraisal is free. If left with us, items not purchased from Harby Jewelers are $100 per item. Appraisals are usually completed in a few days.
While you wait appraisals are $150 per item, and an appointment is required for this service. We offer discounts for larger groups of jewelry depending on how elaborate most of the items are. Further information is listed below with the different types of appraisals. Each appraisal will include detailed descriptions, cleaning, and photos of each item.
Insurance appraisals are the most common appraisal we do. We include an insurance appraisal with each piece when we sell new jewelry. This typically is used for insuring an item of jewelry as insurance companies require this.
We first clean, inspect and photograph each item, then check for quality and condition. We also inspect the item to determine if an important designer crafted it. Then the gemstones are identified and evaluated for estimated weight and quality.
An estimated replacement value for the jewelry is then assigned. It’s essential to understand the assigned value. You might pay 10% more or 10% less, but this is what we believe would be the average price if visiting multiple jewelry stores.
Many people believe that a jewelry appraisal for insurance purposes is the same as a market value appraisal. However, this is not the case. While both types of appraisals assign a monetary value to an item, an insurance appraisal is an estimate of how much an item would cost to purchase but a market value is an estimate of what an item might sell for. Insurance appraisals are typically much higher than fair market value appraisals.
Another reason for an insurance appraisal is to have an inventory of all your jewelry. You might choose to insure only items over a certain amount. But having a complete list of your items can be very useful. This is especially true for someone who has their home broken into and all their jewelry stolen.
If your home was broken into, could you provide the police with an inventory of everything you own? Could you show photos that could prove very helpful in recovering your items? Could you give them an idea of value?
The police will ask you all three of those questions.
We are sometimes asked to do an insurance appraisal so an individual can find out if they got a good deal somewhere else. Often, the client does not tell us that this is the reason for the appraisal.
We can usually assist you with this information without the involvement of an insurance appraisal. We are happy to review your purchase's appraisal and bill of sale and offer our opinion.
Estate Appraisals can be used for several reasons. This type of appraisal is calculated at Fair Market Value. This value indicates what someone might expect to receive if the items were sold. This value will be lower than the Insurance Value because you sell the article, not buy the item.
Many ask if there is a percentage below an insurance appraisal amount that they might expect an item to sell for. Unfortunately, there is no such thing. Some items might sell closer to the retail insurance figure. Others will be as little as one-tenth of the insurance value. There is not a standard answer.
This appraisal is used for settling the estate of a deceased person. It is necessary to file an estate appraisal on all jewelry with the tax forms to settle the estate. The fee for this service is $100 per item.
Our second most requested appraisal is helping families divide jewelry due to an inheritance. We usually recommend the division be based on what items might sell for, not what they might cost to replace.
We recommend this option because usually, there will be items left that no one wants. We can usually help you sell the remaining items. You will then know how much you might receive for any remaining items. In addition, family members might eventually want to sell all or part of the items they receive after the division.
When we work with families for this purpose, we usually offer a more casual option to evaluate the items. Instead of a formal insurance appraisal, we can prepare an informal listing that does not include the photos or printed copy. It is a simple listing, usually on a legal pad. It will still require a complete evaluation of metals and gemstones, but we can typically complete this process faster than a formal appraisal. Typically, this option might cost $35-$50 per item—the more gold items without gemstones, the less the cost.
