Bonjour ma petite Persianglitter! Let's see if I can help!!!
Ok, firstly why do you want/need the valuations? Is it for insurance? Or is it just cos you want to know how much something would be valued for? Or are you trying to find out whether what you've bought has been worth it?
Insurance
If it's for insurance purposes then check your home contents policy first. MOST policies will insure your jewellery within the contents bit if it's not over £x (normally £1,000 or above). Some have a limit of £2,500. You only need to specify high value items (normally). However, check your policy first otherwise you could be getting valuations for nothing!
Next, if your total jewellery is over £x amount in value then you might need to tell the insurer. Some give a percentage of your overall contents, others specify a £x amount.
Irrespective of having a valuation, in the event of loss, the insurer may not pay out the full amount. For example, I lost a diamond ring on holiday last year that had a valuation (by Safeguard) of £7k. However, I managed to source a replacement for £6k and so the insurer only paid out £6k.
Also, whilst most insurance companies like to see valuations, they will question them if not carried out by a registered valuer. This is different to be a jeweller. For a good/true valuation you are looking at paying far more than £5 per item plus a commission.
For example, with Safeguard (and this varies slightly from region to region), you pay £45 for the first item and then £25 or £30 for each subsequent item. For that you get a valuation with a full description and photo of each item. You can also have the item stamped with a mark inside to identify that you're the owner (very good for high value items that might be stolen). In my experience, insurance companies will accept Safeguard's valuations as being accurate as they are done by registered valuers who do nothing except value jewellery. I've had valuations done by Safeguard and the same item by another company that I know others have used (based in Birmingham) and the one in Birmingham put such a high mark up on the item that I KNEW it was wrong!!!
For the past 5 years I've always used Safeguard and trust their valuations.
Just because you want to know!
Bear in mind, a valuation is NOT an indication of worth or what you could sell an item for. A valuation (if done by a registered valuer), will be based on the amount of gold needed to replace the item, the grade, cut, colour, rarity and quality of each stone in the ring, the amount of time a jeweller would have to take to make the same piece again and this gives you a replacement value.
People tend to think that if they buy a ring for X and it's valued at XX then that's what they could sell it for. That's not the case at all.
Because you're buying from GemsTV who DO sell some items at a loss, some at very small margins and as they "mass" produce can bring better deals than the High Street, your valuations will typically be at least double or treble what you've paid. This is normal. One of my valuations (done by Safeguard) came back at 12 times what I'd paid!!!!! That's not the norm though!!!
Typically, if you buy from GemsTV, you can't buy the same item £ for £ on the High Street. Normally the High Street will have a much higher asking price. Where the difference may be is that you might find a different quality gemstone available elsewhere BUT that does mean you might pay more (not always though).
Does that help?
