Integrity in Valuations

I was pondering the ideas of different skill sets the other day, prompted by the TV advert for a well known Car Breakdown Service who would come and repair your boiler, It was the use of the word "cowboys" as a derogatory comment, and appeared to indicate that if you didn't use the Car Breakdown Service, you could be dealing with a cowboy. I am sure that many Independent Qualified Plumbers would take exception to this.

I then saw the story about a well known Auction House who "valued" a piece of Historic Jewellery for £35,000 and which subsequently sold for over £300,000. Too late to save the original owners house which had to be sold.

The original Auction house dismissed the piece when first seen as a Late 17th Century Copy when in fact it dated back to the time of Henry VII (Reigned 1509-1547)

The first owner sold it for the smaller sum Based on the advice of the Auctioneer and was horrified when it sold again 2 years later for 10 times as much.

The story starts here if you want to read it http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2098079/Lord-Coleridge-sues-Sothebys-valuing-family-heirloom-sold-300k-35k.html

The more I pondered this the more I considered the ethics of a seller valuing anything that they had an interest in and felt I had to put pen to paper (finger to keyboard in this case).

I have worked for large multiple Jewellers and valued for them, however the National Association of Goldsmiths under whose auspices I was registered, frowned upon valuers valuing items recently sold or valuing items which were to be sold by the valuer or valuers employer. If you broke this rule too many times or blatantly, Your precious Registration, for which one had worked so hard to obtain, could be taken away.

I worked for a large national valuation company and found they were valuing items for jewellers with no actual buyer in sight, again I refused to put my name at the bottom of any such document, despite being told this was "The XXXXXXXXX Way".

My view is that this could be construed as an Inducement to Buy, particularly the method which they were using to value some goods,for example items from the far east or Internet/TV companies were being willfully overvalued.

These considerations have led me to this post, Who Should Value Your jewellery?

Firstly the person Valuing should be a Qualified Valuer, note I said Valuer not Jeweller.

In the UK, this person should be a Member of the NAG and preferably a member of the Institute Of Registered Valuers (what was known until a few years ago as A Registered Valuer)
They certainly should have a Gemmological Qualification such as FGA, PJGemDip etc.
They should have the Professional Jewellery Valuers Diploma.
They really should be totally Independent of the seller.
I have seen many "Valuations" (known in the States as Appraisals) issued by the seller, particularly the type of sellers who congregate around Cruise ship ports. These documents are often for far more than the actual selling price.

Auctioneers, now this is a thorny subject, they are actually acting as a seller but many Auction Houses offer a Valuation Service, but their main income derives from Commissions when selling so can their valuations really be Independent? There are some who I would trust implicitly, others, some really big names here who get their "estimates" wildly wrong so how can they really be "valuers"?

By Photo via the Internet, Now this is really just plain wrong and I am really surprised that 2 Dragons from Dragons Den got involved in such a shady business. You cannot tell the difference between a First class Diamond, a moderately good diamond, a CZ or a Moissonite from a Photo, therefore you cannot VALUE IT. This is just a con. See also http://daviddupuy.wordpress.com/2010/09/10/new-post/ for a similar view from Ireland.


There are 4 images above, One is a moderate quality Diamond, One is Moissonite, One is a good diamond and one is Cubic Zirconium, Can you tell the difference, Because I certainly cannot and I've been a jeweller for 40 years. I certainly couldnt put an accurate value on them and thats what this company Claim to be able to do, I also note that the Priciple at this company is an Ex Auctioneer, which pretty much explains everything. By the way that is not the order of the images either.

So to sum up, make sure your Valuer is a Valuer, not the seller, connected with the seller or just someone who owns/manages a jewellery Shop.
Ensure they are qualified as a valuer and recognised as such.
If you must have an item valued by an Auctioneer, ensure you know exactly what purpose the value stated is for, eg, Insurance, Selling, Probate etc etc.

Make sure they are Independent, for advice on why Independence is so important visit http://www.independent-jewellery-valuers.org/ They will also be able to find a totally Independent Valuer in your area. The valuers fees will be transparent and you will know that these members Never sell or Trade in jewellery and have no interest in pushing the price up or down.

It is also worth noting that if you contact the Valuer Directly, rather than through a jewellers, you may even save money, as the jewellers will want a profit on the Valuers Fee, A point to strongly consider before trotting into the Jewellers and asking them to value it.

The order of the rings above by the way is CZ, Good Diamond, Moissonite, Commercial Diamond.

Thank you for reading.