Value of Jewelry

[sal425]

What did you use to set the value of your jewelry?

I saw that someone on the forum found a similar wedding ring on ebay, but how similar does it have to be?

My wife has a wedding ring and band I paid $12k for in 2002
We also have Tag Heuer watches we paid $800 each for in 2004

What would you set the values at?

Thanks in advance!

[NoMoreCards]

I would recommend going to a few places that purchase such things (pawn shop, jewelry store) and asking what they would pay it for.

Insurance appraisals tend to be inflated, and you are looking for what they would sell for in today's market.

[RainMoM]

well if you were to sell them in a yard sale what price would you ask for ? I was told to use yard sale prices on my items .. hope this helps you

[sal425]

Hmmm, RainMom- How much cash does the average person bring to a yard sale?

I'm thing $50-100 for each watch and less than a grand for the rings?

That seems really low to me. Maybe I should be shopping at yard sales!

[DisneyGirl]

I've heard 10% of what you paid is a good estimate of what you'd get at a pawn shop. Possibly even less these days.

[DeadManCrawling]

There are now national standards set forth in the laws, but almost no one uses them.

This still seems to vary by district, trustee and even judge. Probably your best bet is to ask the attoreny. Ours asked if we had anything int he house worth more than $3000 when it was purchased new. We did not. He then explained that even if we had, he would not have included things like electronics or furniture anyway (they depreciate very quickly).

In Florida we have a very low personal property exemption of 2k, and he said 99% of households do not approach that number. Some people attach more significance to their "stuff" than is reasonable, out of sentimentality or just from being misguided.

For jewellery, he said to get an appraisal froma pawn shop on anything that we thought was worth more than $500. I have not, but a friend did and those appraisals were mostly in the $50-$75 range, except one ring (her wedding band) which they offered $250 for. Jewellery, one of those things that are worth a LOT more when they are still sitting in the display case at the store

[bkmaggster]

What did you use to set the value of your jewelry?

I saw that someone on the forum found a similar wedding ring on ebay, but how similar does it have to be?

My wife has a wedding ring and band I paid $12k for in 2002
We also have Tag Heuer watches we paid $800 each for in 2004

What would you set the values at?

Thanks in advance!

I'm probably the one you are thinking of that told the trustee I had found the price on ebay. All she wanted to do was look at the ring and ask me where I got the price from, I did not have to show her the comparable sales.

I was able to find comparable sales because the jewelry designer who made my ring has a distinctive style, and I was able to find sales of used rings by that same designer. I think a pawn shop would have given a price that the trustee wouldn't have accepted, but I could be wrong.

By the way, the prices I found on sold items on ebay were around 20% of original value. I think 10% of a 12k ring or tag heuer watches is going to be seen as way too low. If they were cheaper pieces from the mall, maybe you could get away with 10%. But you have higher-end stuff, which does seem to hold more of it's value in the secondary market, from the research I did. Hope that helps!

[Lookadat]

Not so much what you would sell it for, but what would someone pay for it. The jewelry stores and pawn shops are overstocked. They will still buy it, but the money is drying up. They would rather sell it. In my situation it was worth 10% of what my wife paid for it, and she paid 70% off plus another 15% off plus another.... Anyway, the wholesale jeweler said he seperates gold from stone, sells the gold and puts the stones in a box. He says the stones are worthless, and the gold is what he is buying. I had him write an offer to buy, and used that as the value.