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Get Diamond Appraisals
Getting a diamond appraisal for your jewelry can help you make a little extra money from your jewelry or enable you to know how much you should pay for a certain piece. A diamond appraisal begins with a certificate showing the diamond’s origins and the purity of the stone. Other information may be included, but these basics are available to the jeweler and the buyer.
Once a jeweler knows this information about a diamond, he or she can begin to assess, or appraise, the value of the diamond. This appraisal will give you an idea of the worth of the piece you are considering. The dollar value a jeweler gives you varies based on the type of appraisal you are receiving.
Various Appraisal Types
Though the word “appraisal” is thrown around quite a bit when talking about a diamond ring appraisal, the truth is that the word has several meanings. In basic terms, jewelry has distinct types of appraisals: melt, retail, and resale. The amount a diamond appraiser says a piece of jewelry is worth varies based on the value being considered.
The melt value of the appraisal, which is what programs like Cash4Gold consider, is the amount of real gold in a piece. Jewelry that is 24K, or karat, gold is the purest, and the most actual gold comes from these pieces, though most pieces are 10K or 14K to make them less expensive and more durable. When an appraiser considers the melt value, he or she is looking at how much usable gold can be recovered from melting the ring.
The retail value of the ring is what a consumer would pay for the ring. Typically the retail value will be significantly higher than the appraisal value of the ring. That is because appraisal values for melt or resale take into account the gold in a ring as well as the gems in the piece. When consumers purchase a ring, they are considering the setting and the occasion as well, which alters the value of the ring.
The resale value is the final type of ring value, and it measures the amount a buyer, usually a pawn shop owner, can buy the ring for and sell to someone else, still making a profit.
The 4Cs
If you have purchased a ring, you likely have come into contact with a jeweler who went into significant detail about the 4 Cs of diamond rings. Though you may not have paid careful attention, the 4 Cs are important when you are getting a diamond appraisal. When looking at the retail value of a ring, these four factors matter a great deal. The carat is the weight of the ring with a higher weight meaning more expense, but more value. The second C is the clarity, which means whether there are flaws or air pockets in the diamond. Next is the color. A colorless, or transparent, diamond is the best, and the colors range from there to yellow. The final C is the cut of the diamond. A good cut for a specific diamond will allow you to see the diamond in the best light possible.
Determine Ring Value
Estimating a Ring’s Worth
If you are unsure whether using a mail-in appraisal system is worth it, you can consider using an online diamond appraisal. With a free online diamond appraisal, you will put the information about the ring into a web-based program and get a rough estimate for how much value the ring has. Many pawn shops and jewelry stores will also do a free diamond appraisal for you. Checking with one of these vendors first may give you an idea of whether the process of selling your rings is valuable.
Deciding whether you want to send your ring in to get melted is a matter of whether the ring or the potential money it could bring is more important to you. Some people find that in tough economic times, gold typically has more value than other investments. Because of that, selling gold is a better choice than trying to sell other items for money. If you are strapped for cash, systems like Cash4Gold work really well because the professional appraisers will give your gold jewelry a fair look. So if you have had a ring or necklace just sitting around, turning it into melted gold may be the best option you have for making it worth something. At any rate, it never hurts – or costs – to get a free appraisal locally or to call for an information packet.
Other programs exist that take different types of items. Cash4Gold works on primarily gold items, such as bracelets, necklaces, and rings. Other items, like watches, do not work well for the Cash4Gold system. One site that can take watches is EstateBuyer.com. This site gives an appraisal based on the resale value of the watch, and they favor high-end watches, such as Rolex or Cartier. The company pays the sender the resale value of the watch and then attempts to resale the watch to make a profit.
How the Cash4Gold System Works
The appraisal process at Cash4Gold is a pretty simple way to make some extra cash if you have pieces of jewelry you no longer want lying around.
Getting a diamond ring appraisal from one of these companies really is an easy process. First you will call or email the program and then receive a Refiner’s Return Pak with information about the company. Send in your jewelry, and then a gold and diamond appraiser will examine your ring and send you a check. You either accept or reject the offer, and that’s all there is to it.
Roughly 94 percent of Cash4Gold customers accept offers. Whether you want Cash4Gold to take your jewelry and melt it down for the gold or you need a diamond appraisal so that you can purchase a new ring depends on how much the piece means to you and what value you believe it has. Either way, that jewelry just sitting around in your bedroom can potentially earn you some extra dough.
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