I am trying to sort out an estate and I am having difficulty working out how much this ring and especially this diamond might be worth I have a valuation for insurance from 1985 by dunklings by an FGAA of $5850 i understand it would not have been worth that much in 1985, but I understand the ring was purchased around 1975 for nearly $10k the valuation says one brilliant cut diamond 6.1mm .85cts est wgt I have taken this ring to 2 jewellers and have been offered $4k and $2k, the 4k offer thought the ring closer to 1ct, I didnt have the valuation with me at the time. I dont intend to sell the ring but i would like to know its rough valuation so that i can work out who gets what sort of thing, is it worth getting the ring certified, both jewellers stated that it was a very nice stone and yaada yaada a diamond is valued more on emotion and a second hand diamond even a nice one isnt worth what a new one is kind of BS So 50 years ago it was bought for 10K and valued 40 years ago for $5850 surely the price of diamonds must have increased since then, I understand the 4c's and all that, does a diamond have to be removed from its setting to be certified and is it worth getting this done cheers grant
Unfortunately the price of diamonds has been on the decline as they are falling out of favour. An estate valuer should be able to give you a number for the estate, and no it would not need to be removed from the setting.
You could get an updated Valuation from a Jeweller, which costs around $100 roughly depending on the area you are from and the valuer will assess the stone and ring as a whole and give an updated price based on today's markets. Stones are always going to be relative and the market will jump around. Without seeing the ring or valuation just based off of what you have described the ring would probably RETAIL new for around 8K in today's market, and if you were to sell it as a second hand piece you'd usually get around 20-25% of the Valuation certificate (I am a qualified jeweller) if you have no intention of selling it or adding into onto any insurance, there's really not much of a point in get it valued. As for certifying the stone itself, if it's been GIA certified in the past there would be a dia number on the griddle of the stone but will need a lot of magnification to see it, and depending how the stone is set you may not even be able to see it without unsetting (e.g bezel setting) it'd cost a lot to get it unset and reset and take a lot of time to send the stone away to GIA (the most trusted place to get any stone certified) so to me there not really much point, only point in doing that would be if you felt in second hand jewels and wanted to then sell that same stone as a 'new stone's in the future. I hope that helps, please message me if you have any other questions I could potentially help with
thanks barneyrubble, I would have thought that over that very long time period diamonds values would have gone up at least 5 fold, maybe even 10 fold 10k when they purchased the ring would have bought 1/5 of the average melbourne house or roughly 60 ounces of gold, diamonds might be forever but geez thats a crap return
Thanks so much Razza, I dont believe that it had been certified, there was no mention of that on the valuation or its color or clarity for that matter. I dont think I will worry about getting it certified, I will just go with the highest offer price I received from that first jeweller, they were a manufacturing jeweller and spent 10 minutes or so having a good look at it, I offered to pay them for a valuation but they refused and just said if I did want to sell it that they would give me 4k for it. I only asked the question here because I came across that valuation today and thought that after 40 years the value of that stone must be worth at least that 1985 valuation of $5850 and then I started googling how much diamonds have apprecieated over the years and I tried to look for a chart or something long term and read that since 1960 diamonds have increased in price 10 fold, and then I came across a wholesale price website gsdiamonds, and put in the best color, cut and clarity for a round diamond of .9ct and it came up with a 1.2ct certified stone with a price of 27k wholesale, to a noob the whole pricing thing is as clear as pea and ham soup or secret like a masons handshake If the ring was worth 5 figures then it would not be fair for me to gift it to just one out of many relatives that know of it and would like it cheers grant
My mother had her mother's ring appraised in the 90s and was quoted $20,000. It's since been valued at $10k (2024), so even though both valuations were for insurance purposes, it gives you a general idea of how diamonds haven't proven to be a good investment of late.
The internet wreaked havoc on the retail jewellery industry during the 2000's. And it looks like lab diamonds are knocking the last of the value out of naturals for the time being.
