1st: What are your thoughts or comments on the Holloway Cut Advisor?
2nd: It seems that apprasals are always higher than what one paid for any given ring or diamond. Is this always the case? If so, is there a generally accepted inflation % that can be expected?
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Two questions
Started by nrg2go, Jan 06 2006 06:39 AM
2 replies to this topic
#2
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- A-List Appraiser
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- 5,148 posts
Ideal Diamond
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- Location:Denver Colorado, USA
Posted 06 January 2006 - 08:25 AM
nrg2go,
I’ll leave the HCA for others who have stronger opinions about it but the appraisal question is right up my alley.
Most appraisals are done for pre-loss insurance purposes. The intention is to provide an appropriate funding for the insurance company to replace with another of like kind and quality in case of a loss. Depending on when and how you bought the piece, and when and how they will need to get the replacement, it is often true that the required funding is more than your cost. Unfortunately, there’s usually a lot more to it than that.
Dealers want to convince their clients that they got a ‘deal’. Long ago they figured out that if they produce a document titled appraisal with a big number on it, people seem to take this as evidence that they made a wise purchase. They can either produce the document themselves or buy it from a considerable assortment of companies that are in the business of selling. Some have very official sounding names and terrific looking letterhead. In the end, their opinion is only as valuable as the information in the report. Many are nothing more than an opinion of an unnamed expert of unknown qualifications and skills working for the seller who is trying to describe the asking price at a hypothetical store that doesn’t have market pressures and is in no way expected to make any actual sales at that price. Others are a simply a statement by the seller of what they wish their competitors were charging. It’s up to you decide if any of this is useful to you
Garbage in, garbage out. If the information on the report is useless on it’s face, applying an adjustment factor is pointless.
No, they aren’t all the same.
Neil
I’ll leave the HCA for others who have stronger opinions about it but the appraisal question is right up my alley.
Most appraisals are done for pre-loss insurance purposes. The intention is to provide an appropriate funding for the insurance company to replace with another of like kind and quality in case of a loss. Depending on when and how you bought the piece, and when and how they will need to get the replacement, it is often true that the required funding is more than your cost. Unfortunately, there’s usually a lot more to it than that.
Dealers want to convince their clients that they got a ‘deal’. Long ago they figured out that if they produce a document titled appraisal with a big number on it, people seem to take this as evidence that they made a wise purchase. They can either produce the document themselves or buy it from a considerable assortment of companies that are in the business of selling. Some have very official sounding names and terrific looking letterhead. In the end, their opinion is only as valuable as the information in the report. Many are nothing more than an opinion of an unnamed expert of unknown qualifications and skills working for the seller who is trying to describe the asking price at a hypothetical store that doesn’t have market pressures and is in no way expected to make any actual sales at that price. Others are a simply a statement by the seller of what they wish their competitors were charging. It’s up to you decide if any of this is useful to you
Garbage in, garbage out. If the information on the report is useless on it’s face, applying an adjustment factor is pointless.
No, they aren’t all the same.
Neil
Neil Beaty
GG(GIA) ICGA(AGS) NAJA
There's never a crowd when you go that extra mile.
Professional Appraisals in Denver
GG(GIA) ICGA(AGS) NAJA
There's never a crowd when you go that extra mile.
Professional Appraisals in Denver
#3
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- A-List Jeweler
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- 120 posts
Ruby
Posted 06 January 2006 - 02:26 PM
The HCA can be a good tool for weeding out poor cut qualities from better cut qualities. However in my opinion, the tool cannot authoritatively determine which diamond is "better" amongst stones of the same cut quality.
There are several things it does not take into consideration, i.e. that the diamond has 57-58 facets, symmetry of those facets, tolerance of the technologies used to provide the proportion information it asks for.
It is a theoretical tool of questionable accuracy. Sarin and OGI technologies both have a tolerance of about 0.1 to 0.2% or degree. Change any one number in the HCA by 0.1 or 0.2 and see how drastically the resulting score changes. Quite a lot, really.
I also don't think that the human eye can determine a noticeable difference between a diamond that scores 1 and a diamond that scores 2 on the HCA. There are also subtleties between stones that the HCA does not consider. These would be "personality traits" that different people may have different preferences for. For example, broader flashes of colored light vs. finer sparkles of colored light.
There are more practical tools that many vendors use to provide performance information. The BrillianceScope is one of these tools. However, it seems that this report is generally only provided for the best performing stones (those in the High to Very High range). This tool also has tolerances of its own and so, should be taken with a relative grain of salt when comparing stones of similar cut quality.
There are several things it does not take into consideration, i.e. that the diamond has 57-58 facets, symmetry of those facets, tolerance of the technologies used to provide the proportion information it asks for.
It is a theoretical tool of questionable accuracy. Sarin and OGI technologies both have a tolerance of about 0.1 to 0.2% or degree. Change any one number in the HCA by 0.1 or 0.2 and see how drastically the resulting score changes. Quite a lot, really.
I also don't think that the human eye can determine a noticeable difference between a diamond that scores 1 and a diamond that scores 2 on the HCA. There are also subtleties between stones that the HCA does not consider. These would be "personality traits" that different people may have different preferences for. For example, broader flashes of colored light vs. finer sparkles of colored light.
There are more practical tools that many vendors use to provide performance information. The BrillianceScope is one of these tools. However, it seems that this report is generally only provided for the best performing stones (those in the High to Very High range). This tool also has tolerances of its own and so, should be taken with a relative grain of salt when comparing stones of similar cut quality.
