Customs auctions / Diamonds

miniquinny

Hi,

I went to a customs and excise auction at the weekend and they had for sale a fair bit of diamond jewelry that were valued quite highly and sold quite cheaply.

For example, one diamond ring was valued by Mappin & Webb at £44k and sold for £12k hammer price.

I wondered if anyone had any experience of customs auctions or selling diamonds as this seems like a good opportunity to increase our house deposit fund relatively securely.

I know there is always risk involved but at £12k + commission and VAT, and selling even at less than the valuation, it seems like a good opportunity as we have the cash available and not many people seemed to have at the auction.

Kavanne

That sounds about right for 2nd hand jewellery. You expect it to sell for between 1/3 -1/4 of retail price/insurance value. If you look on eBay you will see it is the same there.

miniquinny

So that's the price it would sell for anywhere? Seems really low just because it is second hand. It was a D colour, internally flawless diamond so surely it should hold better value.

I'm not even sure they were second hand. The auctioneer didn't say.

Kavanne

If you have a look on google you will find that is the generally accepted price.

It wasn't being sold as new by a jeweller, so it won't get the retail price. Simples!

The insurance value is NOT the same as the value for sale.

StaffsSW

Never mistake "price" and "value", especially in this economic climate.
The true value is only the price that somebody is willing to pay for it at the time it is offered for sale.

It may seem low risk at first glance, but it is a LOT of money for you to tie up in a venture that you have no experience or knowledge of.