is jeweller or auction house right?

tandraig

my deceased aunts ring is being put up for auction and a local jeweller valued it at around £3000 pounds as a canary yellow diamond solitaire just under 2carats (flawless to the naked eye) in 18 carat gold.
the auction house however, has described it as 'tinted' and valued it at £1500, is this just a 'come and get me' thing (they have many other items at much more value).
whats bugging me is - why is it described as 'tinted'? shouldnt the original jewellery appraisal have known if it was artificially coloured?
and i am darned sure my aunt wouldnt have bought it if she thought it wasnt naturally coloured!
my mum is one of the benificiaries - but she doesnt know about this - should i say or do anything to stop the sale?
personaly - i would like the stone to have an independent appraisal. we are talking about at least half its value! and i would hate my mum to be short changed.
should i say anything to my mum or the other benificiaries - or keep my mouth shut - the same auction house has valued other jewellery well below value - I realise that they have to have a starting point - but a 5carat citrine ring at £60? you cant get one for that on QVC!

peachyprice

I would say they could both be right. The jeweller may be giving you a price it would cost to replace from new, for insurance purposes for instance and the auction house could be giving you the value for selling a second hand ring.

I would defo get a third opinion.

xmaslolly76

They are probably both right a jewler will value it at what an identical new one would cost or whats known as an insurance replaement cost. The auction house will price to sell and will always give you a much lower figure.

tandraig

you are not gettin my point - the auction house has stated online that the ring is tinted - artificially coloured in other words, the jeweller valued the ring for probate and stated it was canary yellow diamond (in other words - naturally coloured) this has a great effect on value, and as someone who loves diamonds - I know that artificially colouring them affects the value! and my aunt would never buy anything artificial!
what do i do? tell my mum and her sisters to stop the sale? or say nothing and the ring (and her other jewellery) sell for less than its value?

Errata

Ask the aution house to explain exactly what they mean by 'tinted' and withdraw the ring from the auction until you get a satisfactory answer.

MrsTinks

Did anyone tell the auction house that you have a certificate from the jewellers that state it's not artificially tinted?

Don't use QVC for comparing prices btw they're not really anywhere near the "reasonably priced" in most categories and I doubt their bling is any different.

Usually an auction house will try to get as much as possible for an item - they get paid a commission after all

peachyprice

Get a third opinion from a gemmologist.

Is it possible your Aunt bought it beleiving it to be a genuine yellow diamond but perhaps it's not? Did she have a certificate for it?

*Louise*

You need clarification from the auction house why they have described it as tinted and ask them to either change the description or withdraw the ring.

mum2one

Just a thought but did you have any documentation from the jeweller confirming the quality of the diamonds, if not I would go back and ask for the evidence to be wrote.
Then go back to the auction house, with the documentation and ask them to reassess it, if you do go down the auction route you can put a reserve on it, theres 2 sorts of reserve, fixed, eg 200 then it has to fetch 200 or more, (may be safer in this case), or discretionary reserve, use 200 again, but they can go 10 to 15% lower.

I fully appriciate ur issue is with the quality - but good luck and hope you get it sorted.

x

Pollycat

tandraig wrote: »

my deceased aunts ring is being put up for auction and a local jeweller valued it at around £3000 pounds as a canary yellow diamond solitaire just under 2carats (flawless to the naked eye) in 18 carat gold.

As Mum2one asks, do you have anything that states the clarity of the diamond?
Diamonds are graded using a 10 x magnification loupe, so a stone of VVS or VS quality will appear flawless to the naked eye but will have flaws/inclusions visible with a 10 x loupe.

Maybe it would be a good idea to get the auction house to clarify what they mean by 'tinted'.
It may (or may not) be a perfectly correct way of referring to a naturally coloured diamond.
Having watched a variety of antique programmes , I know they tend to give a guide price in the catalogue - sometimes the seling price falls short of this, other times it far exceeds it.
And, if you really don't want it to go for less than a certain amount, put a reserve on it.

It sounds a fab ring, by the way.

mum2one wrote: »

Just a thought but did you have any documentation from the jeweller confirming the quality of the diamonds, if not I would go back and ask for the evidence to be wrote.
Then go back to the auction house, with the documentation and ask them to reassess it, if you do go down the auction route you can put a reserve on it, theres 2 sorts of reserve, fixed, eg 200 then it has to fetch 200 or more, (may be safer in this case), or discretionary reserve, use 200 again, but they can go 10 to 15% lower.

I fully appriciate ur issue is with the quality - but good luck and hope you get it sorted.

x

tandraig

thanks for all your replies - will try to answer the points you raise.
firstly - the jeweller was valueing for probate which means usually around market value (insurance purposes are valued higher to take into account inflation - rises in gold or gem prices over a period of time)
I cant ask the auctioneer anything as I am not an executor of this will and neither is my mum - but I am sure if all the beneficiarys (4 of them) queried the valuation then the executors would act on their concern.
I am, however a bit upset because I know my aunt had a certificate for the ring - but all paperwork has been given to the solicitors, and I cannot be certain whether they have it or not (my aunt had alzhiemers toward the end of her life and my other aunt had to rescue important documents and letters from the bin on more than one occasion) she should know if the certificate was among the papers given to the solicitor as she was the one with power of attorney for my aunt.
my mum is now elderly and my youngest aunt deals with the solicitors etc but isnt an executor (please dont ask - my aunts will was rather nasty and i would rather not discuss that now).
unfortunately my mum and my aunt do not speak and I have to act as a go-between even though me and aunt are barely on speaking terms - so i am a bit reluctant to poke my nose in IYSWIM.
I think my mums reaction would be to say she doesnt give a toss - right now she is still hurting from the terms of the will - I just hate that she isnt getting what was rightfully hers and this reduces the inheritance even more!
I tossed and turned all last night and still cannot come to a decision on whether to take it on myself to talk to aunts and the other beneficiary (a charity) or whether to hope that the items find their value despite the not very good descriptions in the catalogue!
I am sure the ring will sell - its quite gorgeous actually and although not new the setting still looks as if it was made yesterday!