World Of Gems Conference 2017 Proceedings Book

WORLD OF GEMS CONFERENCE V - 35 - SEPTEMBER 2017 W hen it comes to pricing diamonds, jewelers and appraisers may use a number of resources. Prominent among these are use the Rapaport price list or the GemGuide. When it comes to pricing dia- monds, jewelers and appraisers may use the Rapaport price list or the GemGuide. Since “Rap” is so often quoted, it is important to understand why there are discounts and what affects them. Most users of the Rapaport diamond pricing do not know all the specifics of his price list includ- ing the parameters they are based on, known as “Spec A3.” The GemGuide pricing is based on a GIA Excellent cut grade and statistically, when available, based on the modal price. The mode is the most frequently occurring price. Data will be most reliable for more commonly traded stones and increasingly less predictive as the research pop- ulation decreases. I contend that no price list including Ra- paport or GemGuide can accurately predict pricing on the very thinly traded diamonds such as I2 or I3. With colored gems, there is no industry standard grading system (although the GemGuide does publish and teach grading systems for color). Color therefore, is much more subjective in pricing and typically we cannot use a list of many prices to find a mode. There are many contributing factors including the effect of treatments and issues of non-disclosure or non-detection and the subjectivity of ori- gin when present. Gemworld receives many requests for assistance in pricing challenges. Our biggest challenge is that the person does not know enough information on the gem in question or does not understand the material. One of the interesting pricing challenges that came to us was for help with a color change Mozambique tourmaline. The gem had a GIA report stating that the tourmaline changed color from violet to greenish blue. It was identified as Mozambique and weighed 4.59 ct. The real difficulty here is that when doing research, some tourmaline dealers had opinions of the value but none had sold any. This is a challenge because as valuers, you must recognize that your valuation is being based on an opinion and even if these are knowledgeable dealers, the opinions were not based on any sales current or past. The estimate of value was $2,000 per carat wholesale. In September of 2014, an article appeared in the GemGuide about valuing cracked or crazed opals. These are surely a chal- lenge. Cracked is cracked and like any gem, it is a broken stone and should be valued as such, having little or no value. Crazed is a bit trickier, as there will be a discount and it will depend on the extent of crazing. It might be no value or it might have a small to large discount. In the article, the opal in question was being offered at retail for $13,500 and after crazing it was sold for $3,450. This was a 75% discount and yet, this was still a beautiful stone. Figure 1. Padparadscha continues to challenge us mainly because of the wide variation in definition. In early gemology, there was a narrow definition of the color being “light to medium tones of pinkish orange to orange-pink hues” and the main source was Sri Lanka. Now with new sources in Vietnam, Tanzania, and Madagascar, and with some heated, often undetectable, the range of padparadscha is large. Even top dealers of this PRICING CHALLENGES Richard B. Drucker, GIA GG, Honorary FGA PRICING CHALLENGES ABSTRACT FIGURE 1. Black opal 4.75 ct. Even with slight crazing, still a beautiful gem but the price significantly lowered. Courtesy of Lang Antiques.