Edwardian Diamond Pin, ca. 1920
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GUEST:
Over 40 years ago, I was a paper boy, and I found this brooch near a dumpster while delivering papers in an apartment complex. And I took it home and I gave it to my mother, and she put it in her junk drawer. And it was years later when my father took it out, and took a close look at it, and took it in to have it appraised, and it was appraised at about $4,000 at the time. This was about 30 years ago it was appraised. And we found it about 40 years ago, so it was about ten years in between.
APPRAISER:
You had a special name for this pin.
GUEST:
Yeah, we call it... the family calls it the dumpster diamonds because they were found near a dumpster.
APPRAISER:
You got to love that.
GUEST:
Love it.
APPRAISER:
It's a great pin. I mean it's very classic in design. It's Edwardian, which puts it right in the first quarter of the 20th century. What I like about it is that you have all these nice old mine diamonds in the pin. In the center we have a three-quarter carat old mine diamond. And then you have this open piercing work around the outside, where the other old mine diamonds appear to be floating. And then you go to the outside edge and you have the old mine diamonds, and they're pavè set into the frame of the piece. And just overall, it's just nice. It's not your typical bar pin. Which dare I say sometimes could be a little boring. You know, this has a nice shape to it. Besides being a pin, they put a little ring in the back so that dual purpose, you could wear it as a pendant. Has anybody ever worn it all these years?
GUEST:
I think my mother did wear it on very rare occasions, and my wife has worn it once or twice.
APPRAISER:
Great, because you know, jewelry is made to be worn.
GUEST:
Yes.
APPRAISER:
Now, you had an appraisal for $4,000. And I'm sure that was spot on for the time period. It's gone up today. Has it gone up astronomically? No, but this pin that you found while you were out, I would appraise it for $6,000 today.
GUEST:
$6,000, wow.
APPRAISER:
So it's gone up.
GUEST:
It has.
APPRAISER:
(laughing) You keep it around, it may still go up. I love "dumpster diamonds." I love that.
Appraisal Details
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Value can change: The value of an item is dependent upon many things, including the condition of the object itself, trends in the market for that kind of object, and the location where the item will be sold. These are just some of the reasons why the answer to the question "What's it worth?" is so often "It depends."
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Context is key: Listen carefully. Most of our experts will give appraisal values in context. For example, you'll often hear them say what an item is worth "at auction," or "retail," or "for insurance purposes" (replacement value). Retail prices are different from wholesale prices. Often an auctioneer will talk about what she knows best: the auction market. A shop owner will usually talk about what he knows best: the retail price he'd place on the object in his shop. And though there are no hard and fast rules, an object's auction price can often be half its retail value; yet for other objects, an auction price could be higher than retail. As a rule, however, retail and insurance/replacement values are about the same.
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