stitchintime

Much has been written on SJ Jewelry on this forum. My husband surprised me with a ruby and diamond necklace from SJ while we were in BKK in September. I just had it appraised here in Texas and thought I would share the results to help some of you. It was 18 K gold with 2.19 carats of rubies and .93 carats diamonds and purchased for $983. The appraised value came to $2350.00. I hope this helps some of you thinking of doing business with quality jewelers in BKK.

BillT

Ok I would ask one question- does the appraisal represent the retail sticker price value or what I would call the real value- what you would expect to pay- and we all know that no one pays sticker price on jewelry- its usually 70% off the sticker.

lcuy

Even if the appraisal is for retail value and they could have gotten one here at 70% off, they still would be $280 ahead! Sounds like a great deal to me!!

My jeweler friend in Honolulu was very impressed with the prices we paid on all our stuff from SJ.

Kathie

Bill, never consider the mall jeweler who mark things 70% off as a having a real price. Compare with a quality jewelry store's price.

I think you did well. And the valuation sounds about right to me. I do find that on unset stones, I can do even better, but then I have to pay US prices to have them set!

Kathie

Oh, and thanks for reporting back to us!

rhkkmk

kathie, have you ever brought back unset stone and the settings to put them in when you got home, thus only paying duty on the settings??

i would take mall jewelers with a grain of salt...you need to go to private certified jewelers to get accurate info...

Kathie

No, Bob, technically if you buy both an unset stone and the setting it all becomes dutiable, as you are clearly importing jewelry. (I actually had a customs agent ask me about that once years ago and I showed him the stones, the other jewelry I purchased and the itemized receipts for all of it.)

BillT

Kathie- I'm not sure what you mean about by a quality store- do you mean those places when you walk in you sink in the deep pile carpet, are handed a glass of wine by a guy in a tux? In those places I would expect to pay dearly for anything -just look at the overhead that is built into the cost.
There is nothing wrong with mall jewelry stores. If you know your merchandise you can get good value there.
We all know that jewelry is marked up at least 100%- probably more. Thats why I say never pay sticker price- its like shopping for cars- who pays sticker?
The best we have seen is about 70% off and that is standard if you want to get close to the real market value.

Kathie

Bill, it may be different in Texas, but all the "mall" jewelry stores (by that I mean not simply that they are located in malls, but that they always have 50-70% off sales, meaning they've marked up prices even more) carry poorer quality merchandise and you pay more for it at their "sale" price that you would in a good jewelry store for a better quality item. Most of those stores have hordes of sapphire jewelry, all deep sooty color that looks like coal next to good sapphires. If you're just buying plain gold jewelry, you might be able to get ok prices at "Mall" jewelers, but you have to be careful as much of their jewelry is so light weight that it is prone to breaking.

There certainly are branches of good jewelers located in malls, and I'm not referring to them. Instead I'm referring to those non-descript jewelry stores with the perpetual sales signs that sprout up like mushrooms in most malls.

eurotraveller

BillT, I find it interesting that you have said twice now that "we all know..." That is quite an assumption! ;-)

Stitchintime, looks like you received a very nice gift with some built in equity! Congrats!

BillT

Ok eurotraveler- I guess there are some people out there that don't know that the mark up on jewelry is 100% or more.
I stand corrected.