RAPAPORT... When it comes to pricing a piece of estate jewelry, there is no precise formula to follow, experts explain. “There’s a market price for stones — so much per carat whatever the size and quality — and so much for precious metal and that is your benchmark,” says Simon Teakle, antique and period jewelry specialist at Betteridge Jewelers in Greenwich, Connecticut. “But if you’re talking about a pair of invisibly set earrings by Van Cleef & Arpels or if you’re talking about a Cartier Tutti Frutti bracelet or more special things… it’s your own experience and understanding of the market that comes to bear” in determining value. And now, more than ever before, Teakle cautions, “there is a great divide between something great and something middle of the road.”
Some people are better than others at finding that elusive “right buy.” A lot of it is trial and error, points out Stuart Singer, Stephen Singer, Inc., estate jewelry dealer in New York City. “We like to say on this side of the business you make your money on the buy, not on the sell. You’re trying to buy a dollar for 50 cents and, hopefully, you’ll actually get 75 cents for it. But if you buy it at 75 cents, you might not get the dollar back.”
Reference PointsOne way to make sure you are pricing an item well is to “utilize the marketplace and don’t be afraid to take something in on consignment from a customer,” suggests Singer. “You can say ‘I need to investigate this and get back to you with the highest price I can.’ I get packages literally every day from retailers across the country who do not have a comfort level with or the expertise in making an offer on estate jewelry. And we’ll make an offer. And we usually recommend that they take at least 10 percent and pass the rest off to the consumer. Sometimes the consumer is trading something in, and the retailer is making full margin on the other end so they’ll do this as a favor…each case is different.”
Singer recommends getting to know some of the estate dealers at the estate jewelry shows and seeing how they price their inventory. “There are things out there that can be bought very well; retailers just need to keep in mind that they should be offering well below what they would purchase this for at wholesale.”
Setting ParametersWhen it comes to estate jewelry pricing, says Benjamin Macklowe, of the Macklowe Gallery, New York City, “The only formula anybody can use is if it’s gold jewelry that you’re planning on scrapping. And then you just look at what it would sell for to a refiner and you offer a little less so you make a little profit without taking advantage. Other than that, it’s really about understanding your market. You can’t go based just on diamond weight or gemstone weight because if a piece isn’t beautiful, it doesn’t matter how many carats of diamonds it has.”
Everybody wants to spend as little as they can when they buy something, Macklowe adds. “Sometimes you get the best deal from privates because they may not know where markets are. I just think you have to cover every opportunity. Some of my best purchases have been from dealers because they know what they want for something and they just might not understand what it’s really worth in the retail market because they don’t work with private customers or maybe they don’t understand the collectibility of something. People who know more do better.”
One mistake newcomers make, Macklowe says, is what he calls “timid hoarding. A lot of dealers, when they start in the estate business, don’t want to spend more than a certain amount of money on any one piece and then they make the mistake of loading up on a lot of inventory that’s in that price range that they feel comfortable with, but that may not be the right thing for their customer.”
For Jim Rosenheim, chief executive officer (CEO), Tiny Jewel Box, Washington, D.C., it comes down to instinct. “It’s not like going out and buying a 1-carat ideal cut, D color, VS1 round brilliant diamond. When you’re looking at a beautiful twenties vintage piece or a nineteenth-century piece and it’s done by a noted designer or it’s in extraordinary condition or it’s an extraordinary depiction of a particular style, there is no price on it. There’s a range where you can say it’s a $30,000 to $50,000 piece, depending upon what market it’s sold on and the particular circumstances, but I think those price ranges are fairly broad. And they might be narrower for less-expensive pieces.” One caveat he adds if you buy at auction is that if you determine a piece is worth $4,000 and the bidding goes past there, you have to let it go. “That’s what a smart buyer does — don’t go to $4,001 because it can become $6,000 before you know it.”
“It is challenging,” says Janet Levy, principal, J. & S.S. DeYoung, Inc., New York City, “but the more jewelry that people look at, the more sure they will become of what they should pay for it. Let’s say you have a platinum Art Deco bracelet, with approximately 10 carats of diamonds and that it’s generic, in decent condition. Let’s say it has a wider center section that tapers down to the edges. I would discount a little bit for that style because when the bracelet is on the wrist and it turns, it’s not going to look uniform. But if it’s the best one we’ve ever seen, then we wouldn’t discount it. If we were buying it, it could go for anywhere from $7,500 up to $15,000. If it were $15,000, it would probably be signed Cartier or Tiffany and be absolutely gorgeous. That’s where a premium is added on. If it’s a Tiffany bracelet but it’s been shortened and repaired, then we’re going to draw back and pay less than the top price for it.”
There’s enough jewelry still around in the marketplace that people can get a pretty good education, says Levy. But pricing, she points out, is “always in comparison to something else — we sold one just like it two months ago and this one is better, or not as good. It’s always relative. It isn’t a formula. But if you see enough of it, you’ll know instinctively. It’s the right price when you bought it and you’ve sold it.”
Article from the Rapaport Magazine - August 2009. To subscribe click here.