Why should I pay more for an appraisal than I did for the piece of jewelry?

You normally shouldn’t pay more for an appraisal than you did for the jewelry unless you got a great deal at a garage sale or second-hand store.  At AIGR, we generally do not appraise anything that we don’t think is worth at least $500.00 retail value.  Also, the fee for an appraisal should not be a percentage of the appraised value of the jewelry; it is unethical on the part of an appraiser to calculate fees that way.