Extraordinary Find: Red Diamond Ring
HOST: A visit to the 2018 Tulsa ROADSHOW had Jim, our colorful guest, seeing red in a good way, after showing his very unusual diamond to jewelry expert Kevin Zavian, Jim had made a big bet on this little stone.
APPRAISER: It is a roll of the dice.
GUEST: I know it.
APPRAISER: And you look like a gambler.
GUEST: I am.
APPRAISER: (laughs)
HOST: And Kevin sent him home with some high stakes homework to do.
APPRAISER: First, tell us what it is.
GUEST: Well, it's a red diamond.
APPRAISER: Right, which is the rarest of all the colors. The blues, the greens, the yellows-- red's the rarest.
GUEST: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER (voiceover): This big dude walks in, cowboy hat. He just had a presence. You have something to show me? "Yeah, I got a red diamond." (chuckling): I'm like, yeah, right. You just-- we don't see red diamonds. You paid how much for it?
GUEST: $35,000.
APPRAISER: Yeah, I-I don't think it's crazy; it is a roll of the dice.
GUEST: I know it.
APPRAISER: You look like a gambler.
GUEST: I am.
APPRAISER: (laughs)
APPRAISER: This is the kind of thing that can easily, if it's right...
GUEST: Yeah.
APPRAISER: ...cause it's-it's one of those things, you throw it up and see what sticks. But it could easily double, or triple what you paid for it.
GUEST: Holy crap.
APPRAISER: It's not that big. It's only half a carat. The thing with these is today they gotta have certificates.
GUEST: I realize that. I just don't have time to get one yet.
APPRAISER: You-you gotta get one. And the certificate has to come from this lab, they're in New York and California, called the G.I.A.; Gemological Institute of America. A stone could be yellow, but it could be vivid yellow, intense yellow. It could be light yellow, it could be fancy yellow. There's so many variables. The best result would be from the lab; vivid red. Wow. I mean, crazy numbers. So rare. Really, you almost have to go to a museum to see some of the finest examples. Well, son of a gun. The guy with the big hat went and got a certificate. I really didn't know I was gonna see you again. When they-- when they called me up and they said, "Jim's coming in. "He took your advice. You told him to go get a cert, and he did." I love the fact that you made a-a ring out of it that you're gonna wear.
GUEST: Try and decide what I was gonna do, cause you have to take it out of the ring to send it off. And my daughters, my one daughter-in-law, and they said, "Dad, make a ring. Mom would be proud. We had 46 good years. I lost her about ten years ago.
APPRAISER: Aw. So you went and got a certificate on the diamond. 27 years of doing this show, (laughing): you're the first person that went and got the certificate that I know about. It weighs 0.37 carats. So a little bigger than a third of a carat, right? It says "fancy deep orangy pink." I guess technically it's not a red diamond.
GUEST: It's not.
APPRAISER: It sure looks red, but they're like the Bible when it comes to this.
GUEST:Yeah. And it's fancy deep orangy pink.
GUEST: Pink, okay.
APPRAISER: As rare as reds are, pinks are kind of rare, too.
GUEST: Yeah.
APPRAISER: You paid a lot of money and I asked you if you were a gambler and you said yes. Well, I got news for you. I don't think you paid too much.
GUEST: Good.
APPRAISER: You bought it retail.
GUEST: Mm-hm.
APPRAISER: And I'm gonna give this a-a retail price, if you had to go buy it again today.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: I would say to go out and buy this stone, even with the orangey pink, it's not red. But I would say you probably have to spend somewhere in the neighborhood of $50,000 to $70,000 to replace this today.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: You still have a rare stone.
GUEST: I'm proud of it. You know, when you get to 81 years old, certain things stick with you. And I don't know how much longer I'm gonna to be around, but this is gonna be one of my high points.
Featured In
episode
Extraordinary Finds 3
Revisit remarkable ROADSHOW finds whose stories didn’t stop even after we yelled "Cut!"
Understanding Our Appraisals
Executive producer Marsha Bemko shares her tips for getting the most out of ANTIQUES ROADSHOW.
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."
Note the date: Take note of the date the appraisal was recorded. This information appears in the upper left corner of the page, with the label "Appraised On." Values change over time according to market forces, so the current value of the item could be higher, lower, or the same as when our expert first appraised it.
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.
Verbal approximations: The values given by the experts on ANTIQUES ROADSHOW are considered "verbal approximations of value." Technically, an "appraisal" is a legal document, generally for insurance purposes, written by a qualified expert and paid for by the owner of the item. An appraisal usually involves an extensive amount of research to establish authenticity, provenance, composition, method of construction, and other important attributes of a particular object.
Opinion of value: As with all appraisals, the verbal approximations of value given at ROADSHOW events are our experts' opinions formed from their knowledge of antiques and collectibles, market trends, and other factors. Although our valuations are based on research and experience, opinions can, and sometimes do, vary among experts.
Appraiser affiliations: Finally, the affiliation of the appraiser may have changed since the appraisal was recorded. To see current contact information for an appraiser in the ROADSHOW Archive, click on the link below the appraiser's picture. Our Appraiser Index also contains a complete list of active ROADSHOW appraisers and their contact details and biographies.
