Advice on loose gemstones

[lihpster]

I have a couple of loose gemstones I would like to sell to raise some needed cash. No. not diamonds or emeralds, but a garnet and an amethyst. 1.82 carats and 3.24 carats, respectively. These were supposedly "appraised" back when my mother bought them at an auction. Have appraisal letters on both, but the letters don't say who did the "appraising", so they are pretty much worthless. When she bought them in the early '90s the appraisal was for $150 on the garnet and $260 on the amethyst. I understand that cut and color and clarity and all that goes into it, but do those dollar amounts sound in the ballpark? The only jewelry I wear is a stainless bracelet, so I know next to nothing about gemstones. Any info would be a help. TIA.

[Rpg]

The gemstone market is pretty specialized and there are some common practices that can be pretty deceptive. One of them is the appraisal.

Gemstones are often accompanied by an appraisal, but the appraisal has no relationship to the market value of the gemstones. They’re always higher than the price the buyer just paid for the gemstones. Makes the buyer happy over their purchase.

I wouldn’t count on being able to sell them for the appraisal amount, let alone for more.

This has been my experience liquidating estates.

[pawngal]

Those are high prices for those stones. About your only chance of selling would be to a jeweler that does custom work.
I can buy garnets that size for $20-40. The amethyst around $100.

[Ivan the Butcher]

When I was a tween, my dad knew a Borden milk man that had a commercial route. We ran into him at the state fair. He apologized for being low on inventory, and pulled out s small leather bag with individually wrapped diamonds. These ran between 1/2 and 1 1/2 carats. There was a second bag with larger diamonds and the good color stones. Dad looked through and picked two large diamonds for earrings, and a small pile of color stones for a broach.

Many years later, as dad changed wives and/or girlfriends I once asked him how many trips to the milkman this infraction was going to cost him? (I was about 28 to 30 at that time) At first he got that red color that comes from being both mad and embarrassed, Then he kind of looked at the sky, looked at me with a wiseass smirk and said, About 4!

Ivan