The cost of an appraisal depends on the amount of time an appraiser needs for an official valuation. Once the appraisal is made, a detailed report with a full description of the jewelry piece, along with an exhaustive analysis of each of its components is submitted. In the case of a diamond bracelet, for example, each gemstone is analyzed and the size, dimensions, clarity, color and weight are detailed in the report.

Only by individually analyzing each component of a jewelry piece can the market value be established.

In order to do this, an appraiser must possess the proper training in the jewelry sector as well as in the fields of style, design, art and history to properly determine and authenticate the different workmanship techniques used over time. An example of this is knowing how to identify a piece that is hand-crafted or is the result of a mechanized process.

A competent appraiser will thoroughly clean the jewelry piece in order to ascertain the color of the gemstones and the crimping or setting shape.

Expenses for photographs, data storage in various formats, duplicates of the reports, etc., must be taken into account as well.