Jewelry Appraisal Business Center

Personalizing your Certificates...

One of the MOST often overlooked aspects of filling in any Form is the consequences of where you live...

How your Country Selection Qualifies you. For example: In the USA you spell 'favor' in five letters, while in the UK, Australia (or most ex-colonial counties) we spell it differently, like this: FAVOUR....

It's only a little thing, but when it comes to Jewelry... (or Jewellery) it can make a HUGE difference on your Appraisals (Valuations).

It's all in the Details.

My personal thanks goes to one of our clients in Wisconsin, USA who wanted to know why the Appraisal Certificates used the term 'ct' for gold quality, instead of the more accepted 'Kt' for carat, used in the United States.

Great question Randall, and many thanks....

So How to Make it right?

This is part of the answer we gave...

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"The point you make depends where you were schooled...."

Being from Australia and educated in the UK, the word carat refers to gold quality (14 carat, 22 carat etc).

The Asian markets have used the symbol 'Kt' and they both mean the same thing all around the world.

A 9ct item can be marked 9ct 9kt 9 Kt 9K 9carr .375 or 0.375 for example. There may very well be a valid point in your observations, but unfortunately the correct terminology for gemstones and diamonds is 100 points (pts) = 1 carat (ct) while the correct terminology for gold quality is also carat? Go figure....

"As many of our clients around the world collect Antique Jewelry (Jewellery) which is marked with the full UK Hallmark, it is stamped with 'ct' and the 'Kt' tends to be from Asian or North American markets which help us to identify and price it.

Confusing as it is, this is the way we have standardized the terms, so we use it.

Kind regards. David

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So with a little bit of Magic

Get Personal and Make your Selections

If you sell on eBay and live in Great Britain, your Valuations will be priced in British Pounds and the gold quality carat mark will be 'ct'.

So far so good. But what if you sell an item to a client in the United States of America? This person wants their Appraisal in US Dollars and would also expect the gold mark to be 'Kt' for carat.

Make your changes to the CLIENTS country of Origin and everything is taken care of automatically.

The VALUATION in Pounds now becomes an APPRAISAL in US Dollars and the carat quality mark, both in the Summary page and on the final certificate will show 'Kt' instead of 'ct'.

How easy was that?

At this point in time we have set the 'ct' mark for Australia, New Zealand and Great Britain, with all other countries defaulting to 'Kt'. This includes Canada, Japan, the USA and all European countries which sell in the Euro Currency.

Last words

How your feedback helps you - to help yourselves

In the Business to business B2b world, we have to remember the needs of our clients may be different from our own. That's why I personally love to get suggestions and emails on how we can improve the Kits and make them better for you.

But it needs you to tell me what you need?

In Australia when someone does something for a Mate, we tend to 'shout' them a drink ('shout' means to buy).

But because we live in different places - from all over the world, where some of our clients don't even use English as their first language, I can't 'Shout' anyone a Drink.

But I can give you a 'Six-Pack'....
Not of Beer of course (although many of you might prefer that) but a 'Six-Pack' of Kits to be credited to your account for any suggestions or ideas we actually use.

So start emailing - start thinking - Start Helping yourselves.

That's what the Business to business B2b relationship is about!

Thank you Randall - Your Six-Pack is in your account!

If you found this Hint to be helpful, please pass it on to someone else who might benefit from such information.
Just don't give it to your competition
If you missed previous Hints and Tips in this series - you can find them here: