This recent thread mentioned formal appraisals of real estate and how this sometimes doesn’t exactly match what one would likely get in the market on any random day.
I’m wondering - what types of non-commodity property have reasonably formalized procedures (either specified in law or established by long business practice) for performing value appraisals? I’m talking about the kinds of appraisals that are likely to be respected by judges, insurance companies, divorce lawyers, and the like, not “appraisals” that you and your buddies might do while drunk.
I can think of the following:
Real estate - pretty much the classic.
Cars, boats, and aircraft (but not usually bicycles).
Old or rare coins and stamps (e.g. PGCS certification for coins).
Fine art.
First editions of books and comics.
Precious jewels, such as diamonds and rubies (but not that “interesting” rock you found one day while digging).
Is there anything else? For example, if I open that old box in mom’s attic and find some of great-grandma’s handmade dresses circa 1935, is there some reasonable way, other than putting them up on Ebay or something, that I can find out if they are sufficiently well made that cosplayers would be likely to pay at least $50 each for them? Or, can I write a novel and then get it appraised to find out how much I would likely make if I tried to sell it to a publisher, and then go and apply for a loan with the manuscript copyright as collateral (using the appraisal to convince the loan officer of the collateral value) without actually selling it to a publisher?
Watch a few episodes of Pawn Stars or Antique Roadshow. Anything can be appraised you just need to find the right person to do it. In general if you want a appraisal on something an Auction House is the go to for certified appraisals, they have a long list of experts on any given item that will sign their name for a price. Depending on what you got an appraisal might cost more than the items value.
On your novel you are better off seeing what a publisher would pay for it than paying someone to tell you how much a publisher would pay for it.
I’m trying to think of what can’t be formally appraised, if it’s lawful to possess. I don’t think you can successful sue someone for stealing your pot plants, or expect equal distribution of a sheet of LSD in divorce court.
You wouldn’t have to put the dresses up for auction on eBay, just look for similar dresses already listed. I can’t imagine why that wouldn’t be admissible in court.
If by formal, you mean a licensed professional, I think real estate is the only one … not much else commonly available commands such high prices.
In addition to doing over 500 coin and jewelry appraisals in my career for probate courts, I’ve done similar ones for sports collectibles and sterling flatware many times.
I once appraised a Nobel prize medal which was in a group of award medals given to a great physicist.
Someone once asked my what a block of four North Korean CTO stamps were worth … I told her 5 to 10 … “five to ten what?” … years, honey, it’s a felony to possess North Korean stamps in the USA (and it was back then).
Close, I mean a professional who is either explicitly licensed (i.e. with a professional license from the government), or who has widespread formal recognition (e.g. industry certification). So for the dresses example, we aren’t really only looking for someone who some might claim has some m4d 1337 4ppra15al sk1llz, but more for someone who is certified by the North American Institute of Household Goods Valuation, which of course is officially recognized by the Rules of Court on my local divorce circuit for providing recognized appraisals to be used for division of property purposes. “Yes, those dresses are quite valuable owing to the such delicate lacework that was hand-sewn into them by such an apparently uber-leet seamstress like your great-grandma using expert techniques that were then only taught at the three most elite ladies’ finishing schools in the country. If you want them, you’re going to have to give your soon-to-be-ex at least $35,000 worth of other property to ensure an equal division by value.”
Btw, the dresses thing was just an example - It’s not something I actually need done!
Are the folks who appraise stuff on Antiques Roadshow, Pawn Stars, etc., actually certified by anyone other than the organizations that produce the show? E.g. is an Antiques Roadshow “appraisal” generally good enough for legal proof of value, or do you need to get that rocking chair re-appraised for realz by a real independent appraiser who isn’t being paid by a TV show that lives or dies on its ratings?
Items in museums are very often said to be “priceless”… which I take to mean “we can’t establish a good price… if we sold it, we’d probably be getting less than its worth because the buyer couldn’t afford to pay the real worth ! …We’d get paid for preservation and storage”.
When I had a tv the guys on Antique Roadshow were normally the real deal,I don’t know what the status is today. Skinner Auction House was supplying experts as a means of advertising. It was still an entertainment show however so I doubt they were signing off on certificates of authenticity for everyone who came along, I think they’d want to be paid for such a service as doing so does entail some risk on their behalf. I doubt a recording of Antique Roadshow would stand on it’s own merit in court.
Right, that’s what I was talking about. There’s a clear motivation* for the Antiques Roadshow appraisers to be biased toward producing an entertaining show over providing a strictly unbiased appraisal according to the highest standards of professional ethics with not even an apparent conflict of interest, let alone an actual one.
So, in theory, if I wanted a “real” appraisal of my old rocking chair that would stand on its own merit in court, where do I go? Am I looking for someone with a specific professional designation?
*Whether or not the appraisers on the show actually do render inaccurate appraisals due to bias, pressure from management, etc. is outside the scope of this question.
You’d go to Skinner AH directly rather then the set of Antique Roadshow. For a fee they’d bring in an expert and he’d do a formal appraisal and if possible provide a certificate of authenticity.
Specific professional designation is going to vary a bit. For a rocking chair they might have a guy with a history doctorate specializing in 18th-19th century woodworking. Credibility is everything to an AH firm, that’s why people use them. They aren’t going to take the risk of asking a random guy off the street how much a chair is worth.
If you are talking a $200k rocking chair it’s entirely possible you’ll have experts that disagree on value and offer different appraisals. one guy signed off saying 150k for the husband while the wife’s appraiser says 250k. In a divorce case the judge may have to determine which appraisal has more credibility or he might just take the average of the two appraisals.
You seem to be wanting to use appraisals as some solid and reliable indicator of value. I sell real estate for a living and I am here to tell you real estate appraisals are often well off what properties actually sell for. They are most often too optimistic.
You can appraise anything, but most sophisticated buyers take appraisals with a huge grain of salt, and understand that an appraisal regardless of what it is appraising, is often going to be heavily slanted by the expectations of the person who paid for the appraisal. This is just reality.
In mass produced things like coins and flatware and stamps where there are huge reference datasets of comparable sales for nearly identical items you will tend to get more accurate arms length estimates of value. The more unique something is like vintage, handmade clothing the best you can hope for is a very a general notion of value.
My grandfather used to be a certified antique/jewelry appraiser. He’s dead now, and I’ll be damned if I can remember what the certifying organization was called. (He stopped working 20+ years ago.)