can you rank the following: cartier,tiffany,vca,graff, harry Winston, debeers?

[nicole0612]

Agree. The aesthetics was different back then. Not that I am a fan...

I have a slightly different question here: which brand and type of jewelry holds up value better?

I'm asking because I started to think for my kids. We have only boys in the household, and there is a chance they will need to sell all I have eventually. (Let's for now ignore the dil element.) I understand these always change as time goes by, but is there a rough idea/rank?
I like some dior/chanel fine jewelry too. Will they hold up value somewhat? Should I buy 5x $20,000 items or one one substantial ring at $100,000?

If you are primarily buying with resale value in mind, just buy simply designed items for the gold weight. For example, high carat thick, plain gold bracelets. My husband’s family is middle eastern, and everyone has a stash of gold bars, gold bangles/jewelry and thick golden coin type objects which they use in addition to bank savings and investments and are given as gifts. I was given a lot for our wedding. It is meant to be as a cash gift, but I preferred to wear it, so I had some of it melted down into gold cuff bracelets with the same measurements as my Cartier Loves so that I could wear them together, and had loose stones added to some of them for variety (a loose diamond to one, some loose sapphires to another). However, if I ever wanted value back out of it, certainly the gold would be melted down and the gemstones separated, because most people are not interested in paying for a design cost above the value of the materials unless it is a high end brand.

Assuming that is not the case; that you also want to choose the pieces you love most; you should also factor in which items you will get the most pleasure/value from while you are wearing them yourself. If you will enjoy a certain brand or design more, that should factor into your decision significantly.

To answer your question more directly, certain branded items will always retain more value than others, and more so than unbranded jewelry. However, the price you will pay for branded jewelry is also higher, so the percent return on the amount you spend really depends on what you pay for the item. Right now VCA seems to have the highest resale value, but this may change. It is currently very in-fashion. Tiffany is not as trendy currently, but it will always retain a fairly high relative resale value (lower than purchase price after ~5 years, but higher after ~20 years due to inflation) because it is so recognizable and someone will always be interested in purchasing the brand. A brand like Graff is very high quality, but has a much smaller pool of potential buyers, and competition/demand always raises prices. Personally, I would say Cartier is the safest bet, it has the best elements of the other brands I mentioned (high quality intrinsically, long-standing relatively high resale value and still considered a current high status brand).

Smaller price points compared to one higher priced item will be easier to sell because as the price gets higher you narrow your potential base of buyers, and those buyers are looking for increasingly particular specifications for the jewelry item at that price.

I suppose you need to find your own balance among these factors.

 

[sosauce]

Agree. The aesthetics was different back then. Not that I am a fan...

I have a slightly different question here: which brand and type of jewelry holds up value better?

I'm asking because I started to think for my kids. We have only boys in the household, and there is a chance they will need to sell all I have eventually. (Let's for now ignore the dil element.) I understand these always change as time goes by, but is there a rough idea/rank?
I like some dior/chanel fine jewelry too. Will they hold up value somewhat? Should I buy 5x $20,000 items or one one substantial ring at $100,000?

In terms of buying branded jewelry with the intention of selling it, it's probably a safer bet to buy five things worth $20,000 than one thing that's worth $100,000. I've seen eBay listings for designer jewelry that costs over $50,000 that stay on the website for months on end. I bet that some of the items I saw a few years ago are still being listed to this day. Obviously, a huge reason why is because the potential audience of customers who are willing to buy jewelry at a very high price point is significantly smaller. Also, even if someone does have the budget to buy jewelry that's worth $100,000, they may not be interested in your specific piece because they just don't like the design of it or care for the brand that made it.

Having five pieces worth $20,000 each will make it easier that you sell at least one of the pieces relatively quickly. I think from a resale perspective, that's going to be the option that allows you to have the most flexibility and liquidity — which are probably the most important factors you'll have in mind if you actually need to turn something into cash in an emergency. Also, having only one very high-value item means that you're in a lot of trouble if that piece gets lost or stolen.

In terms of which brand holds its value better, right now that would be VCA for fine jewelry, specifically in reference to Alhambra. But that could change in the future. Twenty years from now, the most coveted jewelry to have might be the Bulgari serpenti line. These are difficult factors to foresee. Just in general, know that designer jewelry will pretty much always be able to retain over 50% of its value. And over time, with inflation and price increases, you can expect that figure to go up.

Specifically, in regards to engagement rings, I know from someone who works in the auction space that Tiffany is the most sought after brand on eBay when it comes to engagement rings. Surprisingly, even though Harry Winston is more prestigious, it doesn't seem to hold its value much better. I've actually looked before at Harry Winston rings on the secondhand market, and it was a bit disappointing to me that their engagement rings' resale value wasn't much higher than Tiffany's.

When it comes to fashion brands' fine jewelry, they seem to not hold their value very well at all. Buying fine jewelry at Hermes, Chanel, Dior, etc. means accepting the very real possibility that the resale value will often be less than half of what you paid for. I think the major reason for that is because fashion brands also sell costume jewelry, which really reduces the appeal of their fine jewelry. That being said, I really like a lot of Chanel's fine jewelry (the lion, comet, and coco crush lines specifically). If you like the design of the piece and will get better cost per wear from it, then I think you should go for the jewelry that you'll enjoy more. It's a different way of evaluating "value" that I find to be more holistic. But from a resale perspective, it seems to be much more difficult to find customers on the secondhand market who are interested in buying a fashion label's fine jewelry. And it's even more difficult to find customers who are willing to pay anywhere close to the retail price.

 

[Brooklynite]

Nicole and sosauce, thank you for such thoughtful advice. A lot to think about.
Sosauce, I like Chanel's plume and lion lines, but in general I find vca's craftsmanship better. I like some of vca's lower price point high jewelry a lot, but I do wonder how well the value will hold...