Other News

November is Jewelers for Veterans Month

Every jeweler in America asked to participate

(NEW YORK) - “November 2015 and every November thereafter is now officially Jewelers for Veterans month - highlighted by the observance of Veterans Day,” Ralph Destino, Chairman of the Jewelers for Veterans Foundation said.

“Every jeweler in America is being asked to show their support for our returning vets and help provide these warriors with a pathway to economic success in an industry where they can put their skills to good use,” continued the Chairman-Emeritus of Cartier.

JA’s “A Little Bit of Bling” Sweepstakes shared the love this Valentine’s Day

(NEW YORK) - Jewelers of America (JA), the national trade association for businesses serving the fine jewelry marketplace, ran a Valentine’s Day Edition of its “A Little Bit of Bling” Sweepstakes to increase consumer excitement for jewelry in the run up to Valentine’s Day and raise awareness of JA-member jewelers as jewelry gift destinations. The sweepstakes offered a prize of a $500 jewelry gift card redeemable at any JA-member jewelry store.

Dorothy Burke, co-founder of Burkes Fine Jewelers in Kilmarnock, VA dies at 90

Dorothy Lee Thrift Burke, 90, co-founder of Burkes Fine Jewelers in Kilmarnock, Virginia - a family owned and operated fine jewelry and repair store - died on December 31, 2014.

AISociety AiCertify-2015 debuts with a Global Valuation Standard

The AISociety - Appraisers International Society (AIS) began live and self-study global, online, offerings of AiCertification™2015 at the start of February with the live, AiResidence sessions of its 5-course series of Valuation Appraisal courses to AIStandard v4.0 for gems, jewelry, watches and other personal property.

Gem & jewelry professionals registering for the residence program now are able to join the current AiCore group and get up to date with prior sessions using AiCloud course materials and audio-video AiRecordings.

The Professional Appraisal Practice - Part II

Point of sale appraisals - Professional Valuation & Appraisal services can be a source of professional pride, customer respect and lucrative profits. So why do so many jewelers persist in embracing the hazardous pitfalls inherent to providing such services without the training requisite to doing so?

DCA helps jewelers improve sales, even during slow economic times

For more than 60 years, the Diamond Council of America (DCA) has been an industry leader dedicated to providing affordable, high-quality education focused on diamonds, colored gemstones, and fine jewelry. DCA courses have proven to help improve overall sales for jewelry retailers and sales associates, even during slow economic times. For one DCA member, sales associates who were DCA trained had twice as many sales per hour than associates who were not trained through DCA courses.

The Professional Appraisal Practice

This article is in response to Mr. Koehler’s articles in the December and January issues of this publication entitled “Appraising jewelry my way”.

Valuation & Appraisal science for personal property, including gems and jewelry, is now in its 4th decade of long-standing, but continually developing Core Valuation Principles, and applied Ethics, Terminology, Procedures, Methodology and Reporting for professional providers of valuations and value related appraisal services, i.e. authentication, identification, grading, etc.