Two Main Types of Appraisals Retail Replacement Appraisal The two most common appraisals are for the purpose of retail replacement & for fair market value. A retail replacement appraisal is required by an insurance company before it will schedule jewelry on an individual policy beyond a certain dollar amount. Retail replacement can be the cost of an identical item to the item being replaced. It can also be the cost to replace the item with a comparable item of similar cost, quality, and condition. If the item cannot be replaced with an identical or comparable item, the item can be reproduced. Reproduction cost would be the current price of reconstructing an exact duplicate or replica jewelry item, using the same materials, design, and construction standards. Fair Market Value Appraisal A fair market value appraisal is primarily used for estate evaluation purposes. It is an assessment based on what a willing buyer & seller would agree to without a forced sale. An appraisal of this nature researches the most common market where the item being appraised would sell for & documents prices for the item, or similar items. Researching values for these items is more involved & detailed and requires a greater amount of time to prepare than a retail replacement appraisal. Other types of appraisals include collateral appraisal, liquidation appraisal, comparison appraisal, divorce appraisal, donation appraisal, customs appraisal, as well as other more specialized appraisals. Each of these appraisals targets a specific application & each is researched differently.