System and method for enabling jewelry certification at local jeweler sites

Abstract

A system and method for managing retail sales of jewelry items and providing customers with warranties concerning their purchased jewelry items is disclosed. In at least some embodiments, the system includes means for recording information relating to the retail sales of jewelry items by a primary company to customers. The system also includes means for providing customers with certificates relating to their respective purchased jewelry items, where each of the certificates represents a warranty with respect to at least one of the purchased jewelry items, and where the warranty is backed by a secondary company. The system further includes means for allowing access to at least some of the recorded information subsequent to purchase transactions, where the recorded information in at least some circumstances includes pertinent certificate information.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] The present invention is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10 / 835,896 filed on Apr. 30, 2004 and entitled “System And Method For Enabling Jewelry Certification At Local Jeweler Sites”, which is incorporated by reference herein, and claims the benefit thereof.STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0002] The present invention relates to the sale of jewelry and, more particularly, to systems and methods for grading and appraising jewelry items such as mounted diamonds. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0003] The jewelry industry is a highly-competitive and rapidly changing industry. Due to the relative infrequency with which individual consumers purchase jewelry, due to the wide variations in jewelry types, characteristics and values, and due to the relative difficulty in determining some characteristics associated with jewelry, consumers have difficulty in estimating the...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0013] Having recognized this need, as well as the general competency of independent local jewelers in making determinations regarding the grade / quality / value of jewelry items, the inventors have further recognized that this need can be satisfied by (i) providing independent local jewelers with a standardized or semi-standardized process and / or system for creating / providing certificates (or similar printed materials) to customers concerning the grade, quality and / or value of individual jewelry items at the local points of sale, e.g., within the local jewelry stores themselves; (ii) providing customers with an independent, third-party guarantee or warranty that the certificates are accurate, such that refunds or other benefits are provided to customers who demonstrate that certificates issued to them are incorrect; and (iii) empowering the third party guarantor / insurer with the ability to take stringent enforcement actions against those local jewelry stores that mistakenly (or fraudulently) happen to issue incorrect certificates, thereby maintaining the reputation and integrity of the overall certificate-issuance system.

Problems solved by technology

Due to the relative infrequency with which individual consumers purchase jewelry, due to the wide variations in jewelry types, characteristics and values, and due to the relative difficulty in determining some characteristics associated with jewelry, consumers have difficulty in estimating the quality and value of jewelry items and often find the jewelry purchasing process to be a difficult one that involves a fair amount of apprehensiveness.

Obtaining verification of a piece of jewelry's quality / value in this manner is a fairly complicated and costly procedure.

In the case of moderately-expensive to expensive jewelry, such as diamonds worth $5000 or more, this is a cost that many consumers and / or jewelry retailers are willing to bear.

However, in the case of less expensive to inexpensive jewelry (e.g., jewelry worth under $5000), such costs are typically too excessive to justify the third party evaluation.

While appearing to provide valuable information to consumers, these certificates provided by department stores and chain stores are sometimes of limited actual value.

Further, since the grade and replacement value information indicated on such certificates is determined by the individual department store(s) or chain store(s) themselves, it may not always be appropriate to presume that this information is independent and unbiased.

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