Why do you need an appraisal for your collection:
There are many reasons to get your mineral collection appraised. If you are insuring your collection, your insurance company will require an independent appraisal of replacement value. If you are donating part or all of your collection to a museum or other charity, the IRS will require an appraisal accompanied by IRS Form 8283 for substantiating the value of tax deduction for the donation. If you are considering selling your collection an appraisal may help you get a better offer from purchasers
Reasons you do NOT need an appraisal:
Insuring a collection is rarely worth the cost. It is not likely the collection will get stolen. Water damage from a burst pipe is not likely to hurt the minerals. As a result, most collections are not insured and no appraisal is needed. However damage from fire or earthquakes, an important consideration especially for resident of southern California, is an important reason for insuring a collection, and getting an appraisal.
An appraisal might help you sell your collection, but the bottom line is that the price received will be wholly dependent of the offers received. Rather than getting the collection appraised, offer the collection to several dealers or collectors and see what the highest offer is. That will be the value for the collection, regardless of what an independent appraiser advises.
Scheduling
On average this process takes about two weeks, though previous scheduling commitments may delay the start.
Fees:
My current fee is $875 per day (with two day minimum; usually one day on site and one day preparing the appraisal in my office) plus travel expenses for tolls and auto use at $0.70 per mile.
OK, you decided you need an appraisal. How should you proceed?
Process
After reaching a signed agreement between the John H. Betts and the client/owner the following steps are required:
1. Mr. Betts will inspect the collection in person. If the collection is being donated to museum or other charity the collection must be in possession of the recipient to lock-in the contents of the donation and prevent loss after the appraisal inspection.
2. During inspection photographic documentation of the collection will be recorded to assist in setting values of the collection. The photographs are not usually part of the final appraisal documents, but are available in court if the appraisal is challenged at a later date.
3. Values will be established for the collection contents. The best items will be researched, finding comparable sales in auction records (from Heritage Auctions, Sotheby's, and Bonhams & Butterfields, etc.), noted dealers, and my proprietary database of 83.000 minerals sold from 1993-2023. Low value items will be grouped into smaller lots with values established.
4. Mr. Betts will summarize the value of the collection in writing and back-up Word file for the client.
5. For charitable donations, the clients will be provided IRS Form 8283 with Section B, Part I and III completed and signed. The remaining parts of the form must be completed by the client and/or attorney/accountants.
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Qualifications
John H. Betts started collecting minerals in 1969 while living in California. His skills as a prolific field collector lead to modest mineral sales at local mineral shows in the New York City area. By 1990 he was selling at 12 mineral shows per year. In 1996 Mr. Betts started an internet web site selling minerals at johnbetts-fineminerals.com.
Mr. Betts has also authored many articles in the earth sciences. His article Quarries and Minerals of the Dayton Rd. District, South Glastonbury, CT. won the 1996 George F. Kunz award for best article on New York regional mineralogy. This article was published in Rocks & Minerals magazine in 1999. His most recent article Anthony's Nose, New York: Three Mineral Localities was recently published in Matrix and won the 1997 George F. Kunz award.
His article The Minerals of New York City was originally published in Rocks & Minerals magazine, May/June 2009 issue (Volume 84, No . 3 pages 204-252) and was awarded the 2009 Best Article in that magazine by the Friends of Mineralogy.
Mr. Betts retired from the mineral business at the end of 2023 after selling over 85,000 mineral specimens. Currently his web site is a virtual mineral museum with over 193,778 photographs illustrating 66,163 mineral specimens.
Past customers include the American Museum of Natural History (NY), Harvard Mineralogical Museum, the Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale University, the Field Museum in Chicago, NY State Museum in Albany, Carnegie Institution for Science, Botswana International University of Science and Technology, Franklin Mineral Museum, Sterling Hill Mining Museum, Colorado School of Mines, Michigan Tech.
As a mineral dealer I specialize in dispersing old mineral collections and have handled the mineral collections of Robert P. Bates (1926-2008), Peter B. Nalle (1923-2010), A. Lincoln Sherk II, MD. (1896-1970), Alfred Stevenson (1916-2007), Bob Holzer (1934-2009), Chas. W. Velte Jr. (1914-1987), Dr. Eugene E. Sensel (1911-2000), Harold D. Miller (1838-1919), Joseph Cilen (1916-1997), John A. Manley (1861-1936), Joseph D'Agostino (1904-1988), Larry Krause (1945-2010), Ned Reynolds (1923 - 2005), Russ Buckingham (1914-2003), Alfred Stevenson (1916-2007), Clifford Earl Trebilcock (1920-2000), Darwin Urffer (1933-2002), Robert C. Linck (1905-1970) and institution collections from Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, Westtown School, St. Lawrence University, Phil-Mont Christian Academy, Wadsworth Atheneum, Loomis-Chaffee School.
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