Is it worth it to have rings appraised?

[Syko Nachoman]

So I'm going through my parents' old stuff that I inherited, and the one thing I'm struggling to deal with is the rings. I have the two wedding rings as well as five additional rings (three with stones, two without) that I found in my mom's old dresser drawers. The thing is, I have no idea whether those five other rings are just costume jewelry or if they're actually valuable. I've read that a ring appraisal can cost $50-100 per ring, so I wouldn't want to waste money getting appraisals on rings that are actually worth like $5.

Most of the rings probably aren't super valuable. I found the receipt for one of the wedding rings from the mid-1980s for $170 (about $500 in today's dollars). If I assume that the other rings are worth less than the wedding rings, then they are worth somewhere in the range of $5-500, although probably closer to the lower end of that range. It's also worth noting that my parents weren't exactly made of money, so it's unlikely that they would have spent an extravagant amount of money on rings when they had much more pressing concerns, like paying the bills. My mom also had a lot of costume jewelry (necklaces, earrings, etc.) which I confirmed were fake through a combination of finding receipts for them and talking to some of her family members, although they didn't know much about the rings.

Googling hasn't helped much. I found a "magnet test" which I tried, and I discovered that none of the rings stick to a magnet (a ring that sticks to a magnet is definitely fake, but not sticking doesn't necessarily mean that it's real). I even tried taking photos and searching for the rings on Google Images, but all the ones I tried turned up results ranging from cheap $5-20 eBay listings to real rings worth thousands of dollars. I'm not sure if there's an easy way I can figure out whether the stones/rings are made of actual valuable materials without getting them appraised and potentially wasting money. Has anyone else been in this situation? What would you recommend doing?

[Patrick [ASE]]

Look for hallmarks on the inside of the rings (usually), they can be looked up to find the precious metal content etc.
Decide if appraisal would be worth doing, specially if you're thinking of insuring them
In your example, if one ring was worth $500, allow for inflation, it may then be worth getting one of the 'cheaper' ones appraised if you think it's borderline on value.
At the end of the day, it's what the value is to you, sentimental value.

[wildmaven]

I inherited my mom's wedding ring and simply took it to a jeweler to ask about getting it cleaned. They informed me that it was pretty much not worth the money to do so and that the diamond was cracked. I tried to sell my ring from my first marriage and was told the same thing, not worth more than the cost of the gold because the style of the diamond had gone out of fashion. So, you might want to just take them to a jeweler and simply ask if it's even worth it to get them appraised.

[Patrick [ASE]]

Just a tip on cleaning rings
When i was married i used to take my wife's engagement (sapphire and diamond) ring to work into the glasswashing area for the lab, they put it in a glass beaker (incase the stones fell out) and into their ultrasonic cleaner, it came out sparkling as new, i did this multiple times over the years
You can get an ultrasonic bath quite cheap.