'Antiques Roadshow' guest gasps in disbelief after expert revealed the real value of her $30 ring

The guest had no idea that her $30 ring was studded with diamonds and made of platinum.

PUBLISHED AUG 24, 2025

Screenshot showing the expert, the item, and the guest on the show (Cover image source: YouTube/Antiques Roadshow PBS)

Random garage sale finds and items picked up for cheap could turn out to be lucky for "Antiques Roadshow" guests once experts come across them. One such guest got one of the greatest surprises of her life after she found out that her $30 ring was worth more than $30,000. The owner of a 1930s French Art Deco Ring had no idea that her prized jewelry was studded with diamonds, since it was sold to her as a Cubic Zirconia ring for just $30. It was the show's expert, Mark Schaffer, who revealed that it was a diamond-studded platinum ring worth more than 1000 times what she had paid for it.

Screenshot showing the guest's reaction to the appraisal (Image source: YouTube/Antiques Roadshow PBS)

"I bought it at auction, got it home, and I noticed it had a lot of sparkle. It was sold to me as a cubic zirconia in silver. So it really had a lot of fire, so I got under a microscope and started noticing little symbols on the outside of the shank and did a little research into one of the marks: the dog head platinum, a French mark," the guest shared with Schaffer.

The expert then asked about her source of information, and the guest said it was the internet. "I just typed in 'dog's head hallmark,' and that's what came up. It said that France started using the dog head hallmark in about 1912," she added. Schaffer then asked how much the ring cost, and when the guest told him that she paid just $30, he was taken aback. "I was wondering, well, why would someone put cubic zirconia in possibly a platinum setting?" the guest further added.

Screenshot showing the details of the ring (Image source: YouTube/Antiques Roadshow PBS)

The expert then gathered himself and went on to explain the provenance and construction of the ring. "You make a very good point that the setting actually can reveal something about the rest of the piece. We tested this and tested it again, and the reason it's confusing is that this is not one stone. Initially, it looks like one stone with multi-facets," Schaffer explained. He then added that there was a central stone in the ring and it was surrounded by small "trapezoidal stones in a step fashion."

He added that their tests showed that the stones weren't Zirconia but diamonds. "What you have is a ring that looks like it's sort of eight to ten carats from the top as a diamond. In fact, in the center is a stone that's about 1.5--let's say a carat and a half--and a few more carats in the surrounding stones in a platinum mount," Schaffer explained.

Screenshot showing the expert talking about the ring (Image source: YouTube/Antiques Roadshow PBS)

He further noted that the ring was from the Art Deco period, probably in the 1920s or the 1930s. "Altogether, given the carat weight, in a retail setting, I would say a conservative selling price would be in the $25,000 to $30,000 price range," the expert said, leaving the guest in shock. "Amazing! I am shocked and happy!" the guest said in response.